Friendly drone took photos of Washington Nationals players during spring training-AP
3/17/14, "US lags as commercial drones take off around globe," AP, via TimesDaily.com
"A small, four-rotor drone hovered over Washington Nationals players for a few days during spring training in Florida last month, taking publicity photos impossible for a human photographer to capture. But no one got the Federal Aviation Administration's permission first.
"No, we didn't get it cleared, but we don't get our pop flies cleared either and those go higher than this thing did," a team official said when contacted by The Associated Press. The drone flights ceased the next day. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be named.
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"A small, four-rotor drone hovered over Washington Nationals players for a few days during spring training in Florida last month, taking publicity photos impossible for a human photographer to capture. But no one got the Federal Aviation Administration's permission first.
"No, we didn't get it cleared, but we don't get our pop flies cleared either and those go higher than this thing did," a team official said when contacted by The Associated Press. The drone flights ceased the next day. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be named.
The agency bars
commercial use of drones no matter how seemingly benign. The lone
exception is an oil company that has been granted permission to fly
drones over the Arctic Ocean, and it took an act of Congress to win that
concession.
FAA officials say rules
to address the special safety challenges associated with unmanned
aircraft need to be in place before they can share the sky with manned
aircraft. The agency has worked on those regulations for the past decade
and is still months and possibly years away from issuing final rules
for small drones, which are defined as those weighing less than 55
pounds. Rules for larger drones are even further off.
But tempting technology
and an eager marketplace are outrunning the aviation agency's best
intentions. Photographers, real estate agents, moviemakers and others
are hurrying to embrace the technology. Drones have been used to
photograph the two apartment buildings that collapsed in New York City
this past week and a car crash in Connecticut. The AP, in fact, is one
of several news organizations studying the possible use of drones.
Unless FAA officials
receive a complaint or chance upon a news story that mentions drone
flights, they have little ability to find out about violations. The ban
was further undercut this month when a federal judge dismissed the only
fine the FAA has imposed on a commercial drone operator. The judge said
the agency can't enforce regulations that don't exist.
The FAA, which contends it controls access to the national air space, has appealed.
The use of commercial
drones, most of them small, is starting to spread to countries where
authorities have decided the aircraft presents little threat if
operators follow a few safety rules.
The drone industry and
some members of Congress are worried the United States will be one of
the last countries, rather than one of the first, to gain the economic
benefits of the technology.
"We don't have the luxury
of waiting another 20 years," said Paul McDuffee, vice president of
drone-maker Insitu of Bingen, Wash., a subsidiary of Boeing. "This
industry is exploding. It's getting to the point where it may end up
happening with or without the FAA's blessing."
In Japan, the Yamaha
Motor Company's RMAX helicopter drones have been spraying crops for 20
years. The radio-controlled drones weighing 140 pounds are cheaper than
hiring a plane and are able to more precisely apply fertilizers and
pesticides. They fly closer to the ground and their backwash enables the
spray to reach the underside of leaves."...
A
small, four-rotor drone hovered over Washington Nationals players for a
few days during spring training in Florida last month, taking publicity
photos impossible for a human photographer to capture. But no one got
the Federal Aviation Administration's permission first. - See more at:
http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/597071/Flying-Outside-Federal-Law.html#sthash.3YWXThbR.dpuf
Flying Outside Federal Law
Flying Outside Federal Law
FAA: Drones banned for commercial purposes
March 17, 2014
,
The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register
- See more at: http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/597071/Flying-Outside-Federal-Law.html#sthash.3YWXThbR.dpufFlying Outside Federal Law
FAA: Drones banned for commercial purposes
March 17, 2014
,
The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register
- See more at: http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/597071/Flying-Outside-Federal-Law.html#sthash.3YWXThbR.dpufposted by susan at
3/18/2014 04:06:00 AM
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