U.S. Will Require Drones to Be Registered

[SeannyM]

I have always wondered what the hype over drones was, and why it is just now becoming an issue. It seems to me that RC planes and helicopters have been around for quite a while.

They are becoming more common and airspace is becoming more congested. Drones are also easier to operate than model planes. There have also been several recent near misses involving drones that have received media attention. These drones pose a significant risk to aviation safety and need to be better regulated. It is already illegal to fly them in certain types of controlled airspace, but without education how is one expected to know where this airspace is located, and which altitudes it covers? Here is a video that illustrates the risk posed by these drones: youtu.be/Poo71RTuV3I

 

[TK421]

This is terrible news. Private US citizens need to own war drones with mounted anti-vehicular incendiary missiles, without registration, just in case the government turns tyrannical.

 

[Elizium23]

Sigh! Why won’t anyone listen to the Voice of Reason: Randall Munroe?

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

 

[mikekle]

Registration is a good first step… But there needs to be a class on different types of airspace, and requirements to enter them. Federal law already requires model aircraft/drone owners to follow the national airspace rules, but what 15 year old actually knows the difference between Class D and class E airspace, or has a radio to get clearance to enter the class D. .

Well, ignorance of any law has never been adequate to get anyone out of trouble.

I also agree with the post about RC helicopters, thats the first thing I thought when drones started getting popular, I said, " so its basically just another RC chopper, whats the big deal"? The only difference I can see is someone thought to put a video recorder on and the drone was born…?? an RC chopper could do the same things though.

 

[SeannyM]

Well, ignorance of any law has never been adequate to get anyone out of trouble.

I also agree with the post about RC helicopters, thats the first thing I thought when drones started getting popular, I said, " so its basically just another RC chopper, whats the big deal"? The only difference I can see is someone thought to put a video recorder on and the drone was born…?? an RC chopper could do the same things though.

Ignorance of airspace still puts them in my flight path though! These drones, coupled with an influx of foreign flight students who haven’t mastered the English language have made the sky a somewhat scary place these days.

 

[OraLabora]

Registration is a good first step… But there needs to be a class on different types of airspace, and requirements to enter them. Federal law already requires model aircraft/drone owners to follow the national airspace rules, but what 15 year old actually knows the difference between Class D and class E airspace, or has a radio to get clearance to enter the class D. As a pilot, these things scare the **** out of me. I’ve been on short final to land at our local airport and looked out the window to see a small toy drone about 20 feet off the nose of my plane. I don’t want to think about what would happen if I were to strike it with my prop. Being about 200 feet off the ground, I wouldn’t have a lot of room to react. Our airspace by the way, requires a clearance from Air Traffic Control to enter it.

I’m also a pilot and share your concern! So far I haven’t had any close encounter with one (though I have had the odd goose or eagle scare the heck out of me). A drone strike could really ruin a pilot’s day.

 

[Joie_de_Vivre]

I’m also a pilot and share your concern! So far I haven’t had any close encounter with one (though I have had the odd goose or eagle scare the heck out of me). A drone strike could really ruin a pilot’s day.

I’m sure of chunk of metal getting a direct hit on your cockpit glass, your propeller or turbine is going to cause more than just ruining a pilot’s day.

 

[ucfengr]

Do drones have a unique serial number that could be registered? To me this seems a solution in search of a problem. I’m not sure how registration stops anything that’s been mentioned here.

 

[mikekle]

Ignorance of airspace still puts them in my flight path though! These drones, coupled with an influx of foreign flight students who haven’t mastered the English language have made the sky a somewhat scary place these days.

I agree, it is dangerous, eventually something bad will happen, thats a given, but registration is not going to work, how will that even work, lets say a drone comes too close to a plane, what can LE or even the FAA do about it…there is no way for them to tell who is flying it, where that person is, etc?

If they had enacted registration PRIOR to letting the first one be sold, then yes, maybe it would work, but far too many are already out there in private hands, Im sure all these drone owners are going to rush down and register too…yeah right!

 

[Monkey1976]

I agree, it is dangerous, eventually something bad will happen, thats a given, but registration is not going to work, how will that even work, lets say a drone comes too close to a plane, what can LE or even the FAA do about it…there is no way for them to tell who is flying it, where that person is, etc?

If they had enacted registration PRIOR to letting the first one be sold, then yes, maybe it would work, but far too many are already out there in private hands, Im sure all these drone owners are going to rush down and register too…yeah right!

With ex post facto laws blocked by the Constitution, there’s little the government can ethically do regarding existing drones.

 

[SeannyM]

I agree, it is dangerous, eventually something bad will happen, thats a given, but registration is not going to work, how will that even work, lets say a drone comes too close to a plane, what can LE or even the FAA do about it…there is no way for them to tell who is flying it, where that person is, etc?

If they had enacted registration PRIOR to letting the first one be sold, then yes, maybe it would work, but far too many are already out there in private hands, Im sure all these drone owners are going to rush down and register too…yeah right!

Perhaps they need to require transponders that identify the drone to ATC. This would help them see the drones that are otherwise too small to give a primary radar return, allowing them to vector aircraft around them, and allowing them to track any drones who violate airspace. This technology exists already, and would probably be pretty simple to interface into the current ATC system.

EDIT: Option 2 is to put super awesome drone lasers on my airplane! Lol

 

[Elizium23]

In the 19th century, locomotives were threatened by cows on the tracks, and the cow catcher was invented. Is there some reason a similar invention could not come about for aircraft?

 

[Joie_de_Vivre]

With ex post facto laws blocked by the Constitution, there’s little the government can ethically do regarding existing drones.

That isn’t how that clause works, there is nothing preventing the government from passing a law requiring registration of drones, there is something preventing the government retroactively criminalizing drone possession.

 

[Darryl1958]

Somehow, I don’t think that registering drones will make Americans any safer.
The technology is out there now.

 

[Elizium23]

Somehow, I don’t think that registering drones will make Americans any safer.
The technology is out there now.

It is pie in the sky (pun not intended) to believe that there will be any kind of effective enforcement or penalties for flying an unregistered drone. It will be right up there in priority with jaywalking or underage drinking. How can the Feds possibly even know who is controlling a given drone when it is detected? You would need sophisticated radio equipment to track them down, and by the time you come out with the big guns like that, the owner will have landed it and be long gone anyway. This is going to be a law most honored in the breach, especially considering the huge numbers of drones already out there that are not and can never be registered, because the law can’t be retroactive.

 

[OraLabora]

It is pie in the sky (pun not intended) to believe that there will be any kind of effective enforcement or penalties for flying an unregistered drone. It will be right up there in priority with jaywalking or underage drinking. How can the Feds possibly even know who is controlling a given drone when it is detected? You would need sophisticated radio equipment to track them down, and by the time you come out with the big guns like that, the owner will have landed it and be long gone anyway. This is going to be a law most honored in the breach, especially considering the huge numbers of drones already out there that are not and can never be registered, because the law can’t be retroactive.

Well they already hire people to shoot at birds at airports. Just give 'em a bit more leeway and let them shoot at drones too. Betcha dollars to donuts that some drone owners will be foolish enough to try to get their drone back. When they show up, arrest 'em.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

I…especially considering the huge numbers of drones already out there that are not and can never be registered, because the law can’t be retroactive.

There is no legal reason why registration cannot be made to apply to drones that have already been purchased, as Joie de Vivre pointed out two posts before yours.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

Well they already hire people to shoot at birds at airports. Just give 'em a bit more leeway and let them shoot at drones too. Betcha dollars to donuts that some drone owners will be foolish enough to try to get their drone back. When they show up, arrest 'em.

They mostly shoot at birds that are on the ground. Shooting at drones that are flying, especially in a highly-populated area, presents too much of a safety risk because of where the bullets go that miss their target.

 

[Joie_de_Vivre]

It is pie in the sky (pun not intended) to believe that there will be any kind of effective enforcement or penalties for flying an unregistered drone. It will be right up there in priority with jaywalking or underage drinking. How can the Feds possibly even know who is controlling a given drone when it is detected? You would need sophisticated radio equipment to track them down, and by the time you come out with the big guns like that, the owner will have landed it and be long gone anyway. This is going to be a law most honored in the breach, especially considering the huge numbers of drones already out there that are not and can never be registered, because the law can’t be retroactive.

1st. Every law that makes an action done before the passing of the law, and which was innocent when done, criminal; and punishes such action. 2d. Every law that aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when committed. 3d. Every law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed. 4th. Every law that alters the legal rules of evidence, and receives less, or different, testimony, than the law required at the time of the commission of the offense, in order to convict the offender.

That is the Supreme Court’s ruling of exactly what ex post facto in the US Constitution means. The government cannot enact a law that criminalizes the possession of drones before the law was passed, it can pass a law requiring the registration of drones owned before the act passed with a criminal charge for failing to register it after the law has passed (if there was not a reasonable time frame given or if it was very difficult for a person to register it that would also likely be found unconstitutional).

Well they already hire people to shoot at birds at airports. Just give 'em a bit more leeway and let them shoot at drones too. Betcha dollars to donuts that some drone owners will be foolish enough to try to get their drone back. When they show up, arrest 'em.

The word “donut” is an abomination that should be eradicated.