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Pilot's license requirement might not be so silly afterall

As one who began to get my pilot's license back in the 90's but couldn't complete it, and now find myself getting into aerial photography, I'm in full agreement with the FAA proposed requirement for commercial UAS operators to have a pilots license for several reasons:

1. The nature of UAS photography/ videography itself attracts thrill seekers who largely due to age, though there are other variables, (general immaturity,) are inherently reckless/ careless/ ignorant. Many types of commercial use will bring you into proximity of crowds of people large and small, and when one's own safety concerns are generally not factored into the equation, how much less or more, those of bystanders/ subjects?

2. Pilot training generally instills a clear understanding of risk and risk aversion, and much of it is built around developing GO/ NO GO decision making which requires sober risk calculation.

3. Yes a driver's license at 16 puts you in control of a 4000lb vehicle, but then adding the third dimension of altitude increases one's need of awareness exponentially, requiring exponential situational awareness. This, along with increased need for real time risk assessment has to be trained, read: exercised into the human brain. Pilot training does this.

4. As far as governing recreational use; it appears the FAA is confident that state and local authorities can "fill in the gaps" to protect public safety. I know that in the sleepy little town of Apopka, Florida that I live in, the city counsel has already prohibited flying UAS' anywhere other than your private property. This includes city parks. Not saying that it isn't a knee jerk reaction or that I completely agree with it, just an example of local authorities filling in the gaps. Example: Joe Six Pack can't fly his Phantom 3 around the ballpark while Little Joey is playing little league, but a properly trained, insured professional can.

5. Pilot training instills the very definition of "Look before you leap," and ingrains examining every facet of flight from multiple angles to ensure predictability of a safe outcome, and after all that, teaches level-headed quick time assessment and action during contingencies.

6. It develops a strong awareness that you aren't the only one in the sky.

Now you may say none of this has anything to do with you if all you want to do is shoot real estate footage, but once you've been given the authority to operate commercially, who's looking over your shoulder to make sure you are only operating to the level of your capabilities/ training?

As a licensed plumbing contractor, I had to demonstrated the capability of designing systems for 10 story high rises, even though my plan was to use it to build track homes. But once I got that license, there was no one making sure I kept within those parameters because I had demonstrated capability in every facet.

So you see, it's really not the license, but the specific intense training required to get one that is, I believe, the goal of the FAA requirement.
 
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TO BGOODIN
Well, there are only three drone classifications under the FAA UAS rules; hobby, commercial or public. Public is defined by 49 US Code 40102 Definitions:
(C)
An aircraft owned and operated by the government of a State, the District of Columbia, or a territory or possession of the United States or a political subdivision of one of these governments, except as provided in section 40125(b).

If your utility and by extension, its aircraft, are owned by the municipality, then I don't see why your operation not be classified as PUBLIC, which means you'd have to apply for a public COA, are utility employees also considered municipal employees?. Your city/town attorney knows, I'm sure.
Public Operations (Governmental)

If the feds told you a 333 is required then is probably because the utility has been legally determined not to be a political subdivision of the state.
I ran into a similar situation with a local rural fire district, the district does not meet the definition of a political subdivision of the state, thus they must apply for a 333.
 
TO BGOODIN
Well, there are only three drone classifications under the FAA UAS rules; hobby, commercial or public. Public is defined by 49 US Code 40102 Definitions:
(C)
An aircraft owned and operated by the government of a State, the District of Columbia, or a territory or possession of the United States or a political subdivision of one of these governments, except as provided in section 40125(b).

If your utility and by extension, its aircraft, are owned by the municipality, then I don't see why your operation not be classified as PUBLIC, which means you'd have to apply for a public COA, are utility employees also considered municipal employees?. Your city/town attorney knows, I'm sure.
Public Operations (Governmental)

If the feds told you a 333 is required then is probably because the utility has been legally determined not to be a political subdivision of the state.
I ran into a similar situation with a local rural fire district, the district does not meet the definition of a political subdivision of the state, thus they must apply for a 333.

We started the process for a COA, sent a letter from the utilities legal counsel to the FAA stating the charter and sections that pertained to our public status. As a municipal utility we are subject to the same rules and regulations as the city. We are owned by the city, but the city does not regulate or oversee our operations. Heck, all of the utilities vehicles have government issued tags on them! We wanted the COA but the FAA stated that our operations fall under the civil operations. We fit all the requirements of the COA but I think the FAA does not know how to handle what the utility industry wants to do so they stated the 333. In everything that we want to do, we do not fit the classification of commercial for the 333.
 
Sounds like another wacky (wait, what?) decision by some FAA bureaucrat that doesn't get it. They are a strange bunch.

Somewhere on the FAA's website mention is made of an "emergency COA." Well, I tried to find out what that entailed (if a public agency wanted to do a night time search for a missing person), on behalf of local police agencies who are interested in perhaps establishing their own UAS programs. The FAA UAS Integration office just gave me the runaround, i.e. only a public agency could request an emergency COA. Hell, I know that , just wanted to know the process, but they wouldn't tell me, but said they would discuss it with the public agency. (?) What the hell is the big secret? I just wanted to know the process, big mistery. This is why so many get pissed at the feds...
 
Sounds like another wacky (wait, what?) decision by some FAA bureaucrat that doesn't get it. They are a strange bunch.

Somewhere on the FAA's website mention is made of an "emergency COA." Well, I tried to find out what that entailed (if a public agency wanted to do a night time search for a missing person), on behalf of local police agencies who are interested in perhaps establishing their own UAS programs. The FAA UAS Integration office just gave me the runaround, i.e. only a public agency could request an emergency COA. Hell, I know that , just wanted to know the process, but they wouldn't tell me, but said they would discuss it with the public agency. (?) What the hell is the big secret? I just wanted to know the process, big mistery. This is why so many get pissed at the feds...

I just read earlier that a police department in the state got a COA in under 90 days for test and training with drones. Now, please explain why they can be classified as government and a municipal utility can not? They are city/county owned, like we are. As a utility we are tax exempt from the state, just like they are. The state recognizes the utility as a part of local government. Heck anyone can come in our door and request to see any employee's salary and we have to oblige! Are we as vital to the safety and security of our local populace? No, but we are part of the equation. Let the power go out at the police's repeater sites for their communications up on the mountains for longer than the 8 hours they have in battery backup. 911 and police would be in a world of hurt. That is one reason we want the drones. When power goes out at one of these towers, the power lines go for 1 mile straight up the mountain. If the line is down, our guys have to go to the top and walk it down checking to see if there is a main line down. This could take an hour if they go top to bottom! If it is bottom to top then a heck of a lot longer! Try this after a storm with 7 to 8 inches of snow and believe me, you will have a new appreciation for what these linemen do to keep and restore power. We are trying to make this more safer for them and restore power quickly. In a situation like I just stated, the drone could have that whole line flown in at most 10 minutes, they see where the line is down, get what is needed to fix and plan a way in and then repair. At minimum, an hour shaved off the total time for restore. Nobody breaking their leg. And no danger to the public and max height of flight? 80 feet at most. We all here see the benefits of drones as another tool in our guys hands to speed up the restore process, be pro-active in substation maintenance with overhead IR readings of hot spots that would be hard to do or have no accessibility from the ground.

Sorry for the rant. Being in IT with a utility I have had hands on with bureaucratic policies with certain cybersecurity mandates. Those I can understand, but for the life of me, I don't see the difference here.
 
I just read earlier that a police department in the state got a COA in under 90 days for test and training with drones. Now, please explain why they can be classified as government and a municipal utility can not? They are city/county owned, like we are. As a utility we are tax exempt from the state, just like they are. The state recognizes the utility as a part of local government. Heck anyone can come in our door and request to see any employee's salary and we have to oblige! Are we as vital to the safety and security of our local populace? No, but we are part of the equation. Let the power go out at the police's repeater sites for their communications up on the mountains for longer than the 8 hours they have in battery backup. 911 and police would be in a world of hurt. That is one reason we want the drones. When power goes out at one of these towers, the power lines go for 1 mile straight up the mountain. If the line is down, our guys have to go to the top and walk it down checking to see if there is a main line down. This could take an hour if they go top to bottom! If it is bottom to top then a heck of a lot longer! Try this after a storm with 7 to 8 inches of snow and believe me, you will have a new appreciation for what these linemen do to keep and restore power. We are trying to make this more safer for them and restore power quickly. In a situation like I just stated, the drone could have that whole line flown in at most 10 minutes, they see where the line is down, get what is needed to fix and plan a way in and then repair. At minimum, an hour shaved off the total time for restore. Nobody breaking their leg. And no danger to the public and max height of flight? 80 feet at most. We all here see the benefits of drones as another tool in our guys hands to speed up the restore process, be pro-active in substation maintenance with overhead IR readings of hot spots that would be hard to do or have no accessibility from the ground.

Sorry for the rant. Being in IT with a utility I have had hands on with bureaucratic policies with certain cybersecurity mandates. Those I can understand, but for the life of me, I don't see the difference here.
You are preaching to the choir. I have a 333 business and if a local police agency asks me to help search for a missing child, I can't do it legally, w/o putting my pilot's license and my 333 in jeopardy. I have to file a NOTAM no less than 24 hrs. in advance,.. and if the search goes past official sunset, I'm flying at night. The FAA is threading water with sUAS, they were asleep and never saw all this new and inexpensive technology coming; hell the UAS Integration Office wasn't created until 2013!

Public safety agencies better get busy with COAs if they want to use them and not wait until something happens. Tomorrow I am doing a presentation to my county chiefs of police association (I'm a retired chief) on UAVs and their potential for law enforcement operations. Hope to gain a few "converts." I foresee a hue and cry among the citizens if somethind bad happens where a PD or fire agency could have used a UAV and didn't because they blew it off as a resource.
 
You are preaching to the choir. I have a 333 business and if a local police agency asks me to help search for a missing child, I can't do it legally, w/o putting my pilot's license and my 333 in jeopardy. I have to file a NOTAM no less than 24 hrs. in advance,.. and if the search goes past official sunset, I'm flying at night. The FAA is threading water with sUAS, they were asleep and never saw all this new and inexpensive technology coming; hell the UAS Integration Office wasn't created until 2013!

Public safety agencies better get busy with COAs if they want to use them and not wait until something happens. Tomorrow I am doing a presentation to my county chiefs of police association (I'm a retired chief) on UAVs and their potential for law enforcement operations. Hope to gain a few "converts." I foresee a hue and cry among the citizens if somethind bad happens where a PD or fire agency could have used a UAV and didn't because they blew it off as a resource.

That is the same here. We have the I1 pro with the XT camera. Once local pd, fire, SAR and a few others found out they all wanted to learn more about the capabilities of this platform. I was happy to inform them. When asked to fly over a piece of land to search with the ir for a missing person, I had to decline. So why don't we just go and apply for the 333? Because of the requirement of a pilots license. So, the utility could send me to pilots school or hire someone with a pilots license to be on call.. Now, being a public utility, we have an obligation to spend our ratepayers money wisely. We are almost like a non-profit. What money we have left after paying for power, salaries and the such goes right back into infrastructure. Now, we decide we want to get 3 more drones. So means that we would have to send some of these guys to flight school or hire people with pilots license. Either way not a very cost effective move. Sending a few off to ground school is more practical. So, the only option is to wait for the part 107 to be finalized and we go from there. Since we fly 15 to 20 feet above our lines, 30 to 45 feet above our substations and in no way put the general public in harms way, I feel that situations like ours should not require a pilots license. Our whole service area is a little over 600 square miles, in mountainous terrain, and nowhere near an airport! We do have an helipad for the local hospital (they don't own a helicopter) so we steer clear of there. Bet ya though, if the utility decided to get a helicopter to do the same thing, FAA would require the COA!
 
I'm on your side, mostly. Were I king of the world I would not have required a pilot's certificate. That's was silly knee jerk reaction but it is, after all, the FAA, an organization for pilots run by pilots. Safety of the national airspace is their number one priority.

A more sensible rule should have been to require a private pilot ground school and passing the written examination. This is a must for anyone wanting to navigate the airspace (weather, reading a sectional chart, Federal Aviation Regulations, etc.). The UAS Operator certificate is coming, soon I hope. You sure that hiring a private pilot in your area is going to cost all that much? A few bucks an hour would make any PP happy since they normally cannot fly for profit...not a major investment for 4 UAVs, aviation insurance, etc.
 
I'm on your side, mostly. Were I king of the world I would not have required a pilot's certificate. That's was silly knee jerk reaction but it is, after all, the FAA, an organization for pilots run by pilots. Safety of the national airspace is their number one priority.

A more sensible rule should have been to require a private pilot ground school and passing the written examination. This is a must for anyone wanting to navigate the airspace (weather, reading a sectional chart, Federal Aviation Regulations, etc.). The UAS Operator certificate is coming, soon I hope. You sure that hiring a private pilot in your area is going to cost all that much? A few bucks an hour would make any PP happy since they normally cannot fly for profit...not a major investment for 4 UAVs, aviation insurance, etc.

Now that rule we can live with. Not sure on the hiring of a local pp. We will more than likely require that it would be under contract with a w9. Anyone doing work for the utility that is not on our payroll is listed as contract labor. The drone is covered under our blanket liability insurance so all I have to do is list the drone with our insurance to be covered. I have been flying RC helicopters for the past 10 years and started on drones about 5 years ago so when the utility wanted to go down this road with drones it was put on my lap. I don't mind as I love this stuff.
 
IMHO, I can understand and would agree with mandatory training classes for everyone based on the level they wish to fly,
I do think it's totally absurd to require a full pilot certificate to fly a sUAS that any kid in the Xbox generation could skillfully fly circles around most of us.
It's not exactly like there haven't been pilots in the past doing boneheaded things, so a pilots certificate won't stop a bonehead from being a bonehead.
And obviously even skilled pilots still crash into neighborhoods.
For those bemoaning privacy, one thing I do is perch a 32' Monitor on the table outside my vehicle so people can see what I see,
The réponse to that is amazingly positive, I also point out to them even at maximum zoom (Oly 14-42) only so much detail is available and its impossible to get more detailed without
absolutely knowing the sUAS is present.
Thankfully for now rules for hobbyist's are less restrictive and that's all I need personally.
 
IMHO, I can understand and would agree with mandatory training classes for everyone based on the level they wish to fly,
I do think it's totally absurd to require a full pilot certificate to fly a sUAS that any kid in the Xbox generation could skillfully fly circles around most of us.
It's not exactly like there haven't been pilots in the past doing boneheaded things, so a pilots certificate won't stop a bonehead from being a bonehead.
And obviously even skilled pilots still crash into neighborhoods.
For those bemoaning privacy, one thing I do is perch a 32' Monitor on the table outside my vehicle so people can see what I see,
The réponse to that is amazingly positive, I also point out to them even at maximum zoom (Oly 14-42) only so much detail is available and its impossible to get more detailed without
absolutely knowing the sUAS is present.
Thankfully for now rules for hobbyist's are less restrictive and that's all I need personally.


100% agree!

Also, the external monitor is a great idea to placate the privacy concerns...

How do you connect the monitor to the RC?


Brian
 
Well I've obtained roughly 30 hours of flight time for my PPL and then I get the news today. Even though my sole purpose of obtaining my Private was for commercial drone photography, I love flying and will continue until i finish.
 
Well I've obtained roughly 30 hours of flight time for my PPL and then I get the news today. Even though my sole purpose of obtaining my Private was for commercial drone photography, I love flying and will continue until i finish.
Just a thought, if I wanted to make money on the current drone frenzy I wouldn't consider piloting but gather as many engineers and IT specialists as possible and start creating third party hardware, software and and a global satellite network available for lease.
 

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