FAA launches drone registration website, gives owners February deadline

$5 fee will be waived for those who register by mid-January.

Read the whole story

 

[DarthSlack]

slogger[/url]":34nwi85g]Going to call my congresspeople. This is pretty outrageous. Especially since it doesn't actually do anything to prevent idiocy -- it's one more thing that destroys privacy and inconveniences regular people without actually doing a thing to solve the "problem."

When you do write your congresspeople, be sure to include a better idea for bringing some level of responsibility and accountability to this field. Yeah, this isn't a great solution, but the status quo isn't acceptable either.

 

[DarthSlack]

I'm seeing an awful lot of bitching and moaning about this, but zero alternatives.

This hobby has a substantial operator problem. It's been demonstrated. This isn't "Oooooh! Drones! Scary!" It is "Ooooh Operator! Moron!" and yeah, some way of bringing a little accountability and responsibility into this field is needed.

So if it ain't this, then what is it? Status quo isn't gonna fly.

 

[DarthSlack]

dermott[/url]":tbbgjdn9]

DarthSlack[/url]":tbbgjdn9]

slogger[/url]":tbbgjdn9]Going to call my congresspeople. This is pretty outrageous. Especially since it doesn't actually do anything to prevent idiocy -- it's one more thing that destroys privacy and inconveniences regular people without actually doing a thing to solve the "problem."

When you do write your congresspeople, be sure to include a better idea for bringing some level of responsibility and accountability to this field. Yeah, this isn't a great solution, but the status quo isn't acceptable either.

Politicians fallacy: "We must do something. THIS is something. We must do THIS."

It is *not* on us to provide a better solution. It is on the party suggesting regulation to get it right to begin with. This will be costly, dangerous to the average consumer (in the form of fines for currently-acceptable behavior) and accomplish... nothing.

I'm seeing zero net benefit.

This is a field that has a demonstrated need for better user training, awareness and responsibility. We already have a plethora of idiots flying these things where they have no business flying them. It is only going to get worse. So yeah, when a baby gets their eye sliced in half by one of these things, politicians are going to react. That is the way society works. Don't like it? Put forth a better idea or go move to a desert island.

Should we get rid of all our driving laws because they don't work 100% of the time? Eliminate speed limits because speeders gonna speed? Who the hell really needs stop signs anyways, right? And if a few people get bent, folded, spindled and mutilated, well that's just fine because clearly traffic laws have zero net benefit.

 

[DarthSlack]

rick*d[/url]":3tzpb49d]

DarthSlack[/url]":3tzpb49d]

dermott[/url]":3tzpb49d]

DarthSlack[/url]":3tzpb49d]

slogger[/url]":3tzpb49d]Going to call my congresspeople. This is pretty outrageous. Especially since it doesn't actually do anything to prevent idiocy -- it's one more thing that destroys privacy and inconveniences regular people without actually doing a thing to solve the "problem."

When you do write your congresspeople, be sure to include a better idea for bringing some level of responsibility and accountability to this field. Yeah, this isn't a great solution, but the status quo isn't acceptable either.

Politicians fallacy: "We must do something. THIS is something. We must do THIS."

It is *not* on us to provide a better solution. It is on the party suggesting regulation to get it right to begin with. This will be costly, dangerous to the average consumer (in the form of fines for currently-acceptable behavior) and accomplish... nothing.

I'm seeing zero net benefit.

This is a field that has a demonstrated need for better user training, awareness and responsibility. We already have a plethora of idiots flying these things where they have no business flying them. It is only going to get worse. So yeah, when a baby gets their eye sliced in half by one of these things, politicians are going to react. That is the way society works. Don't like it? Put forth a better idea or go move to a desert island.

Should we get rid of all our driving laws because they don't work 100% of the time? Eliminate speed limits because speeders gonna speed? Who the hell really needs stop signs anyways, right? And if a few people get bent, folded, spindled and mutilated, well that's just fine because clearly traffic laws have zero net benefit.

Except that this regulation does nothing to educate people on the safe use of their new toys, it just sends another $5 to D.C. To get a driver's license you have to demonstrate a fundamental understanding of the rules of the road; to get an "aviator's license" you just have to pay $5.

Requiring an actual aviators license is fine by me. Wouldn't want to have an inconsistency like that.

<edit>clarity</edit>

 

[DarthSlack]

JasePow[/url]":2kbm2iqw]

ChickenHawk[/url]":2kbm2iqw]

BajaPaul[/url]":2kbm2iqw]Politicians are afraid of drones. Mount a bomb on them and buzz n for the kill. Maybe a whole horde all at once!

But all this political posturing over registering drones is nonsense. If anybody is intent on using them for assassination, registration isn't going to stop it.

Besides, if people were going to go this route, they could have done so for the last thirty or so years with radio control planes or helicopters.

Yes, we shouldn't regulate obvious hazards until a requisite number of people have lost their lives.

Please tell us the magic number of lives required.

Well,... One would be a start (oh, and the helicopter kid from Central Park doesn't count,... that was a traditional RC Heli.)

You volunteering?

 

[DarthSlack]

dermott[/url]":36sr96cp]

DarthSlack[/url]":36sr96cp]

dermott[/url]":36sr96cp]

DarthSlack[/url]":36sr96cp]

slogger[/url]":36sr96cp]Going to call my congresspeople. This is pretty outrageous. Especially since it doesn't actually do anything to prevent idiocy -- it's one more thing that destroys privacy and inconveniences regular people without actually doing a thing to solve the "problem."

When you do write your congresspeople, be sure to include a better idea for bringing some level of responsibility and accountability to this field. Yeah, this isn't a great solution, but the status quo isn't acceptable either.

Politicians fallacy: "We must do something. THIS is something. We must do THIS."

It is *not* on us to provide a better solution. It is on the party suggesting regulation to get it right to begin with. This will be costly, dangerous to the average consumer (in the form of fines for currently-acceptable behavior) and accomplish... nothing.

I'm seeing zero net benefit.

This is a field that has a demonstrated need for better user training, awareness and responsibility. We already have a plethora of idiots flying these things where they have no business flying them. It is only going to get worse. So yeah, when a baby gets their eye sliced in half by one of these things, politicians are going to react. That is the way society works. Don't like it? Put forth a better idea or go move to a desert island.

Should we get rid of all our driving laws because they don't work 100% of the time? Eliminate speed limits because speeders gonna speed? Who the hell really needs stop signs anyways, right? And if a few people get bent, folded, spindled and mutilated, well that's just fine because clearly traffic laws have zero net benefit.

Keep in mind that the baby-eye incident was in a country that had, at least, well-defined limits on UAV flight.
We don't even have that here in the USA, but we're already implementing registration schemes.

I disagree that "we must do something immediately, without forethought" is "the way society works" by definition. It doesn't need to be.
There has, to date, been almost no attempt to actually educate UAV purchases, no ad blitz, no government published guidelines or best practices. We don't have any solid standard of behavior. A few private groups are just now starting to try to assemble them.

I'm not suggesting, on any level, that any of the above would be bad. They'd probably be more helpful than simply fining ignorant people. Reducing ignorance is a better short term goal than making a list of them.


I do agree that, in today's political climate, it was probably a given that regulation was coming.
That having been said, I still think it's silly. Kitchen knives are demonstrably more dangerous than UAVs of any flavor. So are swimming pools. And skateboards. There's no government push to register users of those devices, but we have got a good mix of institutional common sense and education around them.

The same mix would probably work for different flavors of UAVs.


We may just have a difference of opinion. Given the tone of these threads, it may be irreconcilable.
We should be able to agree that regulating amidst moral panic is rarely a good idea, and that taking the time to actually sort out a good solution is better than cramming something through to beat a holiday deadline. I hope.

To be honest, I would prefer something along the lines of the way ham radio is done. You need to prove you can master a set of knowledge in order to be licensed. And if you're caught operating without one, there are significant penalties.

But I suspect the libertarian crowd on this thread wouldn't even go for that.