Will Ground All Manned Flights For 24 Hours

Aero-News April 1 Special Edition

The FAA has announced it will issue a nationwide TFR for all manned airplane flights on April 1 to allow drone pilots to fly as high, far and fast as they want … just to get it out of their systems.

“We’re going to just let it be the Wild West out there for a day,” said an FAA insider not authorized to speak to the media.

Drone pilots will be encouraged to fly their aircraft in all kinds of weather conditions, near buildings and other structures, and to the limits of their batteries … all without the risk of a collision with a manned aircraft.

“If a pilot wants to see if he or she can make it to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back on one battery, go for it,” the source said. “But if not, that’s one less drone that we have to worry about.”

And that, in fact, is the underlying reason for the exercise. “Truthfully, we had a meeting and determined that the more of these things we can get to crash on a single day, the easier it’s going to be to eventually integrate them into the NAS. So when the carnage clears and we clean up the debris, only the responsible drone pilots will be left to deal with.”

ALPA said it supported the idea, even though it would cost airlines millions in lost revenue. “The only thing better would be to outlaw the damn things entirely,” said one airline pilot who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “What do you call 100,000 drones in pieces on the ground? A start,” she said.

FMI: www.faa.gov