LAPD advises California realtors that UAS operators may be violating federal guidelines, warns of possible enforcement action. Here is an example of UAS being used by California realtors. Read the full article in AV Web.
Continue readingMoney Matters Unresolved
Yesterday the House passed H.R. 3800 extending FAA’s funding until 2/17/2012. Lawmakers will now begin work on the broader issues of the Re-Authorization Bill, H.R. 658. The remaining issues included overall spending authority (House, $14.8 billion – Senate, $17.4 billion) and such things as how shipments of lithium batteries can […]
Continue readingDifference Engine: Unblinking Eye in The Sky
One of the better articles I’ve read regarding the technological and socialogical issues facing integration of unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace. The reader posts at the end of the article are especially interesting. Read more in The Economist.
Continue readingLawmakers Settle FAA Dispute
Congressional leaders on Friday resolved a bitter labor dispute that has held up long-term funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, leading to almost 4,000 federal workers being furloughed last summer and jeopardizing the timeline for a $40 billion overhaul of the nation’s aviation system. Read the full article in the Washington […]
Continue readingWait and See Mode
We now know that the release of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the small Unmanned Aircraft Systems rule has officially slipped to ‘Spring 2012’. However, there’s still a chance we may see the NPRM sooner rather than later and it wouldn’t be too surprising to see the proposed rule […]
Continue readingsUAS NPRM Slips to ‘Spring 2012’
In a recent meeting with representatives of the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Program Office, it was learned that publication of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) rule has again been delayed by several months. Going into the 2011/2012 holiday season we believed that the […]
Continue readingFAA Administrator Resigns after DUI
Deputy administrator Michael Huerta is now at the helm of the FAA following Randy Babbitt’s resignation. It’s likely a new administrator will not be appointed until after the 2012 election which means Mr. Huerta will be in charge throughout the sUAS NPRM review and Final Rule process.
Read more at the Washington Post
Continue readingWe Are Weeks Away from the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
Most everyone should be aware by now that the FAA is working on developing new regulation aimed at enabling the operation of commercial and public use unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the national airspace system (NAS). FAA intends to include criteria for recreational UAS (model aircraft) in the new regulation and indications are that this criteria will be significantly more restrictive than the guidelines established in the current advisory circular, AC 91-57. However, the regulation is also expected to include a provision that will allow community based organizations such as the AMA to submit their own set of standards for model aircraft (MA) operations, and if accepted and adopted by the FAA can be used as an alternative means of complying with the UAS regulation. AMA has a workgroup in place that has been developing just such a set of standards, and we are optimistic that these standards will allow aeromodeling operations to continue in the future in much the same way as they have in the past.
Continue readingLawmaker Predicts Congress Will Reach Accord on Aviation Funding
Breathing life into the stalled FAA Reauthorization Bill… After meeting with his counterpart in the Senate on Tuesday, House Transportation Committee Chairman John L. Mica remains optimistic that Congress will break a stalemate over critical aviation funding before the current spending plan expires at year’s end.
Continue readingIt Depends Upon Who You Talk To
It appears political posturing is ramping up as the stalled FAA Reauthorization Bill is once again headed toward a shutdown of the FAA. In a recent meeting of the Aero Club of Washington, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate’s transportation committee, accused the GOP of stubbornly holding up the bill in favor of one airline’s fight to stave off the unionization of its work force, and deemed it unlikely that Congress would resolve the bitter deadlock over long-term federal funding for aviation this year.
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