AMA IN ACTION Advocating for Members

John Villasenor has written several articles on the issues surrounding the introduction of unmanned aircraft into the national airspace and has espoused the distinction between recreational model aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles dubbed as “drones” by the national media. John is a professor at UCLA and a nonresident senior fellow at […]

On Sep 14th, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its report on the progress to integrate UAS into the national airspace. This report updates an earlier report published in 2008. In addition to evaluating FAA’s progress on UAS integration, the report also addresses several over unresolved issues including security and […]

The Miami-Dade Police Department has always been an early adopter when it comes to new technologies. It was one of the first police agencies in the country to receive a Certificate of Authorization (COA) to operate small unmanned aircraft in the national airspace. However, after a year and a half […]

Bob Grimes of Des Moines, IA writes… Dear AMA,   My granddaughters birthday was coming up. She has been wanting to learn to fly R/C’s, so I go to my local hobby store, or maybe order one off line. After spending a couple of hundred dollars on a trainer, the […]

As reported by AVweb… The pressure is on for the FAA to allow drone operations in the National Airspace, and this week a major unmanned systems advocate complained that the agency is already behind schedule. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International wrote to the FAA that legislation (PL 112-95) […]

Given today’s technology, what’s so amazing? This UAS navigates without the use of GPS! As reported in AVweb, by Mary Grady, Contributing editor… A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has designed an autonomous airplane that is able to follow an internal map through a parking garage and […]

Monday, August 13th… As reported on the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) webpage… “Over the past several years, the development of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) have been occurring at an extremely fast pace. Recently, this technology has been identified as a potentially important tool for public safety. […]

In a report written by Joe Wolverton, II the New American chronicles the approach of the day when squadrons of drones will fill the skies of the United States. Scores of these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV/UAS) will be deployed by state and local law enforcement, adding to the many already […]

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 […]