2009 NOTAM Prohibits Model Aircraft Operations

Adam Eidinger was contacted by the FAA on September 14th regarding his “quadcopter” that he lost the week earlier in a Washington D.C neighborhood, just 1.5 miles north of the White House. Seems he had been making numerous flights with his flying camera mount through airspace that has been restricted from these types of flights.

The $700 Chinese-built remote-controlled aircraft was lost during a routine flight when a gust of wind took it beyond the limits of the radio’s capabilities, according to the blog The DCist. The craft is programed to enter a “safe landing mode” when radio contact is lost, causing it to slowly lose altitude in a vertical descent. Eidinger created a “missing drone” flyer and posted it on lamp posts and telephone poles in the local area, stating that it “crashed near 17th and Florida Ave” and offered a reward for its return.

In an unexpected turn of events, Eidinger was given a friendly call from the FAA, as a result of seeing the poster, and was reminded of the 2009 NOTAM:

The following operations are not authorized within the DC FRZ: flight training, aerobatic flight, practice instrument approaches, glider operations, parachute operations, ultra light, hang gliding, balloon operations, tethered balloons, agriculture/crop dusting, animal population control flight operations, banner towing operations, maintenance test flights, model aircraft operations, model rocketry, float plane operations, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and aircraft/helicopters operating from a ship or private/corporate yacht.

Eidinger promised the FAA that he would cease his quadcopter operations until such a time that the FAA opens the airspace for such activity. The location of the aircraft is still unknown. For those wishing to fly radio controlled aircraft in compliance with local, state and federal laws are urged to join the Academy of Model Aeronautics

FMI: www.modelaircraft.org