U.S. FAA requires drone owners to register by February 19 or face fines

[webfact]

FAA requires drone owners to register by February 19 or face fines
BY BNO NEWS

WASHINGTON: -- The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has announced a process that requires owners of small unmanned aircraft weighing more than 0.55 pounds (250 grams) to register their aircraft by February 19 or face fines.

Under the new rules, current owners of drones used for hobby or recreation will have to register their aircraft no later than February 19, while any drones purchased for use as a model aircraft after December 21 must be registered before being flown outdoors. The statutory requirements apply to drones weighing more than 0.55 pounds (250 grams) and less than 55 pounds (25 kilograms), including payloads such as cameras.

“Make no mistake: unmanned aircraft enthusiast are aviators, and with that title comes a great deal of responsibility,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement on Monday. “Registration gives us an opportunity to work with these users to operate their unmanned aircraft safely. I’m excited to welcome these new aviators into the culture of safety and responsibility that defines American innovation.”

Owners may use either a paper-based process or a web-based system at www.faa.gov/uas/registration, which will return a Certificate of Aircraft Registration/Proof of Ownership that includes a unique identification number that must be marked on the aircraft. Owners using the aircraft for hobby or recreation will only have to register once and may use the same identification number for all of their model aircraft.

Full story: http://ethailand.com/breaking-news/faa-requires-drone-owners-to-register-by-february-19-or-face-fines/751/

-- eThailand 2015-12-15

[Somtamnication]

Turning into a nanny state, I see.

[MZurf]

" FAA requires drone owners to register by February 19 or face fines"

Sounds reasonable. Now, if they only did the same for guns.

[dddave]

Just look in any to store or electronics store, even here in Thailand. Drones are one of the hottest items selling. Not much of an issue when they were rare curiosities but with exponential proliferation, they are becoming a problem in many ways. Encroachment into airport flight paths is one, sometimes leading to entire airport shutdowns. Flying into crowds, especially at large public events is an increasing risk. Privacy issues are becoming a great concern as video camera equipped drones prowl around neighborhoods.

Just a few days ago, I took part in a public event and a camera drone was flying very low over the crowd. I don't know if it was arranged by the event sponsors of if it was just a private individual but a cop got on it and grounded it.

I understand the "Nanny State" reaction, over regulation sucks but these things have potential for major problems as more and more of them take to the sky. better to put a control framework in place now than after some disaster.

[tingtongfarang]

Just look in any to store or electronics store, even here in Thailand. Drones are one of the hottest items selling. Not much of an issue when they were rare curiosities but with exponential proliferation, they are becoming a problem in many ways. Encroachment into airport flight paths is one, sometimes leading to entire airport shutdowns. Flying into crowds, especially at large public events is an increasing risk. Privacy issues are becoming a great concern as video camera equipped drones prowl around neighborhoods.

Just a few days ago, I took part in a public event and a camera drone was flying very low over the crowd. I don't know if it was arranged by the event sponsors of if it was just a private individual but a cop got on it and grounded it.

I understand the "Nanny State" reaction, over regulation sucks but these things have potential for major problems as more and more of them take to the sky. better to put a control framework in place now than after some disaster.

Most of what could be considered important restrictions are built into the firmware, such as height limits and no fly zones and the restrictions often become more intrusive with each update,

For the most part these drones are used as intended (camera platform) by photographers-video and still photo,s, it would seem these people are very responsible in the way they use them trying to avoid bad publicity resulting in regulation,

These things are not toys and require a full understanding of the tech and software involved, my guess is that shortly after the xmas period the incident rate will rise and then drop sharply as they get crashed beyond repair or lost.

[Usernames]

I'm waiting for the first wave of mid-air drone skirmishes, with dogfights, flaming wreckage, a cameras parachuting to safety.

[wabothai]

Can't have that spyware running out of control by nutcases.

[mania]

Will Washington be registering all of their drones too?

After all “Make no mistake: unmanned aircraft enthusiast are aviators, and with that title comes a great deal of responsibility,”

[hawker9000]

Turning into a nanny state, I see.

I'm the farthest thing from a fan of the nanny state for sure and for certain, only in this case the "turning into" was accomplished by the usual assortment of knobheads flying these things where they obviously shouldn't have been, giving rise to formal near-miss incident reports by commercial pilots and the need to prevent a disaster. Whine about it all you want - and by all means don't cry in your coffee - but pin the tail on the right donkey.

Berfore you ask: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/faa-records-detail-hundreds-of-close-calls-between-airplanes-and-drones/2015/08/20/5ef812ae-4737-11e5-846d-02792f854297_story.html

Edited December 16, 2015 by hawker9000