Here is another really good YouTube video the offers a very good, easy to understand, explanation. He outlines the 9 points for recreational pilots in the 44809 exemption of the Part 107 regulations.




New FAA Advisory Circular for "Recreational Operations" 

Legally flying around the world 

Sean gets the bigger picture as to exactly what these "pilot tests" have been designed for and why...

I think the FAA (and the current U.S government) is like a pig that keeps on eating and getting bigger and bigger. The more you feed it, the hungrier it gets. When you create more barriers of entry into something, it stifles people and marrs the conscience of an activity such as flying a drone in the park for both recreation and educational purposes. FPV has gotten so many of the next generation into engineering, and it's sad to see that most newcomers will be either forced to go the consumer route, or jump through even more logistical hoops, before even getting to the hard stuff. That's just my perspective.

My wife is a middle school science teacher.. she started with tellos (due to ease), and progressed to tinyhawks .. the school WiFi would constantly interfere with the tellos .. and had her kids compete in the LEGO build competition with a full 5” quad lego build..,,someone brought up the 107 at one point…I said, “these kids can’t drive a car, you want them to take “pilot” test to fly a TOY!?’!?!
There needs to be some kind of “categories” for quads .. the FAA is lumping $18,000 DJI inspire together with a $15 Banggood 1s quad toy… is NOT GOOD.. these people need to be educated…they are ignorant when it comes to quadcopters… unfortunately, it falls on ALL OF US.. to enlighten and educate the people involved with making “Safety” decisions…if not us .. then who??
You can’t bitch about the problem if ur not going to be part of the solution .

Hi Rob,

First, let me say that I totally and 100 percent agree that there should be a more or less, unregulated drone category; be it sub 250 gram, 1S, 2 inch, what ever...something... so that kids, and us more grown up kids, can have a place to play and not be criminals and not be harassed.

I also agree, that we should tell everyone that drones are safe, fun, and a great educational experience. I have and still do, but I only touch an extremely small number of people. It will certainly take something MUCH, MUCH, MUCH larger than that.

So, what approach do you suggest?? Create an organization to be the VOICE of the truly recreational and educational pilot?? Raise hundreds of millions of dollars and launch an add campaign that counters {or actually opposes} the FAA's campaign?? 

NOW...

During the comment phase of the current regulations, comments were enlisted from those with concerns for the recreational pilot. The FAA received over 50,000 pilot comments plus recommendations from most, if not all, of the concerned groups and organizations. Did they listen? What do you think? They made what appeared to be concessions...on the surface, or so it seemed, but very little and nothing of substantial change.

In all of the articles that I read, there was little, if any, commentary on the TRUST issue.

Furthermore, the Community Based Organization, CBO, thing didn't even seem to be an issue. It seemed to be just ignored...like there was really nothing to it. {there wasn't since the CBOs had not yet been created}. What I, and I am sure others, didn't see coming was that the CBO rules will end up being the heart of the rules and enforced with the same force as regulations. You think not. Well consider that one of the points for recreational flying is that some set of CBO rules MUST be utilized and followed. Now, I ask you how are those rules NOT regulations? They sure are. If you get fined for not following them...THEY SURE ARE.  This is a sneaky way to enact regulations that don't even exist yet...and...without the benefit of being discussed. How do you fight that???

Another point that I didn't even see mentioned, ANYWHERE, is the fines. $100,000 for a flight video posted on YouTube or flying beyond VLOS !! Are you kidding !! Wow, talk about insane. Why couldn't it be like speeding? You get a $100 fine. What is wrong with this picture?? But, again, nobody saw it coming...or at least not that I could tell.

What I believe was really a kicker is the fact that the FAA has started a campaign to enlist all public citizens to watch for and report drone activity. In fact, the postings that I saw suggested that ANY drone flight could be nefarious {that means BAD} activity...so call the authorities and have them check it out. REALLY !! Now, is that just INSANE. 

So, there were 50,000 comments regarding the new regulations, but tell me how 50,000 compares to the millions, or hundreds of millions, of citizens who believe that drones could be bad {and they can be, but it is just like a gun, they don't have to be.  By the way, there are less restrictions on guns than there are on drones}.

Consider that the FAA originally wanted ALL drone pilots to get a Part 107 license...period...ALL...No exceptions.
However, Congress mandated that they have an EXEMPTION for the recreational pilots.
So they did, BUT...just look at how they have managed to "sneak in" regulations {restrictions} that are really insane.

It seems like this new set of regulations is actually a trojan horse. They managed to "hide" the army of actual rules and the method of enforcement until the regulations went into effect. We might just be well beyond the point of educating the public. 

(26-Jun-2021, 12:49 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Where is my Klingon cloaking device 

I just wanna say I was immediately tickled at the star trek reference here. I'm not sure if others caught it.

I don't live in the USA.
Just for clarity...
If you live on a large farm out in the country.. are you still required to get licences/permits to fly in your own property?
ie.. like JB does...

There are no exemptions. The FAA own all the airspace even over people's properties, so even for people who own acres of their own land, they still need to be registered, have any relevant licenses (and Remote ID devices fitted when the time comes), and follow all of the rules and regulations including no BVLOS and having a spotter for FPV if they want to fly legally. This is why the hobby will now go underground with more people just flying illegally and taking their chances. So the FAA have shot themselves in the foot by trying to introduce a whole load of convoluted and confusing / ever changing rules that make no sense or are hard to keep a track of. So the end result is that a lot of people just aren't going to bother.

Just to add...

Even though the FAA has sort of went overboard on the new regulations, the REAL BITE in the arse is that the FAA is pushing everyone...yes everyone, the average citizen, to be on the look out for drone activity and report it...just so it can be checked out to SEE IF the flight is legal. That really BITES. To further make matters worse, the Part 107 pilots are scouring the internet and turning in FPV pilots to be investigated. OUCH...DOUBLE OUCH !!! Yes, these are the main ones that the FAA is actually investigating !!!!  Indeed !!!

So, it will all come down to whether or not you get caught.

I agree with Snow that the hobby is going underground.

Now, you live out on a large, secluded, piece of land; so...likely no one will see the actual flight. You might be illegal, but pretty safe unless you post the flight video on YouTube...where a Part 107 pilot might see it and turn you in.

For me, it means:  Be like a ghost...fly it like you stole it....don't post videos.

Now, let's FLY.

This is exactly why I never got into the whole HD video stuff. I do not intend to ever post videos because they bring scrutiny that I am not interested in dealing with. While it might be fun for others to view, it is a total waste to spend the price of a quad on something I will never really utilize.

The 107 pilots are in for a rude shock when they are all that is left to go after...and that is coming as well. I have never felt that this is about the bull that is being used to justify the regulations. We have been targeted so that the airspace can be shifted to commercial purpose only. Our hobby is going away and we do not have the billions that the commercial interests can spend. For every single irresponsible pilot out there, there are thousands that are being responsible...but that does not matter to the FAA. They have their agenda and nothing we do or do not do will derail it at this point.

I'm guessing that all these laws/restrictions are primarily brought on by the fear of terrorist activities... and to some extent are more stringent than firearms laws/restrictions... depending on which state you live in. (Firearms are equivalent to Swiss Army Knives). It's sad that an honest sport/hobby/pastime has been restricted and targeted to such an extent.

… I’ve decided to purchase a RC car/truck… have it on and bound to my controller… BUT, somehow have the controller bound to a quad I’m flying on a select switch..
“Excuse me, are you flying that drone?”.. land it safely out of site, click over to the truck drive it to ur location .. ””I’m sorry, we’re you taking to me, oh.. I’m driving my truck…”

NOW we are thinking. I don't think you can bind more than one craft/vehicle to a transmitter at a time, BUT it is still an interesting concept. You could say that you are "getting ready" to take her out for a drive and testing the video feed {while you land the quad}. What you can do is have both fired up with the video on different channels {you CAN then switch channels on the goggles}. 

This is a VERY GOOD IDEA   

I follow all rules and regulations, I’m FAA registered, an AMA member (primarily for the liability insurance), and am working on getting my ham license so that I can crank up the power on my vtx.

But, this sounds like a fun thought experiment. If you had receivers of the same protocol in both the car and the quad, bound to the same channel, then set up a remote/aux switch like the one below somewhere inline with the car’s electronics to disable movement, and map that switch so that it only closes when the arm switch is in the disarm position, I think that could work?

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-rece...tch-1.html

Personally, I find that to be much more work than just following rules and regulations.

(04-Sep-2021, 08:51 PM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: I follow all rules and regulations, I’m FAA registered, an AMA member (primarily for the liability insurance), and am working on getting my ham license so that I can crank up the power on my vtx.

But, this sounds like a fun thought experiment. If you had receivers of the same protocol in both the car and the quad, bound to the same channel, then set up a remote/aux switch like the one below somewhere inline with the car’s electronics to disable movement, and map that switch so that it only closes when the arm switch is in the disarm position, I think that could work?

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-rece...tch-1.html

Personally, I find that to be much more work than just following rules and regulations.

Hi Lemonyleprosy,

I, too, like following the rules, however, let's just consider the Beyond Visual Line of Sight and the requirement to have a "spotter" co-located with the pilot. Do you follow that...precisely. This is where it gets a little dicey for FPV. Do you REALLY HAVE a spotter every time you fly FPV, if not, then you are NOT legal. Now, if that quad goes beyond where the spotter can see it, that is also NOT legal. Now, let's take a 2.5 inch GEPRC Phantom or pretty much any 2.5 or 3 inch quad. Do you REALLY THINK that the spotter can keep that thing in Visual Line of Sight??? REALLY??? If the spotter loses sight of the quad, then you are NOT flying legal. My wife is my spotter and she can't even keep track of the thing; much less keep it in her visual line of sight. So, if the spotter can't see it, then it is obviously NOT within visual line of sight. From the FPV perspective, there is absolutely NO way that you can tell when the quad reaches Beyond Visual Line of Sight. Now, what about when you go around that building or other obstruction which is, in reality, Beyond Visual Line of Sight. How does the spotter see the quad then. Yeah, Right.  That just isn't reality. Period. Basically, most FPV is Beyond Visual Line of Sight. So, how do you account for this??? 

The second that quad is NOT visible, it is Beyond Visual Line of Sight. It really has nothing to do with distance, but rather whether or not you can see it. Visual Observance. 

All long range FPV is basically ILLEGAL, period; it just is. 

Keep in mind, if you fly FPV in your own yard without a spotter, that is totally ILLEGAL. 

Now, we haven't even gotten to all the "EXTRA" rules that will be imposed by the CBO guidelines; this is where they will "STICK IT TO YOU". Preflight checklists, logging "events", submitting crashes or other unplanned events to the CBO...who tracks them and submits them to the FAA. Are you really going to tell them every time you have an "unplanned" crash or equipment malfunction. {for me, landings are more like crashes} This really is becoming unreasonable especially for the part time hobby enthusiast...or even a kid with a $20 toy quad. The whole mess and regulation is becoming unreasonable.

Sadly, legally flying FPV is becoming pretty much challenging, if even possible. Take a beat and really look at it. It is not a question of whether we will be flying illegal...that is almost a given at this point...it is more about getting caught. 

My approach is as follows"

1) Get a "TRUST" certificate.
2) Fly sub 250 AUW quads.
3) Follow the rules as closely as is reasonable.
4) Fly stealthy.

When all of those CBO guidelines come out, I will see how much of them are really worth trying to keep up with.

Reference my Post # 151 and #152

You know, I would like to be 100 percent legal, however, I am not sure how you can fly FPV and REALLY be 100 percent legal.

Also, even if you are 100 percent legal, do you want some clown calling the authorities and hassling you to prove you are legal.

You know, I don't want the hassle. Sure I will make efforts to keep as legal as is reasonable. Plus, I will work the be stealthy with my flights. That is, start with a low noise, sub 250 gram quad, fly where there are no people, fly at a high altitude between 300-400 feet, fly a pack and leave, don't be regular at any given location...AND...I will NOT be posting videos; at least not on YouTube. Prudence. Be as legal as I can and stay stealthy, out of sight. 

As a result, I no longer fly in local parks, at the beach, or anywhere there is a lot of people.