This holiday season, a drone will be a fun, quirky gift to get for your loved ones. Just make sure it’s registered.

In an abrupt shift of policy, the FAA has announced they will soon start requiring hobbyist drone users to register themselves. The practice has long been the standard for commercial drones operators, but hobbyists had flown under the radar.

Photo Credit: Grille1991 cc
Photo Credit: Grille1991 cc

But this move isn’t a complete shock: It comes in the wake of a number of events where drones interfered, including sporting events, emergency wildlife responders, and more. Just this month the FAA announced the largest civil penalty against a UAS operator ($1.9 million against Sky Pan, Inc.) for illegal drone flights. Not to mention the steady increase in drones interfering with air traffic over the past year. Given that, it’s no surprise that the FAA is looking to rein in hobby drone operators, especially as the market grows and aviation experience becomes less common within it. Registering all drone fliers will help the FAA keep track of violators, and issue appropriate punishments.

So far the biggest surprise is implementation. The agency stated it intends to have task force recommendations completed by mid-November, and final registration rules in place by mid-December. That’s pretty ambitious for the same agency that’s been quite slow to yield any sort of complete regulation. And as Matthew Clark and Gretchen West write for Focus on Regulation, so far the lack of details doesn’t seem like this will be any different:

As a threshold matter, it is unclear where the resources will come from to facilitate and manage a registration system, and whether UAS manufacturers and operators, most of which are small businesses, will be required to pay for the costs of establishing a new registration system.

The registration plan announced yesterday also did not address specific questions regarding which UAS, in terms of weight, size, and operational capabilities, will need to be registered. Nor did the announcement address issues raised by users and operators who build their own UAS from component parts.

It is also unclear, what affect, if any, current legislation that limits the FAA’s authority to enact rules for model aircraft flown for hobby or recreational use, will have on the FAA’s ability to require registration for non-commercial, hobbyist UAS. Depending on how the registration requirement is implemented and to whom it applies, the authority of FAA to enact rules targeting hobbyist use of model aircraft may face legal challenges.

While the ability to identify and take appropriate action against UAS operators who violate FAA rules and fly in an unsafe or reckless manner is absolutely critical to ensuring the safety of our skies, it is important for the rules to be implemented in a way that achieves the desired results without needlessly impeding innovation.

More details are to come, surely. But the uncertainty of how exactly this whole thing is supposed to shake out by the end of the year doesn’t inspire much confidence. Otherwise this is just another example of the government flying blind. 

 

Secretary Foxx staked out an ambitious timeline for the registration taskforce, stating that he expects to complete taskforce recommendations by mid-November, with the goal of having final registration rules in place by mid-December. “The details of this new registration system will be developed by a task force consisting of government leaders and a diverse group of stakeholders who will work on a tight deadline to get this work done.”