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Amazing How Fast the FAA Approves This

Steve Pierce

BENEFACTOR
Graham, TX
1000s of drones in the air in this country already and United Drones plans to produce 7 drones a week by this time next year. Amazing how fast this is getting approved. How many mid-airs will there be?
http://uniteddrones.com/
 
I sure hope we don't get those things around here. Will be terrible if I have to get Spot-A-Pots for when I'm out in the fields and need to go. Also, there are plenty of geese to worry about when I'm flying around. WHAT A WASTE OF TAX MONEY.
 
The FAA just approved the Grand Forks Sherrifs office to operate small drones in several eastern ND counties for "search and rescue", law enforcement, etc. UND is drooling. These are restricted to no higher than 400 feet. That'll prevent any conflicts with "real" aircraft.....like all the Air Tractors, Ag Cats, etc.

look for major TFRs next time the Red River floods, or a prisoner escapes, or ???

SAR from 400 feet? Right!

MTV
 
If they had to publicly disclose whom owns shares in such companies a lot of this contract crap wouldn't happen.. just sayin..
 
Everywhere in CONUS there is a camera or somebody. Or that is what is hoped.
 
What we Need is somebody to invent some sort of gps type radar gadget so we can detect them and pinpoint their location, track, altitude and speed with some element of accuracy.
 
What we Need is somebody to invent some sort of gps type radar gadget so we can detect them and pinpoint their location, track, altitude and speed with some element of accuracy.
Mount it on a foil helmet and include a black helicopter detector then if you really want a marketing opportunity advertise on "Doomsday Prepers."
 
what speed are the fixed wing models ...can we even run them down...

i bet that we could get it passed that they must carry a horn to signal before change of direction...the folks that put them there wouldnt know any better
 
This is the one time that the animal rights activists good be a positive. Need to get them onboard as to the number of migratory birds that will get ran over by these things. They are already working on birds that are hit by windmills. If they get an early start maybe they can tie this thing up for a few years.
 
A bird does not even have to be hit by the windmill, the pressure differential by the blades literally explodes the birds... direct from USFW biologists.

The idea of windmills got stopped short here due to the protection of eagles... so maybe Bill is on to something. But target 'Threatened' or endangered species.
 
Unmanned Aircraft final report.
Gee, how come this has taken less time than the third class medical review?
http://www.faa.gov/uas/publications/media/RTFARCFinalReport_11-21-15.pdf

I used to be Chair of our Governmental Affairs Committee and spent quite a bit of time on the Hill. I actually like this process (stay with me). It is a bit of a trend to get the end users and SME's on a working ARC (this isn't new) or advisory working group (this is) to make recommendations. I like this because it gets all of the stakeholders in the room and prevents the parade of lobbyists into each office on the Hill or in front of each committee to make law. The rule makers like the FAA and TSA have proven they can't react quick enough to threats like personal drones to make a difference. The work of this committee will get right in front of the lawmakers without the BS of the FAA leading the way ("we can't do that" people).

This threat is real to GA and to airliners. We are seeing a drone sighting with increasing frequency and it has quickly passed green lasers as our top regulatory issue. I am not a proponent of registration alone as a safety step. I am a geo-fencing proponent which stops drones from leaving the ground or being operated into sensitive airspace (airports, national parks, etc). We are pushing for a combo of the two programs at Southwest Pilots' Association (ALPA sat on this panel). Our solution is a registration of a drone once it is geo fenced and punishment (read poaching level-confiscate the drone type) if it is operated within a city proper within a set milage of airspace and it isn't registered and geo fenced. The drones can be programmed and chipped to prevent incursions into airspace, altitude limits, and fly away kill switching.

I have sat on discussion panels on this issue and I said it then and will say it now we will have a drone v airliner incident very soon in the US airspace. GA is also likely to have an incident. Last Christmas season Amazon sold 1000 drones a day. This year that number will increase exponentially. It isn't a matter if, it is a matter of when with these numbers in the airspace.
 
..... we will have a drone v airliner incident very soon in the US airspace. GA is also likely to have an incident. Last Christmas season Amazon sold 1000 drones a day. This year that number will increase exponentially. It isn't a matter if, it is a matter of when with these numbers in the airspace.
I don't know about any previous airliner incidences but I do know of a radio controlled model airplane colliding with a friends Piper Apache in 1965. It hit just outboard of the left engine making a substantial hole in the wing. This was a model airplane hobbyist who was flying too close to the approach space of a local airport. He should have known better. This current fascination with drones appears to be separate from the model airplane people. Drones are a product of modern technology sold as toys to the general masses who do not possess the wisdom to be involved in the airspace system. Because of the ability to design, manufacture and market these drones to the masses in large volumes I believe that laws will be written, bureaucracies will be developed, people in the agencies will become all fired up and the drones will keep on flying and getting in the way. This follows in the same vein as the gun law argument. When guns are outlawed only the criminals will have guns. With this in mind, I believe that one rule should be in place which requires all of these drones have electronic collision avoidance designed into their electronics. Not just to avoid airplanes but to avoid anything within a certain distance. Electronic design is extremely sophisticated nowadays, this should be a rather simple part of their engineering.
 
To avoid they have to detect. What is your theory as to how that will happen?
Eddie, I wish that I understood electronics enough. Something like a bat's "radar" sensor which sends out a signal bouncing it off objects for collision avoidance. Similar to these new driver less cars. What type of sensors do they have to avoid collisions? Weather radar has been sending out signals looking for returns since the days of tube radios. These modern electronic wiz-kids ought to be able to put something into a chip.
 
Takes more than a chip. need a transmitter, receiver, and an antenna. That takes space and weight. Plus radar antennas are a focused beam. Radars on fighters, etc, only see in front. It takes a saucer and rotating dish like the AWACs to get a 360 degree picture.
 
Just found this online. This is the technology cars use for collision avoidance systems... Don't know about size/weight, but guaranteed to be smaller in a few years....
Built on a proven optical time-of-flight approach, a Leddar-based sensor is essentially a “light-based radar” that sends very short light pulses of (invisible) light about 100,000 times per second to actively illuminate an area of interest. The sensor captures the light backscattered from objects (either fixed or moving) over its detection area, and processes the signals with highly efficient signal processing algorithms to precisely map their location and other attributes.


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