The Wild West days may soon be over for amateur aerial drone pilots. In a proposal published today, a federal task force recommended that drone pilots should be required to register to fly any aircraft that weighs little more than a half-pound.
Technically, the Federal Aviation Administration already requires the registration of all aircraft, including drones. But the agency doesn't currently enforce those rules for the kind of small recreational aircraft expected to be a hugely popular holiday gift this year. With the popularity of drones only expected to grow, the FAA decided to convene the a task force to develop a registration scheme that could enforce accountability by creating a traceable link between a drone and its owner. At the same time, to be effective, such a scheme would have to make compliance easy enough that most drone owners would participate.
The task force—known as the "Unmanned Aircraft Systems Registration Task Force Aviation Rulemaking Committee"—included drone makers such as 3D Robotics and DJI; organizations such as the Air Line Pilots Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police; and potential drone users (and retailers) such as Amazon and Wal-Mart.
For the moment, the task forces recommendations are just that; it's not clear yet what the next steps are toward seeing the proposed rules debated or implemented.
The big surprise in the recommendations was not that the FAA would ask for drone pilots to register, but that the task force is recommending registration even for pilots flying relatively light drones—250 grams or more. According to the proposal, the task force decided that the primary consideration for deciding which drones would be exempt from the registration requirement was the mass of the aircraft, and the primary safety scenario they considered was a collision between a drone and a person on the ground. Based on safety studies and risk probability calculations, the task force determined that the anything heavier than 250 grams—about half-a-pound—posed enough risk to require pilots to register.
The big question is how the FAA will possibly enforce these rules, especially given that many of the drones affected are so small. And the task force's recommendations themselves itself don't include any specific enforcement guidelines. As far the task force members were concerned, their job was to develop a registration system that would be simple enough to not discourage people from registering, not to debate the enforcement of the rules or even the legality of the registration requirements.
If and when the rules take effect, you will receive a unique registration number once you register for all of your drones. From there you'll either need to label your drone with your registration number or register the serial number for each drone you fly. You wouldn't technicaly have to register each drone individually, but if a drone's serial number is on file, you won't have to worry about figuring out how to slap your registration number on it.
The registration requirement only applies to individual drone pilots, and it only applies to drones that are actually flown outside, rather than all drones purchased. As such, the task force recommends that the registration happen on the web after purchasing but before flying a drone, rather than at the time of sale. The process will likely include some sort of educational component, possibly based on the Know Before You Fly campaign created by the drone industry in conjunction with the FAA.
Pilots will be required to provide their name and street address, but their phone number and email address will be optional. The task force recommends that the FAA take steps to keep all of this information private and exempt it from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. It also recommends that registration be open to all pilots, regardless of their citizenship.
The age requirement stems from the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which bars websites from collecting personal information from children under 13, so the task force recommends child pilots under 13 be accompanied by a parent or guardian who has registered with the FAA.
