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How Americans Really Feel About Drones

(Credit: Shutterstock) If you’re a fan of drone technology or a drone pilot yourself, it’s easy to think the tech is mainstream. It’s not. And it turns out drone owners are just a small sliver of Americans — just 8 percent own a flying drone, according to a December 2017 study from Pew Research Center. Even though many people don’t own drones, almost 60 percent have seen someone operating one. As of January, more than 1 million people have registered as drone owners with the FAA. That includes both hobbyist…

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New Drone Owners Urged to Read Drone Rules before Flying This Christmas Drones In The News Global Drone Regulations Top Drone News Stories 

New Drone Owners Urged to Read Drone Rules before Flying This Christmas

AS drones become increasingly popular and with many of the unmanned aircrafts tipped to land under the Christmas tree this year, authorities are urging those lucky enough to receive one to steer well clear of hospitals. Queensland Health has launched a new digital campaign reminding families that all hospitals are “drone-free zones”. The rules are clear – drones are not to be flown within a five kilometre radius of any hospital. Those who break the rules could be hit with a hefty fine, as high as $10,000 depending on the…

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Trump Signs Bill Reinstating the FAA's Drone Registration Requirement Drones In The News Global Drone Regulations Top Drone News Stories 

Trump signs bill reinstating the FAA’s drone registration requirement

Back in late-2015, the Federal Aviation Administration introduced new rules requiring owners of small drones to submit their devices to a database and attach a registration code to the side of the product. In May of this year, a judge in the D.C. Circuit shot the rule down, and the FAA began the process of returning the $5 registration fee. Now the registry is back on, courtesy of a bill signed into law earlier today by President Trump. The reinstated rules were one small piece of the $700 billion National…

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A brief talk about drone policy with DJI’s US Policy Leader

  DJI is the current leader in the market so we had to ask their US drone policy leader a few questions Jon Resnick leads DJI’s drone policy efforts in Washington DC. Prior to joining DJI, he was a senior television planning editor with the Associated Press, leading news planning for AP’s national elections coverage. Jon spearheaded AP’s program to incorporate drones into professional news-gathering operations. He also played a leadership role in the News Media Coalition which is now conducting formal testing at an FAA sanctioned site. Jon will be a panelist at…

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Uneek Perspective Aerial Photography shares their story

Uneek Perspective Aerial Photography recently received their Section 333 Exemption from the FAA For more information about Uneek Perspective, check out their website. Q. How did the exemption process go in your opinion? The exemption process was lengthy. I did a fair amount of research prior to putting together my exemption request. As with most things in aviation it was a “hurry up and wait” process. You hurry to get stuff together to secure your place in line and then wait for what seems like forever to get your exemption.…

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FAA Inside Scoop – Some insights on the Pathfinder Program

The FAA is focused on creating a safe environment for drone-based business success The FAA is on a roll. When they first launched the Section 333 Summary Grant Process we were impressed to see them streamlining their processes.  Other efforts followed and we continued to be impressed.  Then, with the launch of the Pathfinder Program, it became clear that they have set its sights on creating the right regulatory environment for drone-based business success in the United States. We reached out to ask a few questions about the Pathfinder Program.  An…

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Hovering Closer to September 30, 2015 – UAV Integration into airspace

In the United States, UAV Integration into airspace is getting closer to reality By Gretchen West – Drone Deploy Many of us in the commercial drone industry have eagerly been eyeing 2015 for quite some time…specifically, we’ve been eyeing it since the FAA Modernization and Reform Act was passed in 2012. In that bill, there were many milestones for the FAA to reach to enable commercial operations of drones in the United States with the “ultimate” goal of safe UAV integration into airspace by September 30, 2015. Admittedly, I (and many others)…

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PrecisionHawk LATAS may help drones work beyond line of sight

We reached out to the PrecisionHawk team about their role in the Pathfinder Program and how PrecisionHawk LATAS may be involved What is PrecisionHawk LATAS you ask?  According to the PrecisionHawk web site: “LATAS, which stands for Low Altitude Tracking and Avoidance System. An onboard system that provides flight planning, tracking and avoidance for every drone in the sky using real-time flight data transmission based on existing world-wide cellular networks. Developed to be plug and play or integrated into a UAV’s circuit during manufacturing, LATAS is small (3x2x1in), light (>100G)…

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Drones In The News 

Line of sight requirement could be eased for commercial drone use

Line of sight requirements remain a large deterrent to commercial drone use [Tweet “Line of sight requirements remain a large deterrent to commercial #drone use #uav #uas”] The FAA continues to work to understand and balance the needs of commercial users, hobbyist, and national security.  It is a difficult balancing act.    As it stands today, drone operators cannot flying unless they maintain a visual line of sight with their aircraft (see our hobbyist drone guidelines), which works fine for hobbyist and many commercial uses (inspection services, for example). Mashable…

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