This is the kind of thing you find on the bedroom floor of a 14 year-old boy. It’s a gift from last Christmas, still sitting in its box, not yet flown for a reason that often comes down to some variation of “but the batteries need to be charged.” I’d forgotten about it totally, which means the little drone missed the FAA’s January 20th registration deadline. Technically, I could be subject to a fine of up to $27,500. If the unregistered drone is used to commit a crime the fine could rise to $250,000 plus three years in prison.
Do you have an unregistered drone sitting in a closet somewhere?
Registration costs $5.00 and can be done online. One registration number will cover all your drones, just mark them with a Sharpie or other permanent marker. That’s all it takes. So why didn’t I do it? And what am I going to do now?
Well, for all of the teeth in this regulation it’s also pretty easy to dodge. The FAA only cares about drones that weigh 250 grams (0.55 lbs) or more, which this one does (damn!). They don’t demand to know exactly what drone you have, just that you have one. They don’t want to see a sales receipt, so I could plausibly register now saying I just bought it (or just opened it, if it was a gift). They don’t care about drones that are used solely indoors (yet another excuse for building that 12-car garage).
The rules are so benign, frankly, that I have to wonder why they even exist? It’s a toe in the water, an effort by the FAA to show it is on top of an emerging technology trend that definitely isn’t going away. Maybe it’s an effort to get Congress off the FAA’s back. Whatever the reason, I have now complied. It took seven minutes online here.
Now what to do about the airplane graveyard in my carport?
Bob, have you thought of having a garage sale?
Are you saying you’re going to convert the airplane into a drone? Let us know when the Kickstarter page is up.
I’m pro-airplane and drones are, well, meh. So all my planes (presently four at home and one at the airport) will eventually have pilots sitting inside them rather than standing on the ground below. Drones are cool in some ways but the advantage of an airplane is speed. Look at the drones being marketed to farmers for checking their crops at $10,000-$25,000 for a complete setup. That same sensor package on an airplane could cover half the county.
Looks like Bob already has his hands full with the current Kickstarter: https://www.cringely.com/2016/03/17/99-mineserver-the-devil-is-in-the-details/ .
It will take a major accident, with a drone bringing down a passenger jet with major loss of life, before the world finally wakes up and takes notice.
2 airliners fly within 100 feet of drone above New York
If you search Google News you’ll find dozens of similar stories:
* Near Miss Drone Accident at Manchester Airport
* Lufthansa flight has near-miss with drone on approach to LAX
* JFK airport drone collision scare: UAVs spotted in near miss with incoming passenger planes
* Drone collision scare at Heathrow: Airbus in near miss with craft that ghosted into Britain’s biggest airport undetected by air traffic control
* Pilot Has Close Call In Air After Dangerous Drone Sighting
It’s just a matter of time.
Is there any hard evidence that drones are significantly more hazardous than bird strike? It seems to me we’ve either been able to deal with that or accepted it as an unavoidable risk.
A drone can take out an engine or smash a cockpit window. The bigger the drone the more damage it can do, and there are some very large drones out there. Another danger is terrorism – it wouldn’t be difficult to strap some explosives to a drone.
Drones are a pain for air traffic control but they tend to fly low (the rules say under 400 feet — if they follow the rules) and they are incredibly slow. Their speed is important because it means drones don’t fly into airliners, airliners fly into drones. The El Cerrito crash in the 1970s that took down a Cessna and a Boeing 727 was initially blamed on the Cessna, but that’s almost impossible. The Cessna would have had to catch up to the Boeing, pass it, then hit it by BACKING UP. So too the airplane doing the hitting is generally the one in the best position for seeing and avoiding. Little planes and drones are hard to see. I built a wooden plane years ago that wouldn’t reliably even show up on radar. So yes, there will be accidents involving drones, but not FLOCKS OF DRONES, which in the case of birds is generally what it takes to bring down an airliner. I had an eight pound goose end its life in the windshield of my little plane that had a gross weight of around 1000 lbs. I flew home and landed. It wasn’t pleasant but I also wasn’t in any great danger. If it couldn’t bring me down, what effect is it likely to have on an airliner 100 times larger, especially since both airliner windshields and jet engines are tested for bird impacts as part of FAA certification?
I’m curious as to whether metal and hard plastic would do more damage to an engine than said goose. Does anyone know if these tests have been done?
I’d imagine so, and since there’s no dramatic footage of exploding engines on every screen and billboard in the country, it’s probably not a real danger.
Rude, scary and poor form though, and a spooked light aircraft pilot could certainly crash causing all sorts of damage.
Drones are built to be light. Which translates to flimsy. Most of them weigh less than the aforementioned bird. They aren’t going to do anything more that scratch the paint on an airliner unless they fly into an engine (where they will meet with the same fate as a bird).
Even assuming a magical material that was strong enough to not collapse like a crumple zone when hit with a plane, they weight so little the hit would just accelerate them up to the plane’s speed.
I can think of lots of ways to make drones nasty intentionally (which I won’t share here), but accidentally? I’m not that worried.
If i’m not mistaken, the bird strike tests are conducted with FROZEN fowl, it’s easier to launch them. So, I doubt any major components of a drone would be tougher than a frozen bird. You have to remember, any large parts of a drone are also designed to be as light as possible. The most solid bits are likely to be among the smaller parts.
That’s an urban legend, or a bad joke, they use thawed chickens.
https://www.snopes.com/science/cannon.asp
A 727 at Heathrow hit a drone this week. This will get worse
Correction. It was British Airways flight 727. The equipment was an Airbus A320.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a Boeing 727 in operation.
You know, I bet there’s scarier toys out there than drones. Was visiting a friend in the Detroit area last July 4th and people were going even more apeshit than I’d ever seen before. Must have been 10,000 ‘fire balloons’ flying through the skies, high-powered laser beams (obviously not laser ‘pointers’) piercing the air, and of course massive class-A fireworks going off from all directions. Not to mention, at one point, the belching gurgle of some idiot redneck accidentally detonating a can of gasoline. Definitely it was a night to hose down your roof. And all this action was taking place not even 2 miles from – Detroit Metro Airport. I felt sorry for anyone flying that night.
You could build a very cool carrousel from that airplane graveyard in your garage!
A drone in flight isn’t completely silent. It may be possible for the FAA to develop listening equipment tuned to drone sound signatures and set up positions around airports to detect drone movements. Maybe there’s an opportunity for a small company to develop a product like that.
I tried the FAA link but got this pleasant response:
ERROR
The request could not be satisfied.
The Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to block access from your country.
I guess I’ll just pay the fine…
Could drones be used the scare flock’s of birds away from airports?
This device does it with sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjnFq6fCXwk Based on Steve Gibson’s plans. He says this about it: “In my case, I am not being bothered by dogs, but the outside patio of my otherwise quiet local Starbucks coffeehouse is treated to a daily “social hour” of amazingly loud squawking crows… annoy many people in addition to me. The crows generally pass through around 6am and convene, en mass, like a black plague in several nearby trees. I have watched other Starbucks patrons yelling up at the trees full of birds, screaming at them to shut up. But, if anything, that only seems to encourage the birds’ obnoxious squawking. As with dogs, I absolutely wish these birds no ill at all, but there are a great many other trees in the area, so I would love to have the means to simply encourage them to choose a different location.” https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/portable-sound-blaster/VTNUYEPpy1U
They’ve tried various sound systems to scare flocks of birds away from airport for decades. It was just a few short years ago a flock of geese brought down US Airways Flight 1549. I wonder if the combination of an intimidating, obnoxious (to geese) flock of drones invaded their space — would it be a more effective way to get them to move on.
[…] Our $27,500 drone. Do you have one, too? – I, Cringely […]
A Quickee? I guess they didn’t have a fast build kit when that project was started.
I’ll just leave this here…
.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/plane-may-have-collided-with-drone-at-heathrow-lands-safely-bbc-20160417-go8k6k.html
.
although lots of conjecture and could be seen as fear mongering, who knows…
Drone hits jet (or jet hits drone) at Heathrow:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/17/drone-plane-heathrow-airport-british-airways
The purpose of these laws is it gives prosecutors a means to charge people. Say IBM used its influence to get a prosecutor to investigate Cringely for fraud and insider trading. They conduct a search of his house and then can charge him with unregistered drone.
Sounds like your son just gave it to you as a gift.
I see the Quickie on the floor and the Davis DA-2 behind, but what is the wooden frame hanging from the rafters?
I’m guessing Bob has: Davis DA-2A, Quickie Q1, Sorrell Guppy, and a Junster 1 in his garage. I think he also has a Thorp T-18-C somewhere else.
Whatever it is, it appears to be hauling a magnum of wine. 🙂
Bob, what is that sweet looking 90’s mountain bike in the foreground of the picture?
Hmmm, straight bars and canti brakes, I think we’re looking at 80’s vintage. Love the blue anodized stem! Do tell Bob!
There’s a minimum weight limit for mandatory registration. Most of the ones like that shown and the mico and mini (palm sized) aren’t heavy enough unless you add a gimble and GoPro to them.
The OEM weight with blade shields, battery, and crumby OEM camera don’t weight enough to count.
There’s no need to lie about when you bought the drone. The rules simply require that you register and mark it before flying it outdoors after January 20th. Not even technically could you be fined if you’ve never flown it outdoors.
Bob said “I’d forgotten about it totally, which means the little drone missed the FAA’s January 20th registration deadline. Technically, I could be subject to a fine of up to $27,500.” So this entire column was based on a misunderstanding of the registration rule?
So you think drones are a problem ……
Aircraft pilots in Brasil don’t have issues with drones; they have issues with balloons. For many decades, it’s been a Brasilian thing to launch hot air balloons carrying fireworks. Not a problem at low altitudes and well away from airports. However, once the fireworks have run out, the balloons keep going and some go along way. One was reported at FL370 and several have landed at airports, occasionally in flames.
The IFALPA (International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations) has made formal complaints to the Brasilian government. Since nothing has changed, a couple of days ago, the IFALPA designated Brasilian airspace as “Critically Deficient, Black Star”, defined as: “Indicating that due to the serious nature of the deficiency (ies), Special Operational Measures (SOMs) will have to be applied.”
This is not an “end of the world” designation. Over the years, some US major airports have been flagged this way and most of Africa has this designation as well.
Yet another headache for Brasil, leading up to the Olympics.
The Appendix – Excellent article on the history of these fireworks loaded balloons
http://theappendix.net/issues/2014/10/an-art-of-air-and-fire-brazils-renegade-balloonists
Youtube – Video of a fireworks balloon launch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7nbmHZWbFs
IFALPA letter to the Brasilian government.
https://www.aeronautas.org.br/images/_sna/_noticias/Carta_Ifalpa_Rebaixamento.pdf
Well, considering how on top of your kickstarter project you and your boys have been, It doesn’t surprise me in the least that you hadn’t gotten around to registering the drone.
Maybe when you have a break from building planes and playing with drones and so on, you could post an update over on kickstarter?
I think I saw you on a episode of Hoarding Carport…. not good Bob
It an interesting thing that it’s talked about that drones get registered. So, its thought of like registering a car. However, the truth is that you are really registering yourself as a drone owner or pilot. I have many RC aircraft including a helicopter which are all considered drones and covered under the single registration. The rules require that my planes have the registration id I was given somewhere inside them. My biggest complaint is that its an annual fee not a onetime fee. Because I have a young child I have been very busy and haven’t flown in a few years. Now I will have to pay $5.00 per year because I think I might fly? Ouch. It is good that new RC pilots have been given a set of flying rules. Average people don’t always realize the dangers of flying to close to other people or other things. At least some very basic ground rules are being given out. Bob, I think there is a business opportunity in Drone abatement. Recently the FAA ruled it’s illegal to shoot drones out of the sky. However, with all the media attention there is a growing fear of drones spying on us. It’s time for the anti-drone drone or some other device to legally inhibit drone flight over your property. Maybe something that fires a slim or goo at the drones to inhibit their flight but not destroy them.
Re: “FAA ruled it’s illegal to shoot drones”. Have you got a link to some article stating this? Upon googling that phrase, all I found were the usual anecdotal stories about people winning lawsuits over the invasion of their air space combined with the acknowledgement that the FAA controls the air space over 500 feet.
Yea, up to 20 years because the FAA considers drones civilian aircraft.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/faa-shoot-down-a-drone-go-to-jail-for-up-to-20-180713040.html
Not sure if my Anti-Drone drone idea would also be illegal.
I guess if you used the Anti-Drone on a civilian helicopter hovering over you house you would get in trouble.
So based on this its probably the same rules.
However, maybe the slime gun is better since it would never be able to take down a civilian aircraft?
I mean if two drones collide do we need an investigation like a civilian aircraft?
My friends and I fly RC combat all the time where the goal is mid air collisions.
How many rules of road can the FAA apply to RC planes?
That same article said “Merideth was charged with wanton endangerment and criminal mischief. A judge eventually dismissed the charges, saying Merideth had a right to protect his privacy by shooting down the drone.”
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/583591444/mineservertm-a-99-home-minecraft-server/comments
You have ignored the Kickstarter backers you made 30,000.00 off of…. please finish this project or prepare yourself for a class action from your backers. I am tired of asking, begging and hoping.