Since a drone can potentially violate restricted airspace, I could see some regulatory body eventually requiring approval/certification before a drone aircraft can be sold. I can imagine private pilots aren't too keen on running into some out of control flying piece of garbage at a few thousand feet.
Ah, interesting to note it only has to be certified if it flies over 400 feet. That means lots of DIY and personal drones are still ok, for now. I see this changing in the future, because of a long list of potential criminal applications for UAV drones there will probably be a push towards stricter licensing.
I've never flown a drone, but this sounds like a pretty cool idea! Are you aware of anything like this being a requirement anywhere, or having being proposed by regulators anywhere?
I've been having a feeling that drones are going to be allowed everywhere except for private operators. As long as there's government or a corporation behind them, drone use will be legal.
Too bad in most parts of the EU is illegal to fly drones. You can do it if you are far from populated areas but you need to go trough a complicated bureaucracy and obtain a permit before each flight.
No, under present rules, drones are regulated without consideration of the operator's qualifications in other aircraft types. And for the moment, no commercial use of drones is being permitted, which means the use to which the drone is put is the issue, not who is operating it.
But this is going to change relatively soon -- there's too much public pressure to allow drones wider operational latitude.
Apparently they're writing specific norms for what and how they'll be usable legally (and most likely it'll require a license), but for now, it's a full ban.
Having spent some time on business applications of drones, especially imagery, I am actually quite bearish on startup application of drones.
Even if there are some locations that accept innovative experimentation with drones (e.g. Switzerland or Japan), the majority of countries (e.g. the USA with part 107) are quite restrictive. Because of severe restriction on autonomy, all large-scale applications are not legal.
Not many people are investing time and money into building new drone applications, as it's uncertain it will be legal in the near future. Without serious $ behind it, drone regulations will probably stay restrictive. If you are thinking about Amazon - I heard from multiple people that last-mile delivery is actually more feasible with ground robots.
Sooner or later there will be laws against anything but the most basic drone flying because of jerks like this.
Lately i have been reading an article about the Dutch government thinking about quite expensives licences for commercial drone flyers and height and distance restrictions for private flights (which are already in place in many places). In germany you are generally limited to 50 meters of height in most places for example.
It's large enough that it will require extensive certification and permits both for the airframe and the pilot.
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