Washington, DC- -it's a painfully slow process for politicians and FAA bureaucrats to accept the need, legitimacy and relative safety of those little civilian drones.   There was the initial hysteria of passenger jets crashing, mass privacy invasion because of those little drones.     The panic reaction was bolstered with thousands mistaken or deliberately false reports of sightings claiming drone misbehavior.     Thankfully as the number of drones in civilian hands increased by leaps and bounds, the bogus reports quietly subsided considerably.  Very recently progress has been made in allowing the commercial use of drones under a somewhat loosened set of rules and guidelines.    Along with the more realistic drone rules the FAA created the Part 107 licensing exemption with a written test for commercial drone pilots.   They have allowed for considerable expansion of drone use in urban areas for news gathering, filmmakin...

Town of Paradise Valley, AZ —Some of this small but wealthy community’s politicians bought into the baseless idea that multi-rotor camera drones were a threat to safety and privacy.   Ignorance and the novelty of the drones themselves motivated politicians here to make an effort to ban drones. They thought that their residents would somehow appreciate their efforts. Things backfired when local relators complained that the use of drones showcased the homes and community like never before.   Banning or over-regulating them could damage property values and of course property tax collections. The Town Council considered the ban but cooler heads in that body tabled the idea at least until they had more valid guidance and information.   How they revisit this issue remains to be seen. As for the somewhat popular Drone Invasion, there were no less than 700 reports of near misses with conventional aircraf t investigated by the FAA . Not a s...

Los Angeles, CA —Many people consider the airspace  above the property that they own or lease is theirs.    Some have actually used firearms to shoot at drones somehow thinking that was somehow justified. Federal and state laws universally ban shooting at aircraft.   There are heavy penalties for shooting at drones or any aircraft, even UFOs.   Many drone operators operate on ignorance and have bought into the idea that there is or may be private ownership rights to airspace above private property. The law is simple, our airspace is shared public property.   Exclusively, the FAA regulates aircraft including drones operating in our airspace.   State and local governments cannot make or enforce laws regulating aircraft in our airspace.   Many local jurisdictions have tried out of the simple ignorance of their lawmakers.   Those laws they have already placed on the books are unenforceable due to the FAA preemption. Have the helicopt...

Los Angeles, CA —Officials here recently claimed that drone operators endangered lives by halting firefighting efforts.  Angry local politicians vowed prosecution and new legislation to remedy this “huge and life threatening ” problem. Photographic evidence supporting those reports is non-existent .  You’d think the crew members presumably are all armed with smart phones would have captured images to help identify the drones to assist investigators.  There are no pictures because this never happened!  Needless to say there are no captured drones either. As for those helicopter pilots making these reports they seem to forget that their massive propeller’s, prop wash would simply blow any little cameras drones away from their aircraft into oblivion.  A near miss happened? Really?  The high cost of these camera drones makes their owners very protective of their investments.  If they are reckless and crash them, all the the fun is over. According...

Town of Paradise Valley, AZ —If you don’t like cameras pointed at you, you'd better learn to smile.  They are here to stay watching, documenting and exposing all of your public behavior to the world. With the new consumer camera drone technology the camera shy folks are in paranoia overdrive.  These people seem to have forgotten that cameras are watching them 24/7 everywhere. From the time you leave your front door until you return cameras are constantly watching you.  Some you can see and there are many others you can’t. For example if you enter the Town of Paradise Valley, Arizona in a vehicle a camera concealed in a cactus grabs the license plate number. It’s placed in a searchable database that allows the town government to know each vehicle’s exact movements.  There are live cameras capturing and saving video everywhere.  Some store video for a short time others keep video indefinitely only limited by the size of their hard drives. Fr...

UPDATE!!! I'm pleased to report that the town council tabled the drone ban ordinance acknowledging it needed to be studied.  They put off consideration until October at the earliest.   A half-dozen or so people spoke against the ordinance and nobody supported it.   I'm glad the council had second thoughts since this was created out of fear and misunderstanding. Frankly I'm proud of their taking the high road.   As for those of you operating drones in Paradise Valley or for that matter anywhere, please fly safe and be considerate  of others.   Town of Paradise Valley, AZ —In arguably the most expensive real estate in the State of Arizona they are proposing the most draconian camera drone ban ever! The town’s council will be voting on this draft ordinance during their May 28, 2015 meeting.   They want to outlaw any use of a drone without a single use permit and fee.   It further outlaws the publishing of all aerial images in somewhat...