Thursday 31 December 2015

If You Own A Drone In The Land Of The Free,

here is another restriction you must obey,


already in place is the drone registration campaign and requirement, launched by the FAA earlier this month, the rules require people to register all drones heavier than half a pound with the agency by February 19th, and threaten $27,500 in civil penalties for non-compliance, with criminal penalties for failure to register including fines of up to $250,000 and/or up to three years of imprisonment, that is old news, what is new is that the FAA in September will extend a 15-mile no fly zone surrounding Washington, DC’s National Airport to 30 miles, it’s worth noting that a 30-mile radius around Washington National Airport encompasses not only the most heavily populated areas of the DC metro area, but extends well into rural areas in southern Maryland, spacious suburbs in Northern Virginia and Maryland, into parts of the Chesapeake Bay and nearly all the way up to Baltimore, it therefore means that some 36 sites, 14 of which are accredited by the Academy of Model Aircraft, that meaning they generally comply with baseline safety guidelines and are not located near airports will have to close, now do not get me wrong on this one, I am all for public safety, but how many of these drones can fly and be controlled over a distance of the in place 15 miles limit? none that I know of, so it does seem a shame that the pleasure of so many model aircraft fliers has now got to be stopped with the new improved 30 mile exclusion zone.


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