FAA to consider report on regulating drones
02 Apr 2016
The Federal Aviation Administration Federal (FAA) is working on the details on how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also called unmanned aerial systems (UASs), should be regulated.
The FAA had set yesterday as the deadline for receiving recommendations from the public and industry regarding the use of drones.
As consumers and the industry forwarded suggestions on what they wanted to do with drones, the FAA was still working on the details on how these new devices, dubbed UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) or UAS (unmanned aerial systems), would be treated.
The report due to the FAA comes from the Micro UAS Aviation Rulemaking Committee, or the ARC with its charter to come up with recommendations for the FAA covering ''micro UAS,'' or drones weighing under 4.4 pounds.
That drone size included everything from small, inexpensive toy drones to $3,000, film set quality flying cameras. However, delivery drones would be larger.
The senate was considering creating regulations for larger drones that could be used for commercial deliveries.
Meanwhile, after the FAA moved to get small drones registered on a new website late last year, it is now urging commercial and federal operators of larger unmanned aircraft systems to use the new registration system.
Till last month, around half a million small drones had been registered. Starting 31 March, the agency would open registrations of commercial, federal and other non-model aircraft on the new, web-based registration system.
According to the FAA, like the registration process for smaller drones, the federal and commercial certificates would be valid for a year and cost $5 per aircraft.