Today marks an important milestone for commercial drone usage in the U.S.as new rules by the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) have officially gone into effect.
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A set of federal drone rules were rolled out Monday allowing businesses to use drones in a limited manner. “It’s going to be a whole new world”.
“If people are filming you, flying over your house, watching you and stuff like that, trying to implicate you in some kind of crime or whatever you’re doing, well our constitution says we’re protected against that”, said John Whitehead, founder of the Albemarle County-based civil rights nonprofit The Rutherford Institute.
The appeal is clear. The Air Line Pilots Association, a union representing 54,000 pilots, urged that drone pilots be given flight tests in addition to written tests.
In addition to commercial businesses, the FAA says the new rules could generate more than $82 billion for the USA economy and create more than 100,000 new jobs over the next ten years.
FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said that drones are “helping to create a whole new means of realising the American dream”.
At least some in the drone industry are also expressing worry that the government won’t be able to keep up with demand, or that the flood of new users may not have the skills necessary to safely fly under the new rules.
“Why would you ever have a driver’s license if you had never been in a auto, a pilot’s license if you had never been in a plane?”
From construction, surveying, search and rescue, agriculture and video production Hupy says the commercial uses could be endless. His company sells drone services such as bridge inspections and also offers training courses.
The rules are limited in scope and don’t cover more complex uses of unmanned aircraft, especially at higher altitudes and beyond the sight of operators. Parrott said he spent a lot of time studying for the test, and wouldn’t have passed it if it weren’t for the hours spent preparing for it.
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By the end of the year, the FAA says it plans to issue specific rules for flying drones over people (something that will have to happen for that pizza to make it to your doorstep). That’s well above the usual three or four people per month taking FAA exams there, Johnson said.
