A Lesson In Patience, And Due Process... But Is Anyone
Listening?
by ANN Correspondent Valentino Valencia
A beautiful opening day at Oshkosh, and it's about 4:10 pm. I'm
late for my last forum of the day. This forum deals with unmanned
aircraft in the NAS, and is a subject that I'm really interested
in, as someone who works with UAVs.
As I walk into the pavilion -- located next to the flight line
-- I notice there are only eight people in attendance. No wait,
there are 9 people. Oh wait, he was just turning a chair around so
he can watch the air show with the 14 people standing next to the
pavilion doing the same thing.
Needless to say, this forum was provided at a time when there
was definitely more interesting things going on. And every time one
of those interesting things flew by, forum speaker Michael
Gallagher had to stop. Not because it was so interesting, but
because the noise was so overwhelming.
Michael is a former Manager of the FAA Small Airplane
Directorate and has been very involved in general aviation issues
since 1987. He is also a member of the leadership group of RTCA
SC-203, which is developing standards for sense and avoid and
communication and control for unmanned aircraft systems.
RTCA stands for Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, and
the standards that they are developing will be submitted to the FAA
for approval. At the request of AOPA and the FAA, Special Committee
203 (SC-203), was formed to help integrate Unmanned Air Vehicles
(UAV's) safely into the NAS.
The first of several steps for SC-203 is to develop an
Operational Services and Environment Description (OSED). Because
UAV's come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and different
mission profiles, SC-203 needs to be able to distinguish these
different platforms and label them accordingly. The OSED is
scheduled to come out later this year.
What does this mean for GA? This means that you still have a
voice. Anything that is submitted by SC-203 has to go through an
approval process through the FAA. This is where you can express
your opinion.
UAVs have a valid and important role to play in the future...
and it seems that integration into the NAS is important, and
inevitable. Although the attendance was small and the venue was
poor (for now), this is a subject matter that is going to get
increasing coverage in the future and will eventually affect
everyone that uses the NAS.
Even though SC-203 is there to ensure that UAV's "do no harm" to
existing NAS users, every user of the NAS should stay informed of
upcoming issues that affect their way of life.