More Than 450,000 Have Registered Under Rules Some Say Are A Federal Overreach

More than 450,000 UAV operators have registered their aircraft with the FAA since the agency opened the registration database late last year. Of those, only one has decided that is appropriate to challenge the FAA's rulemaking process that created the database in the first plane.

That person is John Taylor, who builds and flies multi-rotor UAVs as a hobby. He is also an attorney, and is representing himself in his lawsuit.

Writing for Forbes, Analyst John Goglia points out that at the core of Taylor's argument is that for decades, the FAA made a clear distinction between model aircraft, which he believes includes hobby drones, and manned aircraft. The FAA had always encouraged voluntary guidelines for the hobbyists.

Taylor also holds that the registration database is in direct violation of the 2012 FAA Modernization and Reform Act, which expressly prohibited the FAA from issuing new rules regarding hobby aircraft if they met certain safety criteria.

Taylor contends that the FAA did not allow sufficient time for public comments on the proposed rules in a rush to get the registration established before the anticipated flood of drone purchases at Christmas last year.

Goglia says that, according to noted drone attorney Peter Sachs, the FAA's regulations represent "an unlawful exercise of authority and should never stand. Federal agencies do not have the right to simply ignore the dictates of Congress – in this case the prohibition on creating any new rules regarding model aircraft,” he said.

Taylor told Goglia that his lawsuit is about stopping the FAA's "unlawful overreach into regulating toy aircraft as though they were real aircraft." He said that while it may appear that the program has gained wide acceptance given the number of registrants, when the alternative is the risk of three years in prison, people will register whether they like the idea or not.

Taylor said that with the number of drones registered far surpassing the number of manned aircraft, the FAA has become an "official registry of toys - that deals with aircraft as a sideline."

Going forward, the Government will file a brief, and Mr. Taylor will have an opportunity to respond. Then, oral arguments will be scheduled by the Court of Appeals, and a ruling could come as soon as this fall.

(Image from file)

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