New FAA Drone Rules Coming - Things You Should Know

Holy cow, that's a lot of paper and if you guys read war and peace, I know somebody that did it's 1,225 pages and it took him three months to read it. This is HR 302 the FAA reauthorization act of 2018 our House of Representatives was given this on a Saturday September 22nd 2018 They voted on it on a Wednesday, September 26 2018 four days 1,200 pages now, that's pretty impressive. So anyway, we need to have a little talk. All right page one Just kidding. We're not gonna go through all 1,200 pages. There's a lot of stuff in here a lot of valuable stuff We are gonna talk about some of the things that are in here that affect drone hobbyists drone professional pilots Anyone who has a drone anybody who wants a drone anybody who's interested in drones? And yes, I'm gonna keep calling them drones I know they're called quadcopters UAS is UAVs, whatever you want to call them. I'm gonna call them drones. So deal with it All right, everyone calls a flying disc of Frisbee Well, I call everything a drone because it's a drone. So like I said 1,200 pages. This actually isn't the bill This is just blank sheets of paper But this is 1,200 pages and this is what it looks like and I'm guessing that most of our House of Representatives Did not read this thing. It did pass Overwhelmingly in our house at 398 to 23 now It was supposed to be voted on and finalized by both the house and the Senate on September 30th 2018 but since Washington is kind of a dumpster fire right now I think that's getting extended a little bit longer And so the Senate's gonna be voting on this very soon probably within the next week And although there's a whole bunch of valuable stuff in here I didn't read all of it But this pertains to a lot of different things that the FAA has to deal with but there's a hundred pages That have to deal with things that you and I are interested 247 page 247 to page 348 so it's about a hundred pages that have to do with the repeal of section 336 Which is what currently governs hobbyist drone use many of you probably heard of section 336 or if you watch my previous video on Drone apocalypse, but anyway section 336 is probably going away No matter what because in order for the FAA to be able to make new rules new regulations for UAVs drones They have to get rid of section 336 because it's kind of like a bridle on them because it does not allow them to make any changes to any existing rules So section 336 is probably going to go away no matter if HR 302 passes or not Now there are actually some positive things in this section the section on drones But there's also some things in here that you should be concerned about now I'm gonna try to remain as impartial and as unbiased as possible My goal here is just to present to you guys the information without interjecting my own personal beliefs You know, I'm gonna try to act like MSNBC or Fox News But anyway, I'm just gonna give you guys the information You guys can form your own opinion and then I'm gonna give you the opportunity to write to your senator Like I said time is of the essence right now So if you want to share the information that I present to you, that's great I'm gonna put some websites down below in the description if you want to share those With anybody that flies a drone wants a drone or is interested in drones Please share that information as well so they can reach out to their senator whether you're gonna tell them to vote no or yes I ask that you please look at those links and at least Contact your senator and let them know how you feel also one more little thing on my last video having to do with this There was a lot of toxic comments down below And so what I've done is I've disabled just about every swear word that I know And so if you're gonna comment down below, I love it I love reading comments constructive comments comments that contribute to the furtherance of this hobby. It's great Let's talk about it. But if you're just gonna go into a tirade of a bunch of swear words It's not gonna show up YouTube is gonna take care of those and screen them out for me So if you want to comment, I ask that you please be constructive. Please remain positive I do have quite a few younger viewers that do watch my channel. They do go through the comments Hey Dylan, but anyway, let's try to keep it civil you guys because honestly, this is really really important and it's gonna affect all of us So I went through this over the past three days and I read all 100 pages and what I pulled out of here is some Of the most important things that I want to share With you guys and I'll put a link to the whole bill down in the description as well So you guys can read it. But like I said, it starts on page 247 and ends on page 348 So the first thing that we're going to talk about here is on page 259 and it talks about beyond visual line-of-sight Pilot program and so this subsection of the bill Actually is a positive thing. So let's go ahead and read it just really quick here it says in general the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall carry out an update as appropriate a Program for the use of the test ranges to facilitate the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the National Airspace System which may include solutions for and I'm a skip ahead to the one that's most important beyond visual line-of-sight operations nighttime operations operations over people operations of multiple small unmanned aircraft systems and unmanned aircraft systems traffic management or other critical research priorities And so what that means is this bill calls for the FAA to develop Test and pilot programs for discovering the best ways to introduce Beyond visual line-of-sight and flying in the dark and flying over people. And so yes, this is very important for commercial drone operations You know people that want to do commercial drone deliveries and things like that But it's also very important and it's very valuable for them to study and figure out how we can do those things How can we fly beyond visual line-of-sight and in the dark and things like that? Now the next one I'm going to talk to you about is a little bit sketchy That's not an opinion, but I'm gonna let you guys form your own opinion, but it has to do with manufacturer safety standards So I'll just summarize it here for you real quick the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall establish a process for and number three says authorizing a manufacturer to self certify a small unmanned aircraft system make or model that complies with consensus safety standards accepted under paragraph 1 paragraph 1 says Accepting risk-based consensus safety standards related to the design production and modification of small unmanned aircraft systems And so what that means is the FAA will be telling manufacturers what needs to be on their drones before they can sell those drones and if you skip ahead to page 268 letter F says revocation the administrator may suspend or revoke the authorizations in subsection a if the administrator Determines that the manufacturer or the small unmanned aircraft system is no longer in compliance with the standards Accepted by the administrator under subsection a1 or the manufacturer's statement of compliance under subsection H so what that means is if the FAA Decides that your drone that you built and created and sold to the public is not meeting its safety standards They can shut you down. So basically the FAA is gonna have to keep track of every drone that's manufactured and every drone That's sold in the United States of America I don't know but that seems like a lot to me All right in order to keep this video relatively short We're gonna move on to the next one and we're gonna talk about page 282 section 349 This is the section of this bill that calls for the repeal of section 336. That's a lot of sections But basically section 349 kind of reiterates a lot of the things that were in section 336 like the aircraft must be flown strictly for recreational purposes The aircraft is operated in accordance with a CBO community-based organization set of standards must be flown within the visual line of sight The aircraft is operated in a manner that does not interfere and gives away to any manned aircraft If you're in class BCD or lateral boundaries of class E You must notify the air traffic control if you're gonna be flying there and if you're in class G You have to stay below 400 feet. So nothing new there That's basically the same but let's take a look at number 7 and this is the one that's going to be Probably the most controversial. Like I said, I'm not going to give my opinion but it says right here the operator has passed an aeronautical knowledge and safety test described in subsection G and Maintains proof of test passage to be made available to the administrator or law enforcement upon request so let's go ahead and jump ahead to Subsection G and it says not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this section The administrator in consultation with manufacturers of unmanned aircraft systems other industry stakeholders and community-based Aviation organizations shall develop an aeronautical knowledge and safety test which can then be administered Electronically by the administrator a community-based organization or a person designated by the administrator So basically the FAA is going to be able to choose who can administer a knowledge and safety test for flying a drone and Anybody that is flying a drone anybody has to take this test has to pass the test and carry proof With them at all times if they're flying their drones that they pass the test so if you're out flying your drone in class G airspace and A police officer or a sheriff or something that like that comes up to you And they ask you for proof of your aeronautical knowledge test you must present it so basically what that means if you're out flying your drone and a police officer comes up to you and questions you flying your drone and And he's going to ask you for proof of test passage of the aeronautical knowledge test What if you don't have that proof of passing the test? What's going to happen? Are you going to get arrested? Are you going to get a fine? It doesn't say this bill doesn't say what's going to happen? And I guess the administrator is given the authority to decide what's going to happen, but it's just still such a gray area Yes, it's great that you should become more knowledgeable about flying drones about the rules about where you can and can't fly I think that's great dang it was that an opinion. I'm sorry. I'm providing my opinion again. I don't mean to do that but But it is a good thing you can't argue with that It's good to know what the rules are and it's good to know where you should and you shouldn't fly But you know having to provide proof of passage of that test. It just seems a little bit I don't know what the word is But I just think it's gonna be really hard to manage and there's just so much gray area to it All right, I'll stop it. No more opinions. I apologize for that Anyway, as of now part 107 pilots like myself, you know We do have to carry proof of our part 107 certification with us if we were flying commercially and now if this passes if the Senate passes this anybody who's flying a drone is gonna have to carry proof of Passage of an aeronautical knowledge test that is not yet developed But is planned to be developed with the with the thoughts and the opinions and the guidance of all kinds of people So you guys decide let me know down in the comments I'm sure you guys will but the next one I want to talk about is a page 287 and basically this little section of the bill pretty much takes the reins off the FAA and It says right here on letter F. Nothing in this section prohibits the administrator from promulgating Promulgating I'd never know how to say that word Promulgating rules generally applicable to unmanned aircraft including those unmanned aircraft eligible for the exception set forth in this section relating to the standards for remotely identifying owners and operators of unmanned aircraft systems and associated unmanned Aircraft so what that means is the FAA has been given if this passes Full authority to remotely and identify where you are who you are where you're flying what you're doing It's a giant privacy issue. Is that an opinion? I don't know I'm sure you guys will give me your opinion on the next page page 288 it talks about a community-based organization and what's defined as a community-based organization Which is good. We've never had that before and so according to this a community-based organization must be nonprofit must be 501 C or 501 a the mission of which is demonstrably the furtherance of model aviation and Provides a comprehensive set of safety guidelines for all aspects of model aviation Addressing the assembly operation of model aircraft yada yada yada and all that and so I think that's good And the other thing recognition of community-based organizations Must be published in advisory circular within 180 days of the enactment of this bill And so if this passes they have three months to publish what is considered an acceptable community-based Organization and then finally in this subsection on page 290 it just says repeal section 336 of the FAA modernization and reformed Act of 2012 and so there we go We knew that was coming and then it goes on to talk about the use of unmanned aircraft systems to further education so like college campuses even I think maybe high schools public institutions and It kind of talks about how they're going to govern the use of drones for those purposes for educational purposes So we're not going to go through those today One little thing it talks about waivers. It does allow for more transparency when it comes to waivers It also asks for technology improvements on waivers and it asks for Letting people who apply for waivers know where the process is because as I understand it right now I have never applied for a waiver But most people are asking for Daytime waivers which are basically flying at night waivers or flying over people and they don't know where they are in the process They don't know how long it's going to take to get that waiver approved and sometimes it takes three months or six months or whatever Sometimes I don't know up to a year to approve these waivers Well, this bill calls for more transparency and more electronic notification and the ability for someone who has applied for a waiver To know where they are in the process. I was just about to give my opinion, but I'm not going to All right on page 303 section 3 5 6 talks about the authorization of appropriations for know before you fly campaign and so they've asked for 1 million dollars each fiscal year from 2019 through 2023 to Further develop the know before you fly app and basically, that's the app where you can log on and learn all kinds of things about safety issues and Learning how to fly a drone and things like that. The next section section 3 5 6 addresses unmanned aircraft systems Privacy policy and the bill calls for privacy review and all kinds of things but this one's really important for part 107 pilots people who are flying commercially because if you skip ahead to page 337 got to jump around in this thing a lot to find where everything is, but on page 337 it says each person that uses an unmanned aircraft system for compensation or hire or in the furtherance of a business enterprise Except those operated for purposes protected by the first amendment of the Constitution should have a written privacy policy Consistent with section 3 5 7 section 3 5 7 talks about privacy and the policies when it comes to privacy Consistent with section 3 5 7 that is appropriate to the nature and scope of the activities regarding the collection use retention Dissemination and deletion of any data collected during the operation of an unmanned aircraft system and it goes on to say each privacy policy described in paragraph 1 should be periodically reviewed and updated as Necessary and it must be publicly available So what that means is if you are flying a drone for commercial purposes as a part 107 pilot You must develop and have and carry and make Public your privacy policy. What are you going to do with this information? Who are you going to share it with? What do you plan to do with it later on? How are you going to delete this information if you plan to delete it or do you have a process for deleting the information that? You're going to collect while you're flying. So my question is how does this apply to YouTube channels people who fly and record information Post tutorials and reviews and all kinds of stuff like that on drones quadcopters, whatever you want to call them on YouTube and They're flying under part 107 and And they have to have a privacy policy for that Do we have to post our privacy policy publicly on our YouTube channel or any other social media for that matter? So let's say I'm flying for my family and I'm doing a wedding and they want to post it on Facebook Do I have to post that privacy policy on Facebook before I can post that video on Facebook? I don't know. It doesn't say and so that's another thing that has a lot of gray areas to it section 372 on page 321 UAS safety enforcement the administrator of the FAA shall establish a pilot program to utilize available remote detection or identification technologies for safety oversight including enforcement actions against operators of unmanned aircraft systems That are not in compliance with applicable federal aviation laws including regulations So basically it's asking for a pilot program a study program to determine how to do remote detection technology Alright, and finally the last section of this bill that we're going to discuss is probably the most important one And it's the one that most people are talking about It's one that's getting all the press right now and it has to do with counter UAS technology counter drone technology hazard mitigation And things like that, you know, there's you see the headlines the FAA will be able to shoot down your drone now Are they actually gonna be able to shoot down your drone? I don't know it doesn't say that in here and So people are already speculating about that and the reason that they're speculating about it is because it doesn't really define Everything that it needs to in this section of the bill. But anyway section 383 and it starts on page 384 is Airport safety and airspace hazard mitigation and enforcement and the first part of it says that Basically any hazard mitigation or or any enforcement that is taken against a drone must not interfere with normal operations of airports or airspace or anything like that So any technology that exists and anything that is used to mitigate a dangerous drone Cannot cause trouble elsewhere in the national airspace system. So good or bad I don't know I would say good but you guys can make your own opinion and then it goes on to page 346 where it says authority now, this is the most important paragraph in all 100 pages probably in all 1,200 pages of this article and it says Authority under the testing and evaluation and subsection see the administrator shall use unmanned aircraft detection and mitigation systems to detect and mitigate the Unauthorized operation of an unmanned aircraft that poses a risk to aviation safety So what they want to do is at five different airports including one airport that's ranked in the top ten of the FAA's most recent passenger boarding data They're gonna test drone mitigation technology and after doing that testing and Deciding how it works or deciding how they're gonna do it. Then they're gonna develop a hazard mitigation policy and decide how they're going to destroy or intercept or do whatever to drones that they think want to do something bad and So there's a so much there's so much wrong with this and this is why it's getting so much press This is why so many people are talking about it because the language in this bill does not fully define the parameters of which the FAA can intercept or Take away or destroy your drone according to the way that this bill is Worded logically you could be flying your drone minding your own business And if an FAA representative or some other government official feels that you are not operating in a safe manner They can come to you and take your drone away. They don't need to ask permission from any courts They don't need a warrant. It is carte blanche They can do whatever they want without any oversight without any approval and that is the one single reason That many people think this bill should not pass. Am I one of those people? I'm not gonna tell you I'm not gonna give you my opinion But anyway, it's dangerous it has a lot to do with privacy You know being able to remotely detect where you are what you're doing who you are Anything like that. It's a giant giant invasion of privacy and it's a huge step over our Constitution I am NOT a political person. I am NOT a zealot by any means, but I am a constitutionalist and if you're not that's fine I'm I still love you But the problem with this is It's just not fully defined and there's a lot of things in here that I'm guessing Most senators don't know are in here this section of the bill on drones on UAVs, whatever you want to call them is 1% of the bill and There's a high likelihood that your senator does not know anything About this section and these subsections of the bill when it comes to drones And so the whole reason the biggest reason I'm doing this video is to bring the information to you guys So you can make an informed decision and reach out to your senator if you want to you don't have to you can keep your Head in the sand and just hope for the best but the fact is We all need to be informed and our senators our representatives need to be informed because Chances are they are not so as I said, I'm gonna put some links down in the description the first one I'm gonna put down there is this bill this 1200 page Behemoth of a bill you don't have to read the whole thing just read pages 247 to 348 it might it's gonna take you about an hour That's what it took me to read through it and I went through it three times and I kind of picked out What I felt was the most important things to share with you guys But there's a lot of stuff in here yet that I did not discuss. So please read the bill next link I'm gonna put down there is from UAV expert news.com and what this is It's a letter from the AMA and I want you guys to know and I'm very serious when I tell you this The AMA has been there the whole time through this whole process. Like I said in my last video There was a lot of toxic comments There was a lot of finger pointing saying the AMA has never been there the AMA hates drones But the fact is they do not and they are a representative for us They are our biggest ally right now. And the only way we're gonna get through this is if we help each other So anyway, they formulated a letter and they have a link that you can click on and you just fill out that information You put your first name your last name your email your contact information And then there's a form letter that you can send to your senator expressing your opinion about HR 302 My advice do this very soon because time is of the essence They are probably gonna vote on this within the next seven days The next link that I'm gonna put there is it's actually a short short little article from NACO org and it just kind of summarizes what happened over the past couple of days and The last link that I'm gonna put down there is from the drone girl the drone girl comm many of you probably know her She's been involved in this whole process as well And so she has a nice little article in there that I think you guys might be interested in seeing so that's all I have I'm sorry I kind of interjected my opinion in there at some times but it's kind of hard not to when you're passionate about this, but I just really wanted people to be aware of what's going on right Now because the large majority of drone enthusiasts and drone hobbyists and even part 107 commercial drone pilots Don't know what's in this bill and more importantly our senators don't even know what's in this bill and I don't blame them They have a lot going on right now Especially what's what's currently going on in Washington. So anyway, I hope I gave you something of value some information of value I ask that you share this video share those links with everybody You know that wants a drone has a drone is interested in a drone aerial videography aerial photography Everything like that anybody who's gonna be up in the air needs to be aware of this process Also guys, if you're not subscribed to the channel, I don't do videos like this a lot. This is only the second one I'm not an investigative journalist or anything like that. I mostly just do drone comparisons tutorials reviews product reviews You know aerial videography tutorials editing tutorials and things like that So, you know if that sounds interesting to you, be sure to click on the subscribe button and the notification bell I want to thank you guys for watching today. And as always fly safe and fly smart