From the course: Video Gear

What happened with the FAA regulations?

From the course: Video Gear

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What happened with the FAA regulations?

- Hi, I'm Robbie Carman. - And I'm Rich Harrington. - And welcome back to another episode of Video Gear Weekly, and Rich, while it might seem this week we're gonna be talking about drones, 'cause we've talked about them a few times, we're actually not gonna talk about the machines, themselves, but rather, some new rules and things that you must know to operate drones in the United States, moving forward. - Yeah, whether you are a citizen or visiting the United States, if you plan to fly, the US has put new rules in place from the FAA and I think it's really important that we go over these at a high level. Now, if you want to dig in deeper, we've recorded an in-depth version of this video that you can check out. I've got it on my personal blog. But for now, let's take just a quick look at what's involved. First up, there are some new rules, Rob, which I think is pretty important that we go through. - [Robbie] Yup. - [Rich] So what's happening here is, the FAA announced on December 14th, hey a week from now, you gotta register. - [Robbie] Just in time for all those drones that are gonna be given as Christmas presents. - [Rich] Yeah, pretty much, pretty much. And if you went to any of the retail stores there was no indication that this may or may not affect you. So, who does it affect? Couple things, they said, "Look, we're serious here. "Unmanned aircraft enthusiasts are aviators "and with that, you have to be responsible." - [Robbie] Just like you would get a pilot's license to fly an aircraft like a plane or a helicopter, they're considering drones of a certain size to be in that same category. - Now before we go any further, let's be clear here. We don't work for the government. We're not expressing any of our opinions. We're just telling you what you need to do if you want to stay legal. All right, so the Transportation Secretary went on and said, "Look, you know, registration gives us an opportunity "to work with users so that they operate things safely." - And I think that's kind of an underlying thing, here. It might seem kind of like a pain to get registered and kind of play by the rules, but ultimately, I think the government has kind of the right idea here, that so many people are using these drones and we've all heard of horror stories about people flying them in very unsafe situations, potentially harming property and or people. I think the government's idea here is, let's just kinda control that situation a little bit so we know what's what. - [Rich] Yup, and basically, they're saying, "Look, you know, we want to welcome "these new aviators into a culture of safety and "responsibility that defines innovation." - [Robbie] What he said. - [Rich] Yeah (laughs), so what does this mean? Well, why these new rules? Basically, in 2015 the FAA said, "Look, we think there's gonna be "about 1.6 million new unmanned aircraft systems sold." And that's a lot, and as these things keep growing, people really need to understand this idea of the national airspace. Now Rob, a good for example of this is, a while back when we flew one of these quadcopters inside of a trampoline park, we're not subject to those rules, we're not in the national airspace. We're flying indoors. Now, we need to fly safely indoors, but these rules don't apply if you fly in your house, or you go to a large enclosed stadium or flying park. And I actually suspect we're gonna start to see flying parks popping up to make this easier. - Yeah, and especially where we are here in the Washington, DC area, Rich, the airspace is very nuanced and very restricted. And it might seem that you can just go out into your back yard, put your drone on the ground, power it up, and launch it up into the air. That might not be the case. For example, I live nearby an international airport. And because of my proximity, I can't even fly there. Even though I have nice, wide open spaces, it's a no-go zone. - [Rich] So these rules were basically put into place because the FAA said there's gonna be a lot of these. According to the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration that administers the US airspace, they see a lotta growth. Now they say, look there's no non-commercial in 2015 because they didn't really have a way of tracking them. But now they're estimating that hey, by 2020 there's gonna be seven million drones flying in the air for both hobbyists and commercial use in the United States, seven million drones, Rob. - And just to be clear, commercial use would be things like, I don't know, Amazon delivering your packages via a drone. Or it might be hey, if you're into real estate, and you're flying your drone to do virtual tours of property or geo-mapping and things of that nature. - People who own wineries will fly a drone just to check the crops really quick. There's lots of uses here. Video professionals who are getting paid for their footage might be considered professionals. Talk to your lawyer if you're not sure, but who's affected? Well, they said pretty straigthforward, if you fly an aircraft that weighs more than 0.55 pounds, just over half a pound, and less than 55 pounds, which is the upper limit, you must register. Now this means everything on it. So it's not just the drone itself, it's the batteries, it's the propellers, it's the camera. It's anything you attach to the unit, it's the total weight. And it is a statutory requirement. That means, this is a rule that can be enforced. - [Robbie] Yeah, statutory meaning, you must do this. - [Rich] Yeah, and you have to carry this permit in order to do it, and pretty straightforward. Now, other things that they said, if you owned one of these before December 21st, you had until February 19th to register. Now depending on when you watch this video, when this is released, that might have happened already, which means that before you fly, you better get it registered. They want you to get that. And if you buy a new one, you have to register it before you fly outdoors. - [Robbie] Right. - So you've got a giant mansion and you love watching this series and you have a big indoor, multi-story area, no problem. You got friends at the local high school and you can go fly around the gymnasium when there's no people in it, no problem. But if you fly outdoors, you gotta register. And there's two ways. Web or doing a paper system. We'll talk about both a little later. And you have to be 13. So if you are under the age of 13, you need an adult or someone who is a relative to register it for you. Pretty straightforward, beyond this, if you are using it for a hobby you can use the same ID number on all your devices. So I have two of these that are like this type of unit. I don't fly these at all professionally, this is something that I actually do with my kids. I use it as a hobby, we enjoy it. And if I'm flying, I register it once and use the same number. On the other hand, if someone's flying professionally and they own multiple drones, each drone has to be registered. Now it works for three years. - [Robbie] That's right, so this is a valid registration for three years. After that three years you're gonna have to re-register that drone and chances are, if you're like Rich and I, by three years you'll probably have upgraded your drone to the newest, latest and greatest model. - Yup, so pretty straightforward stuff. There are some issues to discuss. And I know there's a lot of sensitivity to this topic. So when we come back, we'll talk about some of the what happens if you don't register, or why are they doing this?

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