Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry-xlovecam
What a crock of shit from guess who? the US Congress and parroted by the FAA.
These drones are self piloted skeet targets.
Regardless of what you may think, this is heading to the courts. Overflight may not be a tort but a drone with a camera is no different than a peeping tom trespasser. Last time I checked that was criminal trespass of privacy and that is a high level misdemeanor crime in every state.
This Lawyer seems to agree with my citation ...
He's just a licensed attorney so he's probably full of shit, he didn't go to to continuing ed courses ... The fact is: I find that same 1942 SCOTUS ruling repeatedly cited in connection with drone and airspace regulations. So, everybody is full of shit I guess.
Well, what the FAA has done is said UAS that are operated as 'private hobbyist model aircraft' can be exempted from safety regulation. Really, the FAA is washing their hands (or trying to) of regulating private hobbyist model aircraft, then differing the commercial UAS regulatory schema to a case by case basis limiting the regulation to the FAA's aircraft safety mandate.
So, stay lower than 400 feet and out of the way of the private and commercial licensed aircraft that the FAA regulates. The FAA doesn't want to have jack-shit to do with private hobbyist model aircraft -- keep the fuck out of our airspace is what the FAA is saying here.
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Yes the 400ft rule for model aircraft is there for safety reasons. It provides a 100ft safety barrier between the models and the lowest legal operating altitude for full scale aircraft operating in rural areas.
It's the same reason that airplanes have assigned altitudes even when not talking to air traffic control, based on their heading when flying at 3000ft or above. They must maintain 1000ft of vertical seperation. And above FL180 (18,000 feet) it increases to 2000 feet of vertical seperation. Above FL290, it increases again to 3000 feet of vertical seperation, plus 5 nautical miles horizontal seperation.
Aircraft flying between 500ft - 3000ft have the responsibily to "see and be seen" in order to avoid problems.
Keeping the model aircraft 100ft below the legal operating altitude of airplanes, keeps them out of the mess above them. And now you know exactly why the 400ft rule exists.
The FAA does not want to regulate model aircraft, because up until recently, RC pilots have had a stellar safety record by simply policing themselves. And they have a large, well financed organization called the Academy of Model Aeronautics that acts as a liason between the model pilots and the FAA, and also lobbies congress when needed on model pilot's behalf. Kind of like the NRA but not so crazy. The FAA knows that it cant just step in and start wildy throwing a bunch of new rules around without a lot of serious opposition. Many real pilots started off as model pilots and are still AMA members as well, as are many employees of the FAA.