FAA to UAS Violation Enforcement for December 2021 (hopefully one of many)

BigAl07

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As you'll soon be hearing from @Vic Moss and Greg @pilotinstitute have been working to get more "information" released to the public about enforcement actions/fines/sanctions that have been taken against UAS operations. In our FAA Safty Team report we finally had a tid bit we can share.

This is taken directly from the EMAIL but expect more from those I mentioned at the start of this:

"Recent Drone Enforcement Case
In December 2021, the FAA issued a fine to a drone operator for flying a drone over protest events in upstate New York. The regulations violated by the recreational flyer that happened during a series of three separate flights in October and November 2020. The self-proclaimed recreational flyer did not comply with all of the eight requirements listed in section (a) of 49 USC § 44809 — the exception for limited recreational operations of unmanned aircraft. Section (b) of the statute states when recreational flyers fail to comply with any of the eight limitations contained in section (a), they must comply with the applicable regulations governing the operation of drones. In this case, since the drone was a small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS), 14 CFR part 107 was the applicable regulatory part.
The FAA investigation revealed the flights were over people, at night, in controlled airspace without an authorization, and posed a hazard to people and property below. As a result, the FAA determined the operator of the drone was in noncompliance with section 44809 and therefore subject to 14 CFR part 107. The following list of regulations were cited in the enforcement case:

  1. 107.12(b): no remote pilot certificate.
  2. 107.13: drone not registered.
  3. 107.19(c): posing a hazard to people, aircraft, or property.
  4. 107.23(a): careless or reckless flying.
  5. 107.29(a): flying at night without a waiver (prior to the new operations over people or at night rule).
  6. 107.39: flying over people without a waiver (prior to the new operations over people or at night rule).
  7. 107.41: flying in controlled airspace without authorization.
  8. 107.65: no 24 month recency of knowledge.
The drone operator was assessed a civil penalty for $15,205 which had to be paid immediately.

Hopefully this is the first of many publications so we can actually let you know what CAN happen if you insist on being "That guy/girl".
 
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Comply with all 8 and they will create 9 more hoops for you to jump through.
 
Comply with all 8 and they will create 9 more hoops for you to jump through.


Please show ANYTHING to support such an outlandish and ridiculous statement. An official website not some obscure hack on a random website. Go ahead, I'll be here waiting . . .
 
Not walking it back. They'll probably create 11 more, not stopping at 9.
 
Not walking it back. They'll probably create 11 more, not stopping at 9.
No worry... people like to make that crap up on the internet all the time. It's 100% bogus and unsubstantiated comments like those that bring down the credibility of our industry to where it is now.

You do realize just how absurd your comments are yes?
 
I've made one comment and augmented it, not multiple comments.
It's people who fly drones like idiots over people at night, etc, yada , as reported who bring down the hobby.
It isn't people who question 'authority'.
You need to calm down, just calm down, calm yourself.
 
That would apear to be tyranny by misapplication of law..
15K Fine for flying a drone over a protest?
Where's the damage to property or person required for an actual CRIME to have been committed??
An average persons annual disposable income is much, much less than 15K so how is an average person supposed to pay that level of fine?
I appreciate the old motto of; "If you can't face the time, don't do the crime" would appear to apply here, but it's a fabricated crime! No one was hurt (according to the information provided)
I appreciate there needs to be regulation and miscreants need to be dealt with, but here we have someone being fined a life changing sum, for what exactly?
How is that fair, or can even be called Justice?
 
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I've made one comment and augmented it, not multiple comments.
It's people who fly drones like idiots over people at night, etc, yada , as reported who bring down the hobby.
It isn't people who question 'authority'.
You need to calm down, just calm down, calm yourself.


LOL! Most comical post I've seen on the web today!

I'm very calm. If I weren't you would have been able to notice it in my writing style. Good ploy to try and deflect away from your horribly flawed comments.
 
That would apear to be tyranny by misapplication of law..
15K Fine for flying a drone over a protest?
Where's the damage to property or person required for an actual CRIME to have been committed??
An average persons annual disposable income is much, much less than 15K so how is an average person supposed to pay that level of fine?
I appreciate the old motto of; "If you can't face the time, don't do the crime" would appear to apply here, but it's a fabricated crime! No one was hurt (according to the information provided)
I appreciate there needs to be regulation and miscreants need to be dealt with, but here we have someone being fined a life changing sum, for what exactly?
How is that fair, or can even be called Justice?


First off it was for MULTIPLE infractions.

What would you suggest the fines be? The framework of fines etc are codified and not just some arbitrary amount snatched out of the sky.

Fair would be following the rules or absorbing the associated fines. That's fair. I have zero sympathies for the operator who was fined. Hopefully after a few more of these public enforcements/fines (and they are in the works) we will see some of the rogue flying go away. Of course not all of it because some people are going to do whatever they wants regardless of the possible fines.
 
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That would apear to be tyranny by misapplication of law..
15K Fine for flying a drone over a protest?
Where's the damage to property or person required for an actual CRIME to have been committed??
An average persons annual disposable income is much, much less than 15K so how is an average person supposed to pay that level of fine?
I appreciate the old motto of; "If you can't face the time, don't do the crime" would appear to apply here, but it's a fabricated crime! No one was hurt (according to the information provided)
I appreciate there needs to be regulation and miscreants need to be dealt with, but here we have someone being fined a life changing sum, for what exactly?
How is that fair, or can even be called Justice?
What sort of BS is this? So you think no one should get fined for speeding unless someone gets hurt? You have odd logic and understanding of how laws work. If the pilot didn’t want to risk paying the fines then they shouldn’t have violated the law.

What do you think is fair? A slap on the wrist and for them to say they are sorry?

Mike
 
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I have a very clear understanding of how the laws work, or do not. Like everyone else who manages to stay outside of the "legal system" and retain some semblance of personal autonamy, my very survival depends upon understanding these things.

Your type of thinking however shows a complete lack of appreciation of what a 15,000$ fine will do to someone's life. Yes, draconian sentences might well reduce the frequency of a misdemeanor or felony being committed in society, but just as the "war on drugs" showed us, ruining someones prospects of a normal life over a relatively victimless crime, does not often turn a criminal straight.

I did not like the way a simple yet understandable offence (to those who can understand mindsets different to their own) was multiplied by the power of law into a page full of felonies. Those of you of an Authoritarian bent will completely miss the point of course, you always do, until oppression of some kind touches YOUR lives.

The simple truth here is that our glorious leaders know that if you make a public example out of a few poor saps, most of the rest of us will fall in line. They don't want joe public having the same power to look down as they have enjoyed, and are employing every means at their disposal to create a self regulating heirarchy, just as they did with amateur radio for forty years until the public wised up.

You can see why they see drones as such a threat too. In Ukraine right now, there is tons of footage coming out of soldiers of all stripes holding a clearly recogniseable DJI Mavic handset peering at a mobile phone screen.

It's a lot harder to charge a crowd of peaceful protesters, or incite a riot, when the citizens can excercise a bit of oversight with their mavic mini... "We'd better shut that down stat!!"

You want your 15K$ fines for flying a drone where you shouldn't? That's your business.

If you think that's an example of fair and equitable justice, then do remember to not complain when you get to the afterlife and find yourself explaining your sins, and begging for God's mercy.

Back in the material plane, the problem you have with all those new laws, is that the guy with the 15K$ fine would have had NO IDEA he was breaking so many laws. He will just have seen it as flying his drone where he shouldn't be. So how can so many separate charges being levied be anything but "overcomplication" for the sake of effect?

The general public have SO MANY laws and ever changing edicts to keep up with, that it's overly easy to criminalise what should be a simple slip of the mind into a life changing experience. Could YOU absorb an unexpected hit of 15k$?

I surely cannot be the only one who sees the flaw in this new legal arrangement between the subjects and the government?

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I just hold an unusual perspective. Personally, I conduct all of my flights safely and as responsibly as I can manage, and as privately as I can manage... The key to happiness with this hobby now, is "stealth".
 
I have a very clear understanding of how the laws work, or do not. Like everyone else who manages to stay outside of the "legal system" and retain some semblance of personal autonamy, my very survival depends upon understanding these things.

Your type of thinking however shows a complete lack of appreciation of what a 15,000$ fine will do to someone's life. Yes, draconian sentences might well reduce the frequency of a misdemeanor or felony being committed in society, but just as the "war on drugs" showed us, ruining someones prospects of a normal life over a relatively victimless crime, does not often turn a criminal straight.

I did not like the way a simple yet understandable offence (to those who can understand mindsets different to their own) was multiplied by the power of law into a page full of felonies. Those of you of an Authoritarian bent will completely miss the point of course, you always do, until oppression of some kind touches YOUR lives.

The simple truth here is that our glorious leaders know that if you make a public example out of a few poor saps, most of the rest of us will fall in line. They don't want joe public having the same power to look down as they have enjoyed, and are employing every means at their disposal to create a self regulating heirarchy, just as they did with amateur radio for forty years until the public wised up.

You can see why they see drones as such a threat too. In Ukraine right now, there is tons of footage coming out of soldiers of all stripes holding a clearly recogniseable DJI Mavic handset peering at a mobile phone screen.

It's a lot harder to charge a crowd of peaceful protesters, or incite a riot, when the citizens can excercise a bit of oversight with their mavic mini... "We'd better shut that down stat!!"

You want your 15K$ fines for flying a drone where you shouldn't? That's your business.

If you think that's an example of fair and equitable justice, then do remember to not complain when you get to the afterlife and find yourself explaining your sins, and begging for God's mercy.

Back in the material plane, the problem you have with all those new laws, is that the guy with the 15K$ fine would have had NO IDEA he was breaking so many laws. He will just have seen it as flying his drone where he shouldn't be. So how can so many separate charges being levied be anything but "overcomplication" for the sake of effect?

The general public have SO MANY laws and ever changing edicts to keep up with, that it's overly easy to criminalise what should be a simple slip of the mind into a life changing experience. Could YOU absorb an unexpected hit of 15k$?

I surely cannot be the only one who sees the flaw in this new legal arrangement between the subjects and the government?

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I just hold an unusual perspective. Personally, I conduct all of my flights safely and as responsibly as I can manage, and as privately as I can manage... The key to happiness with this hobby now, is "stealth".
I am a poor old country boy from NY. I would be destroyed by a $15,000 fine so I don’t violate the laws that will get me one. Pretty simple and hardly authoritarian.
I was all good with listening to your debate. Then you have to try to scare me into taking your side of the debate with what a mythical being in the sky might do to me after I die. I’m out.

Mike
 
I'm sure that like me you'd not be tempted to fly your drone over a crowd. Let's get hypothetical here though and suggest that it might be easy for one us law abiding types to accidentally overfly something secret and military, something posted on an aviation map that you didn't have with you on that walks when you got out your mavic for a birds eye view...

You could get that level of enforcement up your ass accidentally!!

Now here is where I shift my perspective to that of a "lesser mortal". Someone a bit thicker and more impulsive than me. It would be very easy to get caught up in the moment and go film those protests. You know your machine. It isn't going to crash unless yo0u are extremely unlucky.

In either case, the result is a life changing level of punishment.

Best avoided. And God is only a threat if you see him as such. My understanding is far more upbeat. But you missed the idea I was trying to convey of justice needing to be appropriate and measured, and that every judge ought to be able to see both sides in order to be able to make an impartial and fair decision.

IF (and I accept that for many it's a big IF) you found yourself being held to serious account by a strict God for sins that you never even considered to be wrong when you were doing them (or of minor consequence at the time) How fair would you feel that process to be? How involved?

For those Like BigAl who wears his accreditations publically, who have taken the time to make a contribution and immerse themselves in the field in that way, these are the minimum set of regulations that can possibly work, but for the guy with a Mavic, it gets awful complicated real quick. That's why the market is so full of bargains right now.

A new toy got turned into a priviledge...

At least the "people who run things" let us have this new technology in some form after jumping through a few hoops and paying a few fees. Sometimes they just don't...
 
I'm sure that like me you'd not be tempted to fly your drone over a crowd. Let's get hypothetical here though and suggest that it might be easy for one us law abiding types to accidentally overfly something secret and military, something posted on an aviation map that you didn't have with you on that walks when you got out your mavic for a birds eye view...

You could get that level of enforcement up your ass accidentally!!

Now here is where I shift my perspective to that of a "lesser mortal". Someone a bit thicker and more impulsive than me. It would be very easy to get caught up in the moment and go film those protests. You know your machine. It isn't going to crash unless yo0u are extremely unlucky.

In either case, the result is a life changing level of punishment.

Best avoided. And God is only a threat if you see him as such. My understanding is far more upbeat. But you missed the idea I was trying to convey of justice needing to be appropriate and measured, and that every judge ought to be able to see both sides in order to be able to make an impartial and fair decision.

IF (and I accept that for many it's a big IF) you found yourself being held to serious account by a strict God for sins that you never even considered to be wrong when you were doing them (or of minor consequence at the time) How fair would you feel that process to be? How involved?

For those Like BigAl who wears his accreditations publically, who have taken the time to make a contribution and immerse themselves in the field in that way, these are the minimum set of regulations that can possibly work, but for the guy with a Mavic, it gets awful complicated real quick. That's why the market is so full of bargains right now.

A new toy got turned into a priviledge...

At least the "people who run things" let us have this new technology in some form after jumping through a few hoops and paying a few fees. Sometimes they just don't...
I fail to see how it is so complicated to follow 7 or 8 simple rules that exempt you from the others. Don’t break those and the others are no worry. Take the TRUST like you are supposed to and you know these rules. Furthermore, before the FAA will prosecute they will warn you. How is all of that so hard or unfair?

Mike
 

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