AMA IN ACTION Advocating for Members

At a recent Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Air Safety Forum in Washington, D.C., Richard Prosek, manager of flight technologies and procedures in FAA’s UAS Integration Office, offered airline pilots assurances that air vehicles piloted from the ground will be introduced safely and incrementally to the U.S. national airspace system […]

Las Vegas… On August 7th, FAA Acting Administrator Michael Huerta was the keynote speaker at the opening session of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) 2012 North America Conference. During his remarks Mr. Huerta assured the AUVSI membership that the FAA will meet its goal to “safely and […]

With the exception of a bit of dramatic license, National Public Radio’s recent report on the emergence of domestic “drones” (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) does a good job of putting this issue in perspective. The report describes some of the benefits of this new technology as well as the public perception […]

As the FAA struggles in its efforts to enable the operation of commercial and public use unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), anxiety over privacy and national security issues continues to escalate. Over the past several months more than a dozen congressional initiatives have been enacted to address these issues and further […]

I suppose it was only a matter of time… In the wake of growing public concern over privacy issues, state lawmakers are now considering new laws to regulate the use of unmanned aircraft systems (Drones) within their state. Republican Del. Todd Gilbert, one of Virginia’s most conservative lawmakers, is working with […]

Central Maine’s Morning Sentinel reports that Rezwan Ferdaus has struck a plea agreement with prosecutors. According to court documents filed by prosecutors and attorneys for Ferdaus, the Massachusetts man charged with plotting to fly remote-controlled model planes packed with explosives into the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol plans to plead guilty […]

A recent poll reported by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) regarding the government use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, i.e. Drones, shows significant public concern over privacy issues and potential misuse by law enforcement. However, the poll also shows strong support for what is viewed as legitimate uses […]

Researchers from the University of Texas recently demonstrated how a civiliam UAS can be easily “spoofed” by jamming it with a fake GPS signal. Professor Todd Humphreys from Austin’s Radionavigation Laboratory concludes that, “Spoofing a GPS receiver on a UAV is just another way of hijacking a plane,” Click the link below to […]

Federal authorities from the National Park Service recently cited two individuals for operating a UAS near and around Alcatraz Island. On June 26th the UAS operators were working on a pictorial project involving images of Alcatraz. In doing so, they were taking aerial photographs of the historic location using an […]

In a recent advocacy update the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) reported that, “Congressional action regarding unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) has reached an all-time high… policymakers have expressed concerns surrounding privacy issues related to how this technology will be used… five bills (have been) brought on the Hill, […]