Venting about idiots who don't follow the rules

[deathsandwich]

I just was reading about the new drone recommendations regarding flight over crowds. It got me thinking about the current FAA registration process for recreational users like most of us. I am fine flying within the restrictions set by the FAA. I have no desire to fly higher than 400 feet at this time. The FAA has 406,000 people registered at this time. Last year over 750,000 drones were sold in the US. Presuming that for every person registered there are two people either completely ignorant of the rules or knowingly ignoring them that puts the number of people flying at over 1.2 million. The FAA claims there were 583 drone sightings in regulated airspace (for the purpose of this post anything over 400 feet or within 5 mi from an airport) That is 0.048% of people with drones. There were are 24 ongoing FAA enforcement cases, which is 0.002% of people with drones. There were only 12 settled cases, which is 0.001%.
So basically for 2/1000ths of a percent of people flying we need to be overly regulated, we to get a 333 exception for commercial use, and it is taking 4 years to finalize any regulation over flying over crowds or coming up with an operators certificate. Just venting.

 

[Jubalr]

Point made and I wouldn't argue the end point. But the #s need better focus. The drone sales # includes the small indoor toys/models that fit in the palm of your hand, not just the larger quads, hexes, etc.. I would bet the majority of sales belong in the first category.

 

[deathsandwich]

I agree, sales numbers are not readily accessible and no one has done an analysis of the different sizes of drones or percentage of sales. I based my numbers off the presumption that there are two owners for every one registered owner, which is also tremendously arbitrary. We really only know how many FAA registrations there are.
While I agree, like most responsible recreational users, there must be some type of control; we need to be reasonable in the application of that control by the FAA.

 

[PdxSteve]

We also can't assume that sales are 1/person. Many hobbyists own several. When registering, it doesn't ask you how many drones you have because you are registering yourself as a drone owner - not your individual drones. Those are people registrants - not registered drones. If you register, it covers all of your drones. So 1 person could have been registering 10 drones and it counts as 1 person. We're talking normal registration here - not 333/etc.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

I agree. The numbers aren't quite that simple. However, the point remains. The regulation and rules are vastly disproportionate to the actual documented problems.

 

[Adimuzio513]

To be honest I agree with many being ignorant, but they also haven't done a great job of getting the word out that it's now mandatory or even possible to register them. I'm very active here normally, but over the winter was much less active than usual and I honestly only heard of the need to register a few days before the existing owner deadline in February. I registered right away at that point, but if it took someone like myself that long to find out than those just flying and not on these groups have no chance at all. I'll admit with Hulu and now vue I don't watch the news or broadcast tv all that much so it could have come up briefly, but they really need to make a point to let everyone know before a police officers the ones having to waste their time teaching them it's needed, they have way more important things to do now days.

The Faa and others really need to get some kind of rules and regs setup before idiots and unknowing folks alike mess things up more while they drag their feet on these issues. It's not that difficult an issue that it should be 4 years in the making to put out some simple guidelines to be followed and advertise them a bit. The industry itself is making plenty of money to do a good bit of it theirself.

Then theirs the p4 solution which in my mind sounds even more dangerous than the thing flying in the restricted airspace in the first place. A lot about p4 sounds great I'm not bashing it, but this seems like a horrible idea to me or am I missing something? Will obstacle avoidance keep this from happening if it's downed for airspace issues? If not how long before one lands on a car causing a crash or on a kid causing injury and you know dji won't be coming to the rescue? Their definitley needs to be an across the board solution of some kind so the folks buying that don't bother to research much can be idiot proofed at least a little to benefit us all in the long run. I'm not saying it's right, but we all know idiots are and will be getting these multis no matter what's done, so if we want to fly somethings got to be done and easy enough for Joe Sheeple to understand and use.

Ok rant here over too fly safe guys.

 

[jibcamera]

apparently the TechFreedom /John Taylor registration lawsuit was dismissed a few days ago....can only find 1 article on entire internet
Federal Court Dismisses Lawsuit Against Drone Regulations | Heartlander Magazine

 

[Rusty Jones]

apparently the TechFreedom /John Taylor registration lawsuit was dismissed a few days ago....can only find 1 article on entire internet
Federal Court Dismisses Lawsuit Against Drone Regulations | Heartlander Magazine

John posted over on RCG that only the TechFreedom case was dismissed. His is still active, but appears to be waiting for something?? My guess the courts are stalling