FAA powers up an invisible hand, groping the skies for rule-busting biz drones

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun enforcement of new rules covering the commercial use of drones. The FAA says that the "Part 107" [PDF] requirements have been designed to allow businesses to fly small drones for light operations such as recording video or aerial photography. Announced in June of this …

[Oengus]

'Merkan Solution.

a drone flying near the Virginia home of actor Robert Duvall was shot down by a shotgun-wielding neighbor when the craft veered onto her property

I love the merkan solution... If it moves Shoot it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 'Merkan Solution.

> If it moves Shoot it.

Oh hell yeah. She's not going to have a problem with the zombie apocalypse.

They don't fly drones around my Grandpa's farm either... He was a sniper in WWII, and my uncle was a sniper in Viet Nam.

[Anonymous Coward]

So how do you check the guttering on a 401-ft-high building?

[Neoc]

@moiety: it's 400ft from the ground or 400ft from the top of the building.

[Anonymous Coward]

DOH! It was nearly bedtime when I posted.

[Chris Tierney]

Burj Kalif

So it's ok for me to fly over 400 in Kansas as long as I claim I was trying to film the burj kalifa in Dubai, and I'm assuming the earth is flat?

[JM Grinder]

'Merkian w/Plenty of Guns Here

I won't say exactly where I am, other than to note that it's not very far from where drones are manufactured.

I own a shotgun and four rifles (plus three handguns, but I'm only mentioning it for effect), all of which are capable of shootin' them expletive-deleteds out of the sky should said drone-maker decide to do any product testing over my land. And I will not hesitate.

We also have our share of UFOs around here, but the dang things move too fast.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: 'Merkian w/Plenty of Guns Here / fast UFOs

Try the Series 4 Deatomizer, that usually does the trick.

[Ugotta B. Kiddingme]

Re: "Try the Series 4 Deatomizer"

The Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator is vastly superior to the Series 4 Deatomizer. However, there are occasional difficulties in achieving that Earth-shattering Kaboom...

[Nameless Faceless Computer User]

Everyone knows the proper way to bring down a drone is with a trained eagle.

[IglooDude]

I dearly hope that all those folks with rifles and an eye toward defending their suburban airspace remember that every miss is a rifle bullet going a couple thousand feet per second landing _somewhere_ and that somewhere probably has relatively innocent people in it. Best to stick to the shotguns.

[JM Grinder]

I don't live in the 'burbs, and even the relatively few bullets that fly at a couple thousand feet per second as they leave the muzzle slow down quite a bit after that. Just thought I'd mention some facts.

[IglooDude]

That's why I specified the 'burbs, you see. Out rural one presumably knows the bullet will probably not hit something warm-blooded downrange. And regarding bullet velocities, here's your facts: http://chuckhawks.com/rifle_ballistics_table.htm

[JM Grinder]

You've got me on rifle ballistics. I hardly ever think about it. The last time I looked up muzzle velocities it was for my handguns, none of which approach 2,000 fps.

[laird cummings]

Terminal ballistics is why God invented shotguns. :p Falling shot pellets are quite low-risk. If the drone is too high to take with birdshot, it's high enough that you're unlikely to take it with anything short of anti-aircraft artillery.

[Anonymous Coward]

Drone bullets

You know, there's probably a marketing opportunity here for drone bullets. These would be light weight, low ballistic coefficient, fragmenting bullets designed to safely destroy a low altitude drone, but without the chance of collateral damage if the drone were missed (e.g., That old "what goes up must come down" thing.). For an added benefit, there could even be a tracer version.

[Ugotta B. Kiddingme]

Re: Drone bullets

proximity or altitude fused fragmentation devices designed to be fired from a 12 bore - essentially, consumer-grade Anti-Aircraft munitions

[kain preacher]

Re: Drone bullets

tracers can get you in deep shit same with ap rnds.

[Black Rat]

Drones coming home to roost

Some regulation is definitely needed especially with the lager commercial drones, though I doubt it will do any good. Between over enthusiastic idiots buzzing airports, the criminally insane, basic home grown whack jobs or terrorists etc it's not IF a drone will cause bloody mayhem but WHEN. With a semi-pro drone costing under £5k being capable of carrying 3-4 kilos of payload plus a camera the possibilities for an atrocity are truly terrifying.

https://youtu.be/heMboVN12r0?t=14s

[Bill B]

Re: Drones coming home to roost

I'm all for a lager commercial drone