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.
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.