At Worst, JDA Aviation Says It Is The Waste Of An Opportunity To Address A Real Problem

Monday's announcement of a task force that will craft rules for registering UAVs will create a lot of activity, but not a lot of action, according to aviation consultant JDA Solutions. And in a post on the company blog, writer Sandy Murdock says that the registration scheme is at best a "band-aid", and at worst may waste an opportunity to address a problem that actually exists.

Among the most obvious problems is that UAVs are small, so unless an offending aircraft is actually in the hands of authorities, the "N" number on the aircraft will be too small to see in all but a very few circumstances.

Murdock suggests that the real answer to accountability is technology in the form of some kind of RFID or transponder, that will continuously broadcast information about the drone and its owner. Murdock said that such rules could be established under the FAA's authority to issue emergency regulations.

Murdock says that registration should have been included in the initial Part 107 NPRM. If that had happened, Murdock posits, it would have been accepted by now.

He also says that the FAA knows that to effectively regulate this burgeoning new industry, it needs more investigators. The agency also knows that in the current budget climate, that is a very unlikely prospect. Murdock suggested that a $10 initial registration fee and a $5 annual renewal fee would amply fund that many in the industry seem to want ... real enforcement of the FARs covering UAVs.

(Image from file)

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