According to new FAA regulations, anyone who wants to fly a drone in domestic airspace is legally required to register their mini aircraft by February 19.
“We expect hundreds of thousands of model unmanned aircraft will be purchased this holiday season,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a statement. “Registration gives us the opportunity to educate these new airspace users before they fly so they know the airspace rules and understand they are accountable to the public for flying responsibly.”
But one model aircraft hobbyist is hoping to get that new rule nullified. John Taylor, an attorney who lives in Silver Spring, is suing the FAA, thinks that the new registration requirement is illegal. Others have raised concerns about the fact that the names and addresses in the FAA drone database will be public information.
Taylor didn’t plan on suing the government — but he ended up feeling as though he had to, since no one else did. “I did this out of desperation,” Taylor told the website Ars Technica. “It creates a burden on hobbyists that Congress did not want to create.”
Taylor’s request for an emergency stay of the registration rule was denied.
I am having trouble feeling much empathy toward the drone operators/owners. I tend to worry much more about the potential for invasion of privacy as a result of hundreds of drones(or more!) equipped with cameras flying around with no oversight. Perhaps they can keep the addresses from being public — that concern seems valid — I don’t know why the public needs to know the addresses anyway. Just my two cents…(not that it’s even worth that much!!)