AMA Member Terry Dunn’s wrote an article for tested.com titled “What You Should Know about FAA’s Plans for Drone Registration.” Terry spent 15 years as an engineer at the Johnson Space Center. He is now a freelance writer living in Lubbock, Texas. While Terry is an AMA member and active […]
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AMA Reacts to DOT Task Force Recommendations on UAS Registration
As a member of the task force, AMA agrees that registration of UAS makes sense at some level and for flyers operating outside the guidance of a community-based organization or flying for commercial purposes. Unfortunately, as written, these recommendations would make the registration process an unnecessary and unjustified burden to […]
Continue readingWiley Rein: FAA Grounding Commercial UAS on Websites, YouTube
R. Michael Senkowski, Anna M. Gomez, Kathleen A. Kirby, Katy M. Ross and Sara Luxenberg* March 27, 2015 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recently stepped up enforcement efforts against Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operators engaged in unauthorized “commercial” operations. The FAA’s current regulatory scheme permits hobby and recreational use of UAS but requires commercial […]
Continue readingFAA Streamlines UAS COAs for Section 333
The Federal Aviation Administration has established an interim policy to speed up airspace authorizations for certain commercial unmanned aircraft (UAS) operators who obtain Section 333 exemptions. The new policy helps bridge the gap between the past process, which evaluated every UAS operation individually, and future operations after we publish a […]
Continue readingSpecial message from Academy of Model Aeronautics President Bob Brown: We stand for education, not regulation
By now nearly everyone is aware of the incident that occurred on Monday, January 26, 2015, involving a multirotor landing on the White House lawn. The incident occurred at 3 a.m. and involved a government employee who had been drinking. The incident resulted in reaction from many, including President Obama, […]
Continue readingAlaska Governor Sean Parnell signs HB-255 and HCR-15 into law
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell signed into law HB-255 and HCR-15 further defining public use of Unmanned Aerial Systems and the continuation of the Legislative Task Force on Unmanned Aircraft Systems. HB-255 “An Act relating to unmanned aircraft systems; and relating to images captured by an unmanned aircraft system.” Further defines […]
Continue readingTen New States Added to the List of States Taking UAS Legislative Action
The list of states pursuing restrictions on the use of unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS (‘drones’) continues to grow. The Academy’s Government Relations Team has been diligently working to continue to update members on the progression of legislation by posting information on an informational map posted on the AMA’s website: […]
Continue readingA New Challenge Faces Model Aviation
Anyone who has been following the FAA’s effort to regulate the operation of small unmanned systems (sUAS) will know that this effort has revolved around safety in the national airspace (NAS). AMA has worked with the FAA, and played a significant role in this effort since the creation of the […]
Continue readingAre Drones Valuable for Domestic Use?
Are Drones Valuable for Domestic Use? A Follow-Up Piece to “Domestic Use of Drones? Bad Idea” Michael Toscano, president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle; systems International recently submitted an platform opinion piece to USA Today, published June 5 to comment on an article submitted earlier in the week regarding […]
Continue readingModel Aircraft are not Drones
Recently, the AMA posted a blog post featuring comments from AMA President Bob Brown, in response to an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. The editorial proposed that drone proliferation by amateurs in the National Airspace System (NAS) raises an issue that has received too little attention: the threat […]
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