FAA now Under Pressure to Grant Waivers or Create Regulations for Commercial UAV use ASAP

A U. S. judge's decision to overturn the FAA's first fine for operating an unmanned aircraft commercially is being described as a “self-inflicted wound,” resulting from the agency's failure to put in place regulations to govern the use of small civil UAVs.

The FAA has appealed the ruling, by National Transportation Safety Board Judge Michael Geraghty, putting the decision on hold. But critics of the agency's foot-dragging on releasing its small unmanned aircraft system (SUAS) rule hope the judge's decision—and the threat of an explosion in unregulated commercial use of UAVs—will force the FAA into action.

From filming weddings and homes for sale to delivering beers to fishermen and packages to doorsteps, the FAA is struggling to stop the burgeoning commercial use of UAVs until it can get regulations governing their use in place. On the shelf for years, the SUAS rule is not expected to be released for public comment until late this year and could take two years to become final.

Meanwhile, prospective users are getting impatient and “illegal” flying is on the rise, exploiting the fact that model aircraft are not regulated. The $10,000 fine slapped on Raphael Pirker for using a UAV to photograph the University of Virginia campus was the first levied by the FAA; Pirker's legal challenge is a test case for agency's ban.

The FAA does not consider a model aircraft flown recreationally to be an aircraft in a regulatory sense. If the same aircraft is flown commercially, however, it becomes a UAV and therefore prohibited. But Geraghty found there are no regulations in place governing the use of UAVs, only policy guidance for FAA employees that is not binding on the public.

“The judge ruled if it looks, walks and quacks like a duck, it's a duck,” says John Langford, president of UAV manufacturer Aurora Flight Sciences. “The FAA says flying a model aircraft is okay as a hobby, but do the same activity with the same hardware as a business and it's not okay. The NTSB judge destroyed the FAA's arguments.”

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