Posted March 20, 2015
The Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing to amend its regulations to allow
the operation of small-unmanned
aircraft systems in the National Airspace System, according to a Federal
Register available here.
These
changes would address the operation of unmanned aircraft systems, certification
of their operators, registration, and display of registration markings, and find
that airworthiness certification is not required for small unmanned aircraft
system operations that would be subject to this proposed rule.
The
proposed rule would also prohibit model aircraft from endangering the safety of
the National Airspace System.
Wayne
Woldt, a biological systems engineer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said
he would be very surprised if the FAA relaxes the 500 feet visual line-of-sight
requirement at this early stage, according to Brownfield
Ag News.
“I don’t
doubt that at some point in time in the future it will be relaxed as technology
evolves and proven capabilities are brought on-line that can help with what’s
called ‘de-conflicting the airspace’. In other words, avoiding collisions in
the airspace,” said Woldt. “But for now, I think we’re going to be stuck with
visual line-of-sight.”
To submit
a comment, please see the FAA regulations here
before April 24.
