Congress poised to make it much easier for companies to fly small drones
process toward Congress that will reauthorize (or not)
the Federal Aviation Administration. The current legislation
has some radical ideas about privatizing Air Traffic
Control in the US, but it also includes a big section about
unmanned aerial vehicles, aka drones.
Today Congressman Rodney Davis of Illinois introduced an
amendment to the bill that would create a separate class
of drones know as "micro-UAS," units weighing less than
4.4 pounds. Right now a company that wants to fly a
drone in the US needs to get a special exemption and
certificate from the FAA. The person operating the
commercial drone must also be a licensed pilot. The
amendment would exempt commercial micro-drones from all
these requirements.
For reference, the new DJI Phantom, which is the most
popular model of drone submitted to the FAA for
exemption, weighs just 2.8 pounds. That unit is capable of
capturing 4K footage at a range of over 1 mile, so it will
likely be more than capable for most jobs. By comparison
the DJI Inspire 1, which is a more powerful machine with a
few extra features, weighs 6.6 pounds, and so it would
not qualify for micro-drone status.
It’s important to note that while micro-drones would be
exempt from most of the requirements specific to
commercial drone use, it would still have to follow the
basic rules that apply to all drones in the US: no flights
over 400 feet, no flights at night, no flights within 5
miles of an airport, and no flights beyond the pilot’s line
of sight. It would make life simpler for the average
wedding photographer or real estate agent, in other
words, but doesn’t really change the regulatory landscape
in a way that would allow for the drone delivery fleets
Google and Amazon are eager to build.
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