New Sub-Forum, Small UAV Coalition, USA

[Bartman]

Welcome to our latest sub-forum addition to the site. In support of this effort the following email has just been sent to our membership.......

On December 10, 2014 the US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing titled, "US Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Integration, Oversight, and Competitiveness" during which Mr. Jesse Kallman (Head of Business Development and Regulatory Affairs, Airware) testified. The testimony by Mr. Kallman was reasonable and responsible, it addressed real concerns any one of us might raise regarding US commercial sUAS regulatory efforts and operations while also being respectful of the FAA. I was impressed and went about researching his affiliations.

As it ends up, Airware is a member of the Small UAV Coalition, a group whose Board also includes Amazon.com, DJI, 3D Robotics, GoPro, and Parrot to name a few. In the interest of learning more I contacted the Small UAV Coalition via email and was able to follow up with them via two phone calls. What will come of this, I hope, will be a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship with the Small UAV Coalition and the beginning of very capable representation in the FAA's rule making process for both Professional and Hobbyist US based sUAS users/operators/vendors.

To that end, MultiRotorForums.com is taking the official position of endorsing the efforts of the Small UAV Coalition and will go one step further by organizing interested Professional and Hobbyist users at the site with the intent to join the Small UAV Coalition, as a group, at the Associate Level.

This is not a small undertaking and it will require the support of as many of our members as possible both to make our participation valuable and our input credible and to support the fee associated with this membership.

Two User Upgrades have been set up at MultiRotorForums.com to accept contributions which will be used solely to pay for the $30,000 annual fee to join the Small UAV Coalition at the Associate Level. By joining at this level we will have access to Board Level conference calls as well as an open line of communication with the people directing the efforts of the Coalition. Membership upgrades will be available at MultiRotorForums.com to Hobby level users for $50 per year and to our Pro operators/builders/vendors for $250 per year. We will officially join the Small UAV Coalition when revenues collected exceed two months' dues ($5000).

I expect you to have questions and an open and frank discussion will be encouraged at the Small UAV Coalition sub-forum at MultiRotorForums.com. This is also where we will discuss and prioritize the topics that are most important to us as a group so that we can make our participation in the Small UAV Coalition as productive as possible.

At some future point I expect the SUAVC to open up a direct level of membership for both Professional and Hobbyist users of sUAS and at that time we'll suspend paid upgrades while continuing to host discussions in the dedicated sub-forum.

When considering the representation options for both Hobby and Pro operators of sUAS, I believe that the Small UAV Coalition represents the most well organized, credible, appropriately funded, and capable organization available. On this basis I encourage you to consider purchasing a User Upgrade at MultiRotorForums.com so that we can begin contributing to the conversations that are happening at the highest levels which, until now, we've been largely excluded from.

Thank you for your consideration on this matter. Please direct questions to me about this by posting in the Small UAV Coalition sub-forum at multirotorforums.com
http://multirotorforums.com/forums/small-uav-coalition-usa.111/
or by email to me at bart@multirotorforums.com.

User Upgrades can be purchased at MultiRotorForums.com
http://multirotorforums.com/account/upgrades

ALL MONEY RAISED VIA THESE USER UPGRADES WILL GO TO OUR ASSOCIATE LEVEL MEMBERSHIP IN THE SMALL UAV COALITION (www.smalluavcoalition.org). Users electing to join in this effort will be listed in the order in which they joined in a thread to remain at the top of the SUAVC sub-forum. We respectfully ask that Professional users/operators/vendors join at the Pro level.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR FRIENDS THAT ARE FLYING sUAS AND TO YOUR CUSTOMERS THAT BENEFIT FROM YOUR SERVICES AS A PROFESSIONAL sUAS OPERATOR.

Regards,
Bart Cocchiola
www.multirotorforums.com

 

[econfly]

Great initiative Bart! Just upgraded my account at the "Pro" level. Getting the perspective of members here into the discussion would be a great thing.

 

[Bartman]

I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate that Rob! Thank you!

 

[Bartman]

Link to the House hearing referenced in the email

http://transportation.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=398520

 

[Mike SF]

Thanks Bart, for all your efforts. I joined a the Pro level, even if I'm just doing this a hobby right now. For me it's very important that the Small UAV Coalition does not only support Professional/Commercial interest, but the hobbyist as well.

 

[Motopreserve]

Really great work Bart. Glad to be a part of the MRF contribution to the discussion.

Thanks for all the research you've done on this matter. And of course the time and energy you spend to make this an informative - and now more informed site.

Joined!

 

[Bartman]

That was my point of entry in our conversations, to ask that they dedicate resources to including Pro and Personal sUAS users in their lobbying efforts.

It's worth mentioning, the Small UAV Coalition was started by Amazon when they initially experienced a lot of pushback by the FAA. They hired a prominent law firm in DC, Akin Gump and their efforts got the attention of several other sUAS related entities that also wanted lobbying resources in Washington and from that the Small UAV Coalition was born. So this isn't a small group of enthusiasts, it's a well funded and very well organized firm in Washington DC with a lot of access to the decision makers involved in our fight.

I'm not making any promises as to what the outcome will be but it's time we put up or shut up. The regulatory process is moving along very quickly and we've got nobody in the fight representing us. This is an opportunity for us, as a group, to buy our way in to the process so that our concerns can be heard and taken very seriously.

We will assess the effectiveness of our efforts as we go and I hope that we will have many worthwhile discussions here to decide what our priorities should be.

Thanks for your support Mike!
Bart

 

[filmfly]

The Small UAV Coalition seems so be doing good work at high levels to push for the commercial use of sUAS. As a lobbying organization for Amazon, DJI, and several other very large companies it appears they would be valuable partners in the efforts to improve some of the regulatory issues we face. I hope this support you are giving them Bart goes a long way to help them with the reform they are pushing for.

 

[Bartman]

Dave,

I contacted the Small UAV Coalition to gauge what their interest was in representing both for-profit and personal/hobbyist users of sUAS class vehicles. Being the entity that they are and given the corporate clients represented in the Small UAV Coalition I expected them to say they had no interest in taking in the smaller players in the field. But the smaller players are quickly becoming bigger players with real budgets and real employees spending real money in the pursuit of making it as pro-level sUAS operators. The sentiments I expressed to them that we need representation and more influence with the FAA were heard and met with enthusiasm both for Pro users and Personal users so I'm confident that the Small UAV Coalition will follow through on their intent to invite these groups into their organization and use their resources to represent their interests.

This will be an ongoing effort though and the sentiment for everyone should be "trust but verify". Trust what you are hearing is accurate and truthful but then do your own due diligence to verify each and everything that is happening.

Bart

 

[Sharknose79]

Thanks for all of your efforts.
This is wonderful !!!

 

[Bartman]

Thanks Sharknose79!

If you click the sub-forum title in the breadcrumbs (horizontal line of arrows near the bottom of the page) the threads list for the sub-forum will display. At the top of the threads list will be the words "Watch Forum" and by clicking that link you will be notified whenever a new thread is added to this sub-forum. Just thought you'd like to know.

 

[Bartman]

Those of you that post at other forum sites, please share the information in the first post so that others may see it and elect to join in the effort.

Thanks!

 

[WacoJohn]

I am happy to have just now upgraded my membership to the hobby level. Thank you for the opportunity to support the effort.

 

[Sharknose79]

Thanks Sharknose79!

If you click the sub-forum title in the breadcrumbs (horizontal line of arrows near the bottom of the page) the threads list for the sub-forum will display. At the top of the threads list will be the words "Watch Forum" and by clicking that link you will be notified whenever a new thread is added to this sub-forum. Just thought you'd like to know.

I'll be all over it.

 

[Bartman]

Folks,
While we saw an initial flow of people to support this effort it has rapidly slowed to a crawl. It wasn't entirely unexpected but to keep moving forward we need to take a look at ways to keep the momentum, make adjustments, improve efforts to get the word out, etc.

I'm willing to do a lot of the work but I just don't have the time to do all of the work so I hope that those supporting the effort financially are also supporting it by actively getting the word out to increase participation. There isn't a person in the US with a multi-rotor helicopter of any size that doesn't have something to lose if the regulatory process leaves us behind so in the coming weeks we need to reach out to everyone we can to at least ask them to consider supporting what we are doing here.

Also worth discussing is the nature of the two membership levels. Is the "Pro" designation going to bring attention to people that they might not want at this time and would that prevent them from publicly supporting the effort?? Could the FAA potentially use that as a resource to investigate who is trying to operate for hire and who isn't? If that's the case then we should change the titles on the banners under our avatars and remove references distinguishing Hobby vs. Pro operators. We can still have multiple levels of support and people can choose which level they're comfortable with. At the end of the day we'll either have the money and support to do this or we won't.

Another issue involves getting the word out to our fellow Hobby and Pro sUAS users that aren't actively participating here. Money talks but it can't say much without a big group of ambitious people behind it. We have to put up the money to play the game and that's what the regulatory process has become at this point, a game and we need to be playing it. If we want to be respected as a group and have our concerns heard then we need to be formally involved, supporting an organization that is professionally run, and working on our own to hone our message and continue building our base. Bringing in new people is my job, your job, the new guy's job....it's everyone's job so we need to excel at it if we want to be heard.

Thanks for reading my rant! Let's get to work!

 

[engin]

I want to join as a supporter.. But on 1 january 2015. What will I do.. Can I pay 50$ with pay pal??

 

[engin]

Folks,
While we saw an initial flow of people to support this effort it has rapidly slowed to a crawl. It wasn't entirely unexpected but to keep moving forward we need to take a look at ways to keep the momentum, make adjustments, improve efforts to get the word out, etc.

I'm willing to do a lot of the work but I just don't have the time to do all of the work so I hope that those supporting the effort financially are also supporting it by actively getting the word out to increase participation. There isn't a person in the US with a multi-rotor helicopter of any size that doesn't have something to lose if the regulatory process leaves us behind so in the coming weeks we need to reach out to everyone we can to at least ask them to consider supporting what we are doing here.

Also worth discussing is the nature of the two membership levels. Is the "Pro" designation going to bring attention to people that they might not want at this time and would that prevent them from publicly supporting the effort?? Could the FAA potentially use that as a resource to investigate who is trying to operate for hire and who isn't? If that's the case then we should change the titles on the banners under our avatars and remove references distinguishing Hobby vs. Pro operators. We can still have multiple levels of support and people can choose which level they're comfortable with. At the end of the day we'll either have the money and support to do this or we won't.

Another issue involves getting the word out to our fellow Hobby and Pro sUAS users that aren't actively participating here. Money talks but it can't say much without a big group of ambitious people behind it. We have to put up the money to play the game and that's what the regulatory process has become at this point, a game and we need to be playing it. If we want to be respected as a group and have our concerns heard then we need to be formally involved, supporting an organization that is professionally run, and working on our own to hone our message and continue building our base. Bringing in new people is my job, your job, the new guy's job....it's everyone's job so we need to excel at it if we want to be heard.

Thanks for reading my rant! Let's get to work!

I want to join as a supporter.. But on 1 january 2015. What will I do.. Can I pay 50$ with pay pal?? I am from Turkey.. Multirotorforum's members is very gentelmen and help ful..

 

[Gary Seven]

Folks,
[[snip]]

Thanks for reading my rant! Let's get to work!

Bart, although I'm an ex-pat (been living outside the USA for 20 years now) I do in fact, feel the "pain" of my fellow Americans. I plan on joining as well, but can't do so until at least January 2015 as I'm completely tapped out and NONE of my clients that are due this month have paid me...not a one.

Hold the course, Bart. Hold steady. Your efforts ARE appreciated.

John (aka G7)

 

[dtw]

@engin - go here: http://multirotorforums.com/account/upgrades use PayPal - thank you!

 

[dtw]

@Bartman - I would like to help as much as I can, so if there's a way to display how close/far we are from our goal that would be awesome. If it comes down to the wire and we're short, please pm me.