Drones

NASA’s remotely-piloted Ikhana aircraft on Tuesday successfully flew its first mission in the National Airspace System without a safety chase aircraft. The UAV departed from the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California and moved the United States one step closer to normalizing unmanned aircraft operations in the airspace used by commercial and private […]

Relevant Discussion: FAR part 107, AC 107-2 Operating Requirements: Avoid manned aircraft, and never operate in a careless or reckless manner. The drone must remain within sight. Alternatively, if you use first-person view or similar technology, you must have a visual observer always keep your aircraft within unaided sight (for example, no binoculars are allowed). […]

A beta testing phase of the FAA’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) is being incrementally implemented across the United States. The testing phase has begun in the south central region of the country and, once completed in mid-September, the LAANC will cover nearly 300 air traffic control facilities and about 500 airports. A […]

Under the FAA’s Part 107 rule, operators of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are required to obtain approval to enter airspace controlled by an air traffic control facility. Airspace authorization is based on data from UAS Facility Maps, which generally allow for operations below 400 feet, and currently involves a 19-step manual application process, which […]

A few weeks ago, a Frontier Airbus A320 on approach to Las Vegas was overflown by a hobby drone, action that was captured by the UAS’ camera and later uploaded to the Internet. The aviation industry was not amused, nor were pilots, safety advocates and of course the FAA, which is investigating the incident. Realizing […]

Lots of aviation folks are Twitter geeks simply for the news value. Chicago-area pilot and CFI Rod Rakic added a unique explanation. “Twitter is like the common traffic advisory frequency. Transmit in the blind and you might connect with someone who finds value in your message.” For Rakic, co-founder of Open Airplane (@openairplane), an unusual […]

When we first came across a video last week of a drone’s dramatic encounter with an airliner, like a lot of people we assumed it was fake – or at least impossible to verify as real. Now, the FAA confirms to Flying it is taking the video very seriously, and members of the drone community […]

Although GoPro founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman is taking a pay cut down to $1, it won’t be enough to save GoPro’s Karma drone or any of the employees tied to its production. After reducing its global workforce from 1,254 employees to fewer than 1,000 as of September 30, 2017, GoPro has announced that it […]

The FAA, as ordered by President Donald Trump, will begin charging hobbyist drone operators $5 each to register themselves with the federal government — just in time for Christmas. Congress submitted the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 bill, however, the subsection Restoration of Rules for Registration and Marking of Unmanned Aircraft is […]

Just in time to help the tens of thousands of people around the U.S. who expect to see a drone beneath their Christmas tree comes word that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will again launch its free online course to teach new operators how to safely operate their drones once they pull them out of the box. […]