I will be attending the Small Unmanned System Business Exposition in San Francisco on Thursday and Friday, July 25-26, 2013. Anyone else going? If so, care to meet up? http://susbexpo.com/ Colin
I am going! Are you from the Bay Area? Would love to meet up although the schedule (from what I've seen) is jam packed. But ping me when you're in and we can find each other. Anybody else?
You follow the speakers and their main points on Twitter. #susbexpo. Most notably Ted Wierzbanowski talk on forth coming FAA sUSB rules as submitted by ASTM F-38 Committee. Also follow @DroneConference
Colin having looked as some of ASTM's materials what did you hear or take away that gave an indication that they understand the types of UAV's we operate?
Ted Wierzbanowski was very candid about the state of things, and left me feeling less than optimistic about the prospects for anything positive coming out of the current logjam in Washington, DC. His message was that the commercial prospects are likely to not be sorted out for at least a couple more years, and seem to be oriented towards industrial applications (agriculture, military, law enforcement, etc.) and I didn't get a sense that aerial photography was even on most of their radar screens. One example is a recommendation that the ASTM made for max vehicle weight of 2-4kg over 'populated' areas, 4-9kg over 'less populated areas', and 9-20kg over 'unpopulated areas' (as they are defined on aircraft charts). This translates (to me) into nothing bigger than a Phantom and a GoPro in urban areas (most of where commercial flights would likely take place for me). Maybe Colin has a less dire reading of the talk, but I'm feeling pretty dejected.
Steve since ASTM and most of the other alphabet groups think mainly about bigger aircraft and funding is from the likes of Grumman/Boeing/General Atomics/etc and none of those for the most part have machines in those weight ranges something just doesn't compute. Good news is that ASTM is an independent testing/standards 'company'. Opinion, while they are influential for setting test standards, think about the testing of an altimeter, seems like they are straying into areas that aren't relevant for testing. Thoughts based on what you heard? I am seeing some postings elsewhere that this might drag out much later than 2015. And gents thanks for the updates.
ASTM F-38 was chartered by FAA in 2008 as the 'recommendation committee' to come up with the 'technical requirements standards' for small UAS (sUAS). Recommendations are inputs to the final FAA 'consensus based standards'. Areas of technical standards include: design/construction/testing, production, batteries, quality assurance, maintenance, flight manuals. Still, this committee did not recommend a standard(s) for operations of people (e.g. will you need a pilot's license or ground training?). That standard creation is the sole purview of the FAA. He didn't know what their recommendation(s) will be. According to Wierzbanowski the initial draft release of FAA standards for public review should be available summer/early fall 2013. He emphasized that whatever rules are released they will not be the final ones. The purpose of the initial release IS to get public feedback. He believes if the F-38 recommendations are adopted as FAA sUAS rules, then the standards will not be for a certification of authorization of your craft (aka CoA). Rather, the standards provide the basis for a 'permit to fly' issued to you according to your weight class (see Steve's post above). Permits would be location based. Permits will be issued via a self-declaration of compliance (an on-line checklist) that you meet the standards. That's because the FAA simply would not be able to handle all the thousands of applications. I see all this as good news. If this come to pass as he expressed, then we get to comment on whether the draft rules meet our particular small business needs. Additionally, I believe if self-declaration sticks there will be an opportunity to get multiple permits for multiple craft in multiple locations that would allow some degrees of freedom in application usage. Colin
Just watched the video. You can see him address it at about the 2:29:05 he talks about self registration.
There may be some interesting unintended consequences about self-registration if there is an accident. My imagination hasn't quite gone full cycle on this, but I could see possible Bad Things happening if there is no FAA oversight of the aircraft and/or the pilots and it ends up in court. I'm just sayin'..... Andy.
Videos of the whole expo can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/user/sUASNews The first speaker on Day 2 is a lawyer from LeClair Ryan. The discussion gets interesting in the Q&A when it turns to topic of aerial photography, insurance, liability, and the FAA.
Steve please confirm that you were NOT wearing the famous Steve Maller Pull the Signals Out of the Sky headgear....
Left the quadbeanie at home. BUT I won one the big door prize: a 3DRobotics RTF Quadcopter with GPS! Setting it up now. Major score!
Steve also won a door prize the first day. $250 off a Caseman custom transit case. He is the lucky dog.
OK. That does it. The fix was in. Steve, the probability of winning two door prizes on two consecutive days is asymptotic to zero. I hope you bought lottery tickets too....you'd be able to afford an OctoBeanie now. Andy.