The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 was signed by the President of the United States and became public law on October 5, 2018. The bill addresses many concerns associated with the Unmanned Aircraft System’s (UAS) community but left just as many questions. As a legislative point of order, the bill as written creates several challenges for Public Safety entities, as well as recreational flyers. Like all bills, the document is subject to interpretation and the final meaning of the words on the document will not be fully understood until it has survived judiciary challenges. Case in point, the FAA legal opinion for the 2012 version was shot down on several fronts when met by the scrutiny of the courts.
At face value, the changes to public operations could be monumental. The bill tasks the FAA with simplifying the process for issuing a Certificate of Authorization or Waiver (COA) when entering into an agreement with a public entity. The “contents” of the agreement limit the weight of a public use aircraft, restricting it to 4.4 pounds. As written, it infers public use aircraft could not be larger than a DJI Phantom 4. This would impact a number of agencies who have acquired sUAS that are substantially larger than this threshold. They would be forced to operate predominantly under the Part 107 umbrella with all of the associated certifications and processes. [Continue Reading @InterDrone]
October 17, 2018
