http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/7/coming-to-a-sky-near-you/

 

"The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.

 

"Privacy advocates say the measure will lead to widespread use of drones for electronic surveillance by police agencies across the country and eventually by private companies as well."

JFC will the stupidity out of DC ever end. This irks me on 2 levels. First as a citizen I find the idea of further surveillance with little or no oversight extremely troubling, especially by local LEO agencies that seem to have trouble even following state laws.

 

And second, as a private pilot it scares me that soon there may be UAVs sharing the save airspace with me with idiots behind the controls that are paying more attention to the ground than the airspace around them. And if there is ever an accident they are probably just going to blame the private pilots and further limit general aviation.

I wonder what the founding fathers would think of this country of they saw what it became...

http://www.washingto...a-sky-near-you/

 

"The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.

 

"Privacy advocates say the measure will lead to widespread use of drones for electronic surveillance by police agencies across the country and eventually by private companies as well."

 

Then, when by 2020 the government suspends the constitution and the new fuhrer declares America's "democratic experiment" a failure, all of the USA will throw it's hands up to the sky and shout, "WHY? WHY DIDN'T I JUST VOTE FOR RON PAUL?!"

Phew! I was getting concerned for a second that we weren't turning into a police state fast enough. I'm glad congress relieved my concern. I was really hoping that they could monitor my activity even more. No worry about actual air traffic where planes with people in them fly. No biggie. If only a few planes crash, and a handful of people die from accidents caused by these unmanned vehicles, that is just the price to pay for the added safety of those on the ground!

 

I know to look out for UAV's when flying in Afghanistan, I didn't expect to have to worry about them when flying local missions in the states. Thank you congress, you oath breaking, constitution violating, citizen oppressing, self pay raising assholes.

And second, as a private pilot it scares me that soon there may be UAVs sharing the save airspace with me with idiots behind the controls that are paying more attention to the ground than the airspace around them. And if there is ever an accident they are probably just going to blame the private pilots and further limit general aviation.

 

Not sure what you fly but I doubt your service ceiling is anywhere close to what they will be at, I figure FL600-FL650, just above Class A airspace for in flight, well not including take-off and landing.

Some of the ones I have worked with go way higher than that. Several non DoD/CIA agencies already have them. I predict a run on used camo nets

hello Skynet

big brother is watching

Some of the ones I have worked with go way higher than that. Several non DoD/CIA agencies already have them. I predict a run on used camo nets

 

Very true, I should have listed FL600 as the bottom FL just to show it's out of Class A Airspace, and well above where he may be flying.

Not sure what you fly but I doubt your service ceiling is anywhere close to what they will be at, I figure FL600-FL650, just above Class A airspace for in flight, well not including take-off and landing.

 

While I'm sure there are these high flying UAV's/drones, these aren't the majority type they are talking about.

 

hello Skynet

Yep!

While I'm sure there are these high flying UAV's/drones, these aren't the majority type they are talking about.

 

Really, so my day going to suck more besides the normal GS's, GDP's, AFP's, FEA's and FCA's that I deal with on a daily basis in the NAS?? Whew, glad I'll be able to retire in another 5 years and be done with this fun stuff..

I hope one crashes and it's all over the news.

Really, so my day going to suck more besides the normal GS's, GDP's, AFP's, FEA's and FCA's that I deal with on a daily basis in the NAS?? Whew, glad I'll be able to retire in another 5 years and be done with this fun stuff..

 

You are in luck! These drones are likely not going to be under ATC radar control!

This was when the NAS was slow, between 2500-3000 less flight in the air than peak periods, just a little busy up there huh?? lol

 

harry, how come some of the planes are shaped differently?

harry, how come some of the planes are shaped differently?

 

Aircraft are Light (the other style you see), (Large and Heavy, majority of the A/C in the close view) are sometime are depicted like that on that application but not always..

Not sure what you fly but I doubt your service ceiling is anywhere close to what they will be at, I figure FL600-FL650, just above Class A airspace for in flight, well not including take-off and landing.

 

Absolutely not. None of the current UAV have that high of a ceiling. It's not like it's classified, you can look up the specs for most of them. Mostly this is because all the UAVs are prop based for longevity so that limits their altititude right there but also the higher they go the more atmospherics they have to deal with for the optics. Even the high end UAVs don't usually fly above 15000' AGL and generally they hang around 10000 AGL.

 

Of course there's a whole slew of smaller UAVs that have much lower ceiling and range, and worse of all they are usually far too small to be picked up by a tower. Right now since none of the UAVs have any on board air-to-air radar or collision avoidance or heck even cameras to watch for other planes (other than the camera on the gimbal that is usually used to watch the ground) the only way to ensure they don't crash into anybody or anything is to have them under ATC so the ATC watches over the traffic or to simply assume there is no local traffic below a certain ceiling as is generally the case in places like Afghanistan.

 

Nothing good can come of this bill....

I can tell you one thing If one lands in my backyard, like in Iran my daughter said she's not giving it back. She's keeping it.

the only way to ensure they don't crash into anybody or anything is to have them under ATC so the ATC watches over the traffic or to simply assume there is no local traffic below a certain ceiling.

 

 

Care to elaborate???

I always thought the greatest threat to the USA was from outside it's borders. Now with the Patriot Act (great title, not patriotic at all), NDAA, and now this I am sure that this country will fall into the great abyss all on it's own. What happen to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic? Seems to me the domestic (politicians) are our greatest enemy. Guess they didn't read the oath they swore to uphold. Scary times.

Care to elaborate???

 

Think of flying UAVs are flying under IFR and without any onboard air to air radar or any other sensor to tell you what's in the air. Though I guess that's not entirely true because you do have the sensor pod that can slew around to look at your airspace, however, 99.9999% of the time the cameras are trained on the ground. So, most of the time the big UAVs fly under ATC. The small UAVs they don't even bother because they assume nothing is under the 1000-3000' ceiling those things have (in Afghanistan etc it's a good assumption). If you want more details than this PM me.

Think of flying UAVs are flying under IFR and without any onboard air to air radar or any other sensor to tell you what's in the air. Though I guess that's not entirely true because you do have the sensor pod that can slew around to look at your airspace, however, 99.9999% of the time the cameras are trained on the ground. So, most of the time the big UAVs fly under ATC. The small UAVs they don't even bother because they assume nothing is under the 1000-3000' ceiling those things have (in Afghanistan etc it's a good assumption). If you want more details than this PM me.

 

Again, I ask, where do you propose they fly over the NAS, care to let me know what airspace that would be???

I think a better comparison would be to them flying VFR when they can't see anything that isn't below them. I bet lots of pilots are going to be filing lots of HATR's...

 

 

 

I always thought the greatest threat to the USA was from outside it's borders. Now with the Patriot Act (great title, not patriotic at all), NDAA, and now this I am sure that this country will fall into the great abyss all on it's own. What happen to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic? Seems to me the domestic (politicians) are our greatest enemy. Guess they didn't read the oath they swore to uphold. Scary times.

 

 

+1000

Another article on this,http://www.flyingmag.com/news/congress-open-us-skies-drones-three-years?cmpid=020712&spPodID=030

Maybe there will be new addition to the 50113 course the next time at ATCSCC, how to fill out 8020 forms..

Phew! I was getting concerned for a second that we weren't turning into a police state fast enough. I'm glad congress relieved my concern. I was really hoping that they could monitor my activity even more. No worry about actual air traffic where planes with people in them fly. No biggie. If only a few planes crash, and a handful of people die from accidents caused by these unmanned vehicles, that is just the price to pay for the added safety of those on the ground!

 

I know to look out for UAV's when flying in Afghanistan, I didn't expect to have to worry about them when flying local missions in the states. Thank you congress, you oath breaking, constitution violating, citizen oppressing, self pay raising assholes.

 

C'mon, why don't ya tell us whatcha really think??

 

Kudos!

Again, I ask, where do you propose they fly over the NAS, care to let me know what airspace that would be???

 

I'm confused as to what you're trying to ask. I'm not sure what NAS means (I'm just a lowly private pilot) but I'm gonna assume it means national airspace. Are you trying to say that they will always fly in controlled airspace? What exactly is your question/comment/etc?

Now that our nanny-state government has declared war on: foods that contribute to weight gain and obesity; incandescent light bulbs; gas-guzzling automobiles; people who don’t recycle paper or plastic products; privately-owned guns; “hate speech” (and if they had their way, any type of conservative thought would be included in their definition of “hate”); people who have more than others and who “ought to give more of their things to those who don’t have;” etc.; etc., I guess everyone has been put on notice. Have we become the enemy of our own government?

I'm confused as to what you're trying to ask. I'm not sure what NAS means (I'm just a lowly private pilot) but I'm gonna assume it means national airspace. Are you trying to say that they will always fly in controlled airspace? What exactly is your question/comment/etc?

 

No it sounded like you knew what section of airspace they would be flying in, I was just wondering what and where you got this information from.

 

As far as Class G, not going to happen as I see it, Class A-E, too many logistical issues. Now FL600 and higher would be uncontrolled by ATC being thats just above class A but the upper tier of Class A between FL550 and FL600 could be workable, but under Class A isn't an option as I see it. As far as NAS you got it, National Airspace System.