We recently highlighted the fact that the FAA plans to require registration for owners of unmanned aircraft. The move towards a restricted playing field is designed to prevent the problems that have arisen over the last few years with drone owners getting in the way of emergency aircraft, fringing on the personal privacy of others and entering restricted airspace (ie, the White House).
The FAA seeks to adopt a process of registering each and every drone to help place pressure on owners to fly responsibly and to easily identify those that don’t (presumably with big fines). The FAA put together a task force specifically to move forward with this, and the task force has suggested an easy approach to doing so in order to not destabilize the unmanned aircraft market (finding a balance through compromise is always important).
You can read the task force’s report here, but it should basically come down to the following three steps (as outlined in the report):
- Fill out an electronic registration form through the web or through an application (app)
- Immediately receive an electronic certificate of registration and a personal universal registration number for use on all sUAS (small unmanned aircraft systems) owned by that person.
- Mark the registration number (or registered serial number) on all applicable sUAS prior to their operation in the NAS (National Airspace System).
As long as everything plays out fairly, you shall soon see a national registration available to all drone owners looking to get their new devices off the ground. A simple way to police the various hobby and professional uses of such devices while not disturbing sales or owner opinions. Only those looking to conduct devious behavior would be sour to the registration.
