FAA bans 'drones' on commercial farms

[Ronan]

http://southeastfarmpress.com/equipment/faa-drone-ruling-said-be-setback-farmers-research?page=1

A recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ruling that governs the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or so-called drones in commercial agriculture is a setback for farmers and those whose research directly benefits farmers, says an Auburn University Extension specialist.

I'v been out of the loop for a few weeks with a major move, but i see the FAA still holds its position on banning anything that flies remotely for any type of commercial work with still no laws to back their stand...

Seems they aren't even going to meet their deadline too!

Meanwhile in Canada: http://www.suasnews.com/2014/08/30584/first-suas-rescue-aircraft-becomes-smithsonian-exhibit/

 

[R_Lefebvre]

It's funny... months ago I was smug about the fact we have laws to allow commercial use in Canada. Then I actually tried to work within the system, found out I'm a bit of a square peg in a round hole. Now I kind of wish I was in the US, with a paper tiger FAA.

 

[cootertwo]

Yup, they have to make some noise, once in awhile, to justify their huge budget. Same with DEA, FDLE, on and on and on, "the US way" ha!

 

[jfro]

There seems to be some chatter about how the large companies are trying to influence the FAA into regulations to lock out the majority of peeps / companies that don't have deep pockets. Sort of stiffing individual or small company innovation.

In upstate NY, we have one of 6 sites that the government has approved for drone testing. They lost a multimillion dollar drone in Lake Ontario last year but there has been little news about that. Now some new news which they are mentioned.

Last week our local newspaper had a small article in the Sunday paper about some drone mapping/ testing for crop/soil conditions/damages. Nothing much there other than the quick scare tactic about drones coming further inland and a quick bit about the authorized site and Cornell doing the test with a small drone. Doesn't look like much more than I'd be able to do on a small scale with an individual farm. I wonder if the big boys plan on doing this on a large scale and making the data available at a cost out of the cloud for those who want to pay. Instead of doing farm by farm, they do 100 or 500 mile square areas and then let the gps tie into government data banks to divi up the information by farm or plot. Or maybe the government will pay huge amounts to firms to acquire the data and then make the data available to the farms for free. Who knows what's going on.

Sometimes I think big wins out ever time. Healthcare, banking, wallmarts, home depot, etc etc...... This just may be the future. FAA shuts down any testing by the little guys and let the big boys do their expensive builds and testing.

I would guess my post is jumping around a bit, but to go into detail would take hours to write of which there isn't time.

Anyway, here's the link to our local report on farm soil testing with a drone. Sorry, but you will probably have to watch a quick commercial.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/videos/news/2014/08/12/13978573/

 

[Ronan]

I still don't understand why is the FAA wasting millions of tax payer dollars on 'test sites'? What are they for anyway? No other country needed them to establish working regulations and certification if needed...

 

[noid1037]

So can this quantified for "commercial" flying? I have seen many UAV's being used on television shows for Discovery Cahnnel here in the States to Motorweek using them on Test Tracks. Arent these UAVS when getting file footage of the show being used in a commerical manner? Or I have seen UAV's used by the real estate industry for showing properties and the attributes of the property, is this not used for commerical purposes? Im interested in doing some commerical work but more or less it would be used for my private use to take cool videos and have my kids have fun! Lookisng for some clarification!

Thanks guys!

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Seems you can pretty much do whatever you want in the US right now. The FAA has lost two important court cases which set the precedent that they don't have the authority to prevent commercial use of UAVs. Even the FAA's head council has issued a statement that people should just ignore any Cease and Desist letters they have gotten from the FAA.

 

[Ronan]

You can fly UAV's for commercial purposes, just be sure you are doing it safely, aren't breaking any laws and you are filing your taxes normally.

Just like any other business.

 

[UAS_JOBS]

Makes you wonder how companies like Precision Hawk and Honeycomb are surviving? The precision ag show in Illinois in July had very strong interest in UAV's. The market is moving with or without the FAA.

 

[cootertwo]

FAA = a fart in the wind!

 

[kloner]

They certainly aint out celebrating record profits like the gas companies are..... ridiculous

 

[cootertwo]

Kloner, I think you hit the nail, square on the head. FAA saw this new fad/hobby/business/technology, as a way to bring in more bucks. Requiring certification, licensing, on and on. It's all about money now-a-days. I think the good ole US of A is running out of paper and ink, if you know what I mean. There are a lot of other currencies in this world that are looking much more stable, than they used to be, when compared to the modern day dollar. I wonder what's really in Fort Knox? (besides dust) ha ha ha So sad:upset:

 

[Old Man]

I still don't understand why is the FAA wasting millions of tax payer dollars on 'test sites'? What are they for anyway? No other country needed them to establish working regulations and certification if needed...

The "test sites" are for large aeronautical corporations and for profit colleges to generate training and test flights to make money. Just look up who holds the COA associated with the test site. It's big commercial money all the way. Even the smaller colleges operations with COA's are getting their equipment from the big name players like Aerovironment, Boeing, and others of that Ilk.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kloner]

theres a pile of 333 exemptions coming down the pipeline that's gonna change all that. case by case consideration.... supposedly

 

[Av8Chuck]

But they can't do the case by case thing.

Whether the regulations are onerous for small business is a result of costs or limited access, it still means that they would be arbitrary and capricious. Technically if your a commercial pilot and want to operate a sUAS business today you'd qualify accept for the fact that you couldn't get your MR certified. If every MR has to be inspected by the FAA to be certified it would become logistically impossible for a sUAS company to remain profitable. The FAA is not capable, or willing to keep up with the hundreds [if not thousands] of applications for STC's on full sized aircraft, they have not demonstrated their ability to manage that process on that level, no way they will do it for sUAS's. Having to train and hire enough "AMP" type inspectors, both private and government will probably take a decade, what are we supposed to do while we're waiting?

Go out and try and purchase a new Piper or Cessna, they start at about $450,000 and both companies have been on the edge of extinction for more than a decade. I don't believe either company manufactures a light twin anymore, they now make their money with small business jets. This is a direct result of over regulation. The FAA is even going so far as to issue an NPRM so that the only thing allowed in a hanger is the airplane which also means that members of the EAA who build their experimental's in their hanger will no longer be allowed to do that. You have to ask yourself why the change? Look down the flight line of any airport big enough for corporate jets and you'll see why the change. Where there used to be small county hangers for private aircraft now there are HUGE FBO's housing lost of business jets and selling lots of jet fuel. One G4 will take on more jet fuel at one time than I will in a year.

People complain about the rich getting richer, the shrinking middle class, blah blah blah... But when actually confronted with it, where the government is complicit for the sake of tax revenue, political donations and votes people are just too afraid to challenge the prerogatives of large companies and the government.

 

[kloner]

as long as that train of thought is in play, i'll have the whole stage to myself. Nothing there is the case

all 8 of us that applied for film exemption are of the smallest a business can get and still exist.... a bunch of ag and flare stack exemptions are there now

 

[Av8Chuck]

Kloner, I think its great that your doing what your doing but look at all that you had to do and how long its taken just eight of you to get this far, now multiply that by, pick a number, 5,000, 10,000.

I'm not saying that's my vision for the future, that's how it IS in GA so you don't have to look far to see how ineffective the FAA's policies have been and its not hard to imagine how that will effect the sUAS market. At the Airshow the announcer was talking about how GA is down almost 60% from five years ago as they were trying to encourage people to get into GA. But what they don't talk about is why its down 60%. Sure you can blame some of it on the economy, higher gas prices etc., but that doesn't account for the dramatic fall off.

But you also know that there is a ton of production being done in spite of the fact that its currently "against the law" so I doubt you'll have that stage to yourself. You might be surprised at how political it gets after you get your COA, people in the entertainment industry who want to shoot aerial will probably do all that they can to either get their own COA or prevent you from using yours. Its not like that industry isn't opposed to eating its young.

 

[kloner]

i get what your saying and i get the industry. what i'm saying is instead of sitting there whoas me, it's pretty straightforward. Theres even webinars on it already and a line of companies trying to figure out how to make all that paperwork that comes with your piper for there fleet of uas.

It took us less than 4 months to organize and another couple months of writting. not bad if they really let it all happen and nothings keeping anybody out except there skill to submit