Late Wednesday night, Plane-ly Spoken broke the news that the OIRA/OMB website was changed and now indicates that the Small UAS NPRM would include the imposition of additional rules on model aircraft and low performance, i.e. “toy” operations. That blog post was quickly picked up by main stream publications, such as Forbes. These reports created … Continue Reading
The FAA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Small UAS has been under review before the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (“OIRA”) since October 25. This review is the last step before the NPRM is released to the public for notice and comment. Late this afternoon, the brief summary of the proposed rule … Continue Reading
By now everyone has seen the pictures of the DJI Phantom that crashed on the lawn of the White House. Even the most ignorant hobbyist should know that you can’t fly a UAS there without potentially getting into some serious trouble. But what about across the street at Lafayette Park? What about flying it on … Continue Reading
On January 5, 2015, Plane-ly Spoken announced it was accepting nominations for the winner of The 2014 Plane-ly Spoken Award. [Link] We have received several nominations from our readers. While all were worthy of consideration, none matched the statements made, on the record, by a federal judge in New York. Plane-ly Spoken was tempted to … Continue Reading
The four year fight between Raphael Pirker and the FAA has finally come to a close. On January 22, 2015, the FAA issued an amended order of assessment indicating that the civil penalty matter had been settled and Mr. Pirker had agreed to pay a fine of $1,100. Needless to say, this is probably the … Continue Reading
On December 3rd, we reported on a major change affecting UAS operators in Canada. Transport Canada granted two blanket exemptions to all Canadian citizens authorizing commercial UAS operation without requiring a Special Flight Operations Certificate. The first exemption was for UAS weighing under 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds), and contained 37 conditions that had to be … Continue Reading
The most recent update regarding the investigation of the crash of Air Asia 8501 focuses on the reported recovery of the CVR and FDR. Clearly a welcome development as the search continues for the remainder of the fuselage and the victims. Meanwhile, the failure to locate the rest of the wreckage is not the only … Continue Reading
The FAA recently granted two new Section 333 Petitions for Exemption. The first permits the use of a UAS in precision agriculture, and the second is for real estate photography. This brings the total number of exemptions granted to 14. Recent reports indicate that approximately 220 petition for exemptions have been filed to date. This … Continue Reading
In our continuing series on UAS developments overseas, we look at yet another example that demonstrates that all countries, no matter how low their GDP might be, are being impacted by the proliferation of low-cost UAS technology. Last week, the Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority issued the following Order: This is hereby informed (sic.) that recently … Continue Reading
Plane-ly Spoken could not permit a new year to come without wishing you the very best for the coming year, as well as giving you our resolutions for 2015. In doing so, we note that these are, for the most part, directed at others, both in and out of the aviation industry. As a result, … Continue Reading
Plane-ly Spoken, in honor of its guiding principle of being plainly spoken, invites you to nominate individuals or organizations within the worldwide aviation community for the prestigious Plane-ly Spoken Award of 2014. Nominees can be individuals, companies, government agencies, or any other source of plain speaking about anything aviation related. Plane-ly Spoken will select the … Continue Reading
The Associated Press recently ran a story, based on a poll it conducted, that Americans were “skeptical of commercial drones.” Apart from some random comments from those interviewed who either thought UAS were “great,” or they were going to “go amok,” the most interesting part of the poll is that only one in four people … Continue Reading
