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FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

reuters.com

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Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#111

Post by scld »

lemonspat wrote: post #104
rkagerer wrote: post #78

Even though I don't fly over people, I retrofitted a parachute onto my DJI drone just in case. It automatically deploys if the drone loses power or control. It doesn't impact flight characteristics or battery life by much. I feel like a basic safety like this would be a prudent and more effective measure for overhead flights than self-transmitting "license plates" (which I agree are at least better than the silly int…

Do you have write up of this retrofit? How is it triggered?

Not OP but you could probably hook the parachute to constantly NOT be deployed, like a deadman's switch, so that if you lose power it just deploys automatically.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#112

Post by mike_d »

coder543 wrote: post #41
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #24

I was about to have a knee-jerk reaction to this, but I just realized I may misunderstand what the rules actually allow. My worst-case scenario, perhaps totally unrealistic, is that this allows a drone with a camera to hover over my property, peeping in through the windows. Are there any current / upcoming rules that prevent that?

Many states have laws that specifically prohibit the intentional use of a drone for surveillance of someone else on their personal property. This announcement isn’t at all related your concerns, and changes (essentially?) nothing there whatsoever.

Almost all state and local drone laws are invalid in the United States. Congress has provided the FAA with exclusive authority to regulate aviation and there is specific preemption in the federal code. The FAA's stance is that voyeurism is a crime, and the use of a drone is irrelevant.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#113

Post by lolc »

xnx wrote: post #12
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of doubts on the cost/efficiency of this. Keeping things airborne will always cost a lot more energy than rolling things around. Ground-based delivery robots make some sense, air-based ones likely don't.

I had the crazy thought that drones ladden with deliveries could dispatch from the top of a central tall structure (like a skyscraper or antenna), take advantage of the height differential to efficiently glide toward their delivery destination, and then make their return with less weight to carry. Probably very few locales where this could make sense compared to automated sidewalk deliveries like Starship. The speed…

So what if instead of being on a hill, we accelerate the drones on launch straight up? Make them bullet-shaped so they don't lose too much momentum. If we lose the requirement of them returning on their own we could also simplify the shell quite a bit. Small wings, guidance electronics and a parachute. Then do curbside collection of the shells once a week.

In summary: Rain the deliveries onto the neighborhood with a railgun.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#114

Post by C19is20 »

spydum wrote: post #94
taf2 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh if you can that would be really cool to see how you did that... I'd love to retrofit something like this to my drone... I did buy my kids a drone and the issue there was they flew it into a very tall tree... needless say it's still in the very tall tree

What you need is a second drone..

A saw?

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#115

Post by bluescrn »

snuxoll wrote: post #96
reaperducer wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve already had a drone hovering outside Daughters bedroom window. A couple of years ago, a guy up the street got a "drone" for Christmas, and spent the next couple of weeks flying into the backyards of everyone on the block, presumably to look in the windows or see what else he could get away with. I don't know why he thought that was a good idea, especially since the thing was noisy as hell. It stopped suddenly. I…

I’ll never understand people who use drones like this, even ignoring the obvious moral and ethical issues of voyeurism they’re loud and obnoxious at the altitudes you would need to go peeping through windows. Every time I try and assuage fears laypeople have about drones and privacy there’s a story or anecdote about some dumbass who does stuff like this anyway...

If you really want to spy on somebody, you don’t use a noisy buzzing drone right outside a window, or hovering in an otherwise empty sky. Even something as crude as a smartphone on a stick could be more covert.

Surprised that even tech enthusiasts are often so fearful of drones while not worried about the hundreds of cameras already filming their activities in most public places.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#116

Post by Pokepokalypse »

treeman79 wrote: post #92
chrisdalke wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's not why the FAA is regulating it, and these regulations won't stop that. They're regulating because people are flying recklessly above 400ft, above roadways, and in restricted airspace.

On an intellectual level not distracting and crashing a Boeing is more important. On a dad level, well. Protective emotions can be intense.

Or towing an ad-banner over the freeway.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#117

Post by TeMPOraL »

spydum wrote: post #94
taf2 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh if you can that would be really cool to see how you did that... I'd love to retrofit something like this to my drone... I did buy my kids a drone and the issue there was they flew it into a very tall tree... needless say it's still in the very tall tree

What you need is a second drone..

...with a claw on an extendable rope attached. Because a rescue operation is obviously more interesting than just giving the kids a second drone.

Re: FAA issuing new rules to allow drones to fly over people and at night

#119

Post by mike_d »

Scaevolus wrote: post #110
mike_d wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is extremely hypocritical in any form. At the same time that the FAA is asking hobbyists to broadcast identification, they are modifying the rules to allow the rich and famous to change their identifiers at will preventing any sort of public accountability. https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/equipadsb/privacy/

I bet that's to make it harder to track domestic surveillance planes more than anything to do with wealthy privacy concerns.

It is two fold: private plane owners associations are lobbying. The flight tracking industry (FlightRadar24, FlightAware, etc) are also pushing for it because without an expensive feed of data from the FAA hobbyist networks like ADSBExchange will be unable to compete with them.
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