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The FAA’s Remote ID Proposal for Drones is Here! This affects every drone pilot.

Pappy

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I received this email and after reading the first few pages (document link - https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2019-28100.pdf ), I'm afraid the good ol' days of flying drones is coming to an end. The proposal calls for 3 classes for Remoted ID. The first two require an Internet connection, no connection no flying (a big screw you rural/wilderness America without cell phone coverage). The third one doesn't require Remote ID, BUT you can only fly in FAA recognized areas, read AMA sanctioned fields. And, unless I'm reading this incorrectly, all existing drones which cannot be upgraded will either be grounded or you will only be able to fly option 3.

Please take the time to educate yourself on this and submit your concerns to the FAA. Deadline for submission is March 1, 2020.

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Remote ID BannerTwitter ButtonFacebook ButtonWe want YOU to read and comment on the Remote ID Proposal
Get ready for the next exciting step in safe drone integration! The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued the proposed rule for remote identification of drones.
With nearly 1.5 million drones and 155,000 remote pilots registered with the FAA, the ability to provide identification and location is essential to keeping drones safely separated from other aircraft operating in our airspace.
We encourage drone enthusiasts, and anyone interested in aviation safety, to read our Notice of Proposed Rulemaking now in the Federal Register. In the next few days, a 60-day comment period will open to receive your feedback which can help us develop a final rule that enhances safety and security in our nation’s skies.
“Drones are the fastest growing segment of transportation in our nation and it is vitally important that they are safely integrated into the national airspace,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.
“As a pilot, my eye is always on safety first,” said FAA Administrator Steve Dickson. “Safety is a joint responsibility between government, pilots, the drone community, the general public and many others who make our nation so creative and innovative.”
Equipping drones with remote identification technologies would build on previous steps taken by the FAA and the UAS industry to safely integrate operations, including the small UAS rule, which covers drones weighing less than 55 pounds other than model aircraft, and the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC), which automates the application and approval process for drone operators to obtain airspace authorizations.
These efforts are the foundation for more complex operations, such as beyond visual line of sight at low altitudes, as we move toward a traffic management ecosystem for drone flights separate from, but complementary to, our air traffic management system.
The proposed Remote I.D. rule would apply to all drones that are required to register with the FAA (recreational drones weighing under 0.55 pounds are not required to register), as well as to people who operate foreign civil drone in the United States.
Remote ID diagram
 
As best I can tell on a quick glance, this would basically outlaw the S2 (and many other current drones) for all intents and purposes. You could not fly it with the Beacon outside a sanctioned no-ID airfield, and even if you could program it to send the info while flying with WiFi or the controller, it would have to be programmatically limited to 400 feet away, rendering it useless for many of its obvious applications.

I haven’t read it all yet but did I miss something? Is it just me, or is this proposal totally catastrophic for anyone who has invested in existing drone tech?
 
As written it will be bad for the consumer drone industry, more regs, more cost, more fees. For the limited Remote ID option (400 foot hemisphere limit) you can't take off without an internet connection. I haven't seen anything that says the controlling station cannot move. So as long as you have the phone linked to the beacon I would think you could still use the S2 with the beacon and the same would be in play for the controller. Biggest obstacle is internet connectivity. There are a lot of rural locations that still do not have cellular access, particularly out west.

It will be 3 plus years before these proposed rules could go into effect. So if you still have your S2 in 2-3 years you may want to dedicate a phone to the S2 and never update the software/firmware. In this way you can still use your S2 as do today, just don't get caught.
 
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As written it will be bad for the consumer drone industry, more regs, more cost, more fees. For the limited Remote ID option (400 foot hemisphere limit) you can't take off without an internet connection. I haven't seen anything that says the controlling station cannot move. So as long as you have the phone linked to the beacon I would think you could still use the S2 with the beacon and the same would be in play for the controller. Biggest obstacle is internet connectivity. There are a lot of rural locations that still do not have cellular access, particularly out west.

It will be 3 plus years before these proposed rules could go into effect. So if you still have your S2 in 2-3 years you may want to dedicate a phone to the S2 and never update the software/firmware. In this way you can still use your S2 as do today, just don't get caught.
Unfortunately that ignores that part of the point and a core part of the design of the Beacon is to not require the phone at all or a cell signal. As I glance through the proposal and thinks about it, it occurs to me that the proposed regs will basically outlaw not just drones but model aircraft as we know them - any aircraft as to which the majority of the parts are from a kit will, be treated no differently (rightfully IMHO - there’s no meaningful distinction between a drone and a model plane for this purpose), so the FAA has elected, in order to further line the pockets of Amazon, to end the hobby of model aviation as we know it and will likely put thousands of hobby shops out of business. This is one of the most glaring examples of regulatory capture I’ve ever seen.
 
It could be done with a GPS locator which are getting very small. There'd likely be a monthly fee if that becomes an option.
 
It could be done with a GPS locator which are getting very small. There'd likely be a monthly fee if that becomes an option.
Sadly it needs to be transmitting, which needs both more power and also may interfere with existing systems, and it also needs to be connected to the internet the whole time under this proposal, so if you, e.g., go down the road to a flying spot where there is no cell tower? Sorry, no flying for you! Seen those videos of guys following their bikes through the forest? If that forest isn’t filled with cell towers, no flying there even with an updated model with a transponder notwithstanding basically zero safety issues, and the proposal admits right there in writing that almost all existing drones and R/C aircraft will be noncompliant and outlawed. Heck, I live in a populated area on the coast and if I drive a couple of miles down the road there’s a big swath of coastline where flying is great but there’s no cell coverage. It would immediately become totally off limits even if I could spend the money and outfit my craft with a new transmitter and pay for a subscription. No, this will effectively regulate the hobby out of existence.
 
Go take a gander at this thread FAA Drone ID Proposal: over on the MavicPilots forum. It will become quite apparent why DJI had a seat on the committee. A lot of their present equipment will still comply with the new rules.

What the government doesn’t like about DJI equipment use by our government entities, they are now trying to shove down our throats under the guise of safety.

This whole pile of (insert your favorite animal feces when expressing disgust) is nothing more than big business wanting to take over the low altitude airspace we can presently fly in without all these restrictions. The acronym for Remote ID pretty much says it all “RID”.
 

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