Monthly Archives: February 2015

UAV083 Section 333 Exemption Challenges

Burnz Eye View LLC

Experiences of a Section 333 exemption recipient, drones over Paris landmarks cause a commotion, and Rhode Island wants to regulate commercial and recreational drones.

Guest

Mark Burns is the owner of Burnz Eye View LLC, a promotion and marketing company located in Southern California and specializing in aerial and “MōVI” filming. On January 23, 2015, Burnz Eye View became only the 16th company in the United States to receive a Section 333 exemption from the FAA allowing Burnz Eye View to fly sUAS commercially.

We talk with Mark about the process of obtaining the exemption, utilizing the services of an aviation attorney, and communications with the FAA. Mark also describes the challenge of operating within the limits of the exemption. He advises UAV operators to create a logbook to document flying time and maintenance in order to demonstrate proficiency to potential clients and for insurance purposes. Mark points to Skyward as a company that can help you set up a digital logbook.

Burnz Eye View began with aerial video for the real estate industry, but since the exemption Mark is looking to expanding into television and commercial films, insurance/structure/bio inspection with thermal and IR/EO, and integrating sUAS in national parks and sporting event activities.

Mark was first introduced to flying as a Marine while serving as aircrew in the back of a CH-46E helicopter in Okinawa, Japan. After serving for over nine years, Mark went on to work in the greater Washington D.C. area as a government contractor in the intelligence and biometrics fields. Mark and his family moved to California in 2009 and he started Burnz Eye View in 2013.

News

Mystery drones ‘fly over French capital’

Mysterious drones over Paris cause panic

At least five drones were spotted flying over a number of Paris landmarks on two consecutive nights. The sites included the US embassy, the Eiffel Tower, the Place de la Concorde, the Invalides military museum, a train station, the Paris Opera, the Tuileries gardens, and Paris’ Montparnasse Tower.

3 arrested over Paris drone; no known link to night flights

Three Al-Jazeera journalists arrested for flying drone in Paris

Three Al Jazeera journalists were arrested for flying in some woods in western Paris. They say they were filming a report on the mystery drone flights. Two were subsequently released.

RI lawmakers want to study, regulate drones

The “Rhode Island Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles Act” [PDF] would give the state the authority to regulate commercial and recreational drones:

  • Drones would have to be registered with the Department of Public Safety.
  • Operation would be limited near airports, military and government buildings, and schools.
  • It would be illegal to take pictures or video of a private building without permission.

Mentioned

No Film School channel on YouTube for guidance on how to take your aerial cinematography to the next level.

RageCams for camera lens modifications to change focal length or eliminate fisheye effects.

UAV082 Reaction to the FAA’s NPRM for Commercial sUAS

NBC Exclusive Drone Footage Captures Frozen Niagara Falls

Companies, the press, and other interested parties have looked at the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for small UAS, and the response has been positive, but there is work to be done.

For documents related to the sUAS NPRM, visit regulations.gov and search for Docket FAA-2015-0150. At press time, the Recently Published Rulemaking Documents page still shows the NPRM as pending publication in the Federal Register, but a PDF of the NPRM is available.

News

FAA’s liberal proposed rules win allies in drone business

Jon Resnick, Policy and Marketing Representative in Washington for DJI says, “We are very pleased the FAA is taking a reasonable and practical approach to integrating commercial UAS into the National Air Space. We are very encouraged and stand ready to collaborate with the FAA to implement common-sense proposals as quickly as possible.”

Mark Dombroff, from law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge says, “My concern is that there will be people entering the UAS business who are attracted by the potential economics. This really requires aggressive monitoring and enforcement by the FAA to insure that the rules are observed.”

With new rules, the FAA and drone industry make up

“Drone advocates let out a collective sigh of relief as new commercial drone regulations are more industry-friendly than expected.”

Fortune says, the “FAA … is far more in tune with industry needs than many imagined.”

They call it “a promising sign.”

Matthew Bieschke, president of the UAS America Fund says, “I think the FAA has had a tremendously difficult job to do, and I think what they came out with over the weekend was surprising. It was less conservative than a lot of people in the industry thought it would be.”

Lisa Ellman, counsel and co-chair of the UAS Practice Group at the D.C. office of McKenna Long & Aldridge says, “People feared that the new process would look like the Section 333 exemption process up to and including the private pilot’s license requirement … so this is a huge, wonderful thing, this new UAS operator’s certificate. It will be relatively easy to get and will make drones broadly accessible.”

Brendan Schulman, head of the unmanned aircraft systems practice at New York City-based law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, says there are aspects of the Notice that the FAA got wrong: Limitations on academic research, night flying, and the height limitation.

Regarding drone-based delivery, Schulman says in an email to Fortune, “The proposal considers drone delivery to be air carriage subject to heightened regulatory standards outside the UAS proposal. That’s a legal distinction that made sense in the manned aircraft era but I am not sure why they are holding on to it. It strikes me as a real blow to Amazon and other companies that have been working on drone delivery projects.”

Amazon drone plans shot down by authorities

In the proposed regulations, operators of commercial sUAS must fly under “unaided” line of sight and not over people. This makes package delivery impossible. Amazon vice-president of global public policy Paul Misener told CNBC by email, “The FAA needs to begin and expeditiously complete the formal process to address the needs of our business, and ultimately our customers. We are committed to realizing our vision for Prime Air and are prepared to deploy where we have the regulatory support we need.”

Small UAV Coalition Applauds the FAA’S Release of the Proposed sUAS Rule as a Good First Step for Industry

In its press release, the Small UAV Coalition says, “We applaud the FAA for creating a flexible framework that appears to be risk-based, as we have advocated, and focused on the technological capabilities of UAVs, rather than simply adapting a set of rules from those currently governing manned aircraft.” And, “In particular, we support the FAA’s proposal not to require an airworthiness certificate for small UAVs, and to eliminate any requirement for a pilot to obtain manned aircraft flying experience or a medical exam.”

But the Coalition does have some issues with the proposal concerning line of sight, testing on private property, night flying, the altitude limit, and first person view.

President Obama Calls for Transparency in UAS Privacy Memo

President Barack Obama released a Presidential Memorandum to the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies: Promoting Economic Competitiveness While Safeguarding Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties in Domestic Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

Video of the Week

NBC Exclusive Drone Footage Captures Frozen Niagara Falls

Capturing the beauty of the frozen falls.

UAV081 FAA Releases the sUAS NPRM

Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

The FAA has finally released the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for sUAS. The document contains the proposed regulations governing the commercial use of small UAVs.

In this episode, we take a first look at the NPRM and consider the proposed requirements for pilot certification, training, UAS registration, maintenance and inspection, and model aircraft. We also discuss the alternatives considered by the FAA, but not included in the NPRM, and how the public can submit comments about the proposal to the FAA.

Docket FAA-2015-0150, Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Leaked FAA Document Provides Glimpse Into Drone Regulations

Inadvertently Posted FAA Document Provides Insights Into Forthcoming Drone Regulations

FAA proposes to allow commercial drone use

 

UAV080 UAV Tracking and Avoidance

LATAS (Low Altitude Tracking and Avoidance System)

A new tracking and avoidance system, drones that assist firefighters, a Phantom firmware rollback, drone waiters that bring your meal, a personal No Fly Zone, shooting down those pesky drones, Qualcomm buys KMel Robotics, and California seeks to regulate drones below 400 feet.

News

PrecisionHawk Announces UAV Tracking and Avoidance System

PrecisionHawk released an automated traffic control system for UAVs said to aid with the integration of UAVs into the National Airspace (NAS). The “Low Altitude Tracking and Avoidance System” (LATAS) uses global cellular networks on speeds as low as 2G. to provide real-time flight planning, tracking and avoidance for UAVs.

LATAS is small (3x2x1in) and light and was developed to be plug and play or integrated into a UAV’s circuit during manufacturing.

Micro-flyer drone could help a robot to fight fires on ships

Last November, the US Office of Naval Research conducted a demonstration of its Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR) along with an autonomous quadcopter drone. The robot/drone combination is intended to assist firefighters aboard naval vessels. This is under the Office of Naval Research’s Damage Control Technologies for the 21st Century (DC-21) project. The quadcopter comes from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute and Sensible Machines.

This Spherical Rescue Drone Is Straight Out of Star Wars

Flyability has introduced what it calls “the world’s first collision-proof drone.” The “Gimball” search and rescue drone is spherical and bounces off obstacles to keep flying. It has a coaxial twin rotor design inside a rotating protective carbon fiber frame. In Crash-proof UAV takes out US$1 million Drones For Good Competition we learn that the Flyability Gimball took first place in the Drones For Good contest.

Unexpected issues force drone maker DJI to roll back ‘White House’ update

DJI has rolled back the geofencing firmware update for the Phantom — also known as the “White House patch” — because there have been reports of “unanticipated flight behavior.”

Drone waiters to serve patrons in Singapore restaurants

Infinium Robotics specializes “in providing autonomous UAV solutions for commercial applications.” That includes food delivery by drone in some Singapore restaurants. The rotors are completely enclosed to avoid injury and the UAVs utilize sense and avoid technology.

Singapore currently has a shortage of workers in the food industry so this is covering a real need.

NoFlyZone Lets You Establish A No-Fly Zone Over Your Property

NoFlyZone creates a GeoFence around your home after you register your property. Currently,  the service works with UAS manufacturers DroneDeploy, YUNEEC, HEXO+, PixiePath, RCFlyMaps. EHANG, and Horizon Hobby.

Oklahoma bill would allow property owners to shoot down drones without civil liability

The Oklahoma State Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 492, giving property owners the right to shoot down drones without fear of civil liability. Backers say that drones are increasingly being used by cattle thieves. This bill would protect property owners should they be sued by thieves over a shot down drone.

Qualcomm Buys Aerial Drone Startup with Advanced Control Technology

Chipmaker Qualcomm has acquired startup KMel Robotics, which specializes in multi-rotor drones. Qualcomm isn’t providing any details other than to point to the KMel Robotics website: “We are extremely excited to become part of the Qualcomm team and look forward to bringing aerial robotics to the next level together.”

KMel Robotics has produced videos demonstrating impressive flight coordination:

California’s No Drone Zones

California bill SB142 bans trespassing by drones flying below 400 feet.

Mentioned

UOIT Controls The Weather At Its Drone Testing Centre

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology has launched the ACE Centre for UAV Research.

Want to fly your drone and make a quick buck? The FAA has 33 rules for you.

UAV079 Volcano!

'GMA' Flies Drone Over Erupting Volcano Live

A drone flies over a volcano for live TV, Alibaba tests drone package delivery, more Section 333 exemptions, drones for real estate, and a poll shows Americans want regulations.

News

‘GMA’ Flies Drone Over Erupting Volcano Live

ABC’s Good Morning America television show flew two quadcopters over the erupting Bardarbunga Volcano in central Iceland. And they broadcast the video live on national TV. Eric Cheng, DJI Director of Aerial Imaging, was on hand to operate the main quadcopter while a chase DJI provided additional coverage.

The live video of the volcano was spectacular. This wasn’t a puff piece – it was a very public demonstration of using a drone for science. With last week’s drone crash on the White House lawn, and now this, public awareness of small drones is increasing.

Alibaba Package Delivery

Alibaba Beats Amazon to Drone Delivery

The Wall Street Journal calls Alibaba, “China’s — and by some measures, the world’s — biggest online commerce company.” With e-commerce activity of $248B, it’s bigger than eBay and Amazon.com combined.

Now Alibaba is conducting a three day package delivery test for customers that are within a one-hour flight by quadcopter from their warehouses in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. They’ve posted a promotional video online.

FAA Grants Eight More UAS Exemptions

Exemptions under Section 333 were issued to Total Safety U.S. Inc. for flare stack inspections, Slugwear, Inc. (dba LikeOnATree Aerial) for aerial photography and surveys. Team 5, LLC;  Shotover Camera Systems LP;  Helinet Aviation Services, LLC;  and Alan D. Purwin were given an exemption for film and television production.  This brings the total number of exemptions to 24.

At the same time, the FAA amended the exemptions previously granted to Pictorvision, Inc. and Aerial MOB, LLC to let the companies fly additional types of small UAS.

As with the last round of exemptions, “the proposed operations do not need an FAA-issued certificate of airworthiness because they do not pose a threat to national airspace users or national security.”

The FAA says they have received 342 requests for exemptions from commercial entities and individuals.

UAV real estate Co. to expand nationwide following FAA exemption

Real estate video and production firm Burnz Eye View received an exemption from the FAA in January. Mark Burns started the company 3 years ago and has a team of 15 in San Diego. With the exemption, he wants to expand to cover the entire U.S. To do that, he needs pilots. Specifically, UAV operators that have private pilot’s licenses or multi-hour experience flying UAVs. An understanding of platform maintenance will also be needed.

Americans OK with police drones – private ownership, not so much: Poll

A Reuters/Ipsos online poll of 2,000 people conducted Jan. 21-27, 2015 showed that 73 percent of the respondents said they want regulations for small drones. Forty-two percent oppose private ownership of drones. They think they should be restricted to officials or other experts. Thirty percent were OK with private drone ownership, and 28 percent were undecided.

Video of the Week

Seize Des Moines

This interesting aerial tour of Iowa’s capital city was sent in by listener Bill, who raises some questions about the safety of flying in proximity to buildings and crowded events.