UAS Regulations

The FAA  is making a lot of regulations for UAS platforms. The FAA thought UAS platforms were just going to be a fad that died out after a couple of years but they were wrong. UAS platforms are currently booming filling so many different types of jobs for search and rescue, to pipeline inspections, to videography, and many other things. Some of the regulations made by the FAA limit what is able to be done by the platforms. A two of the regulations that I believe need to be changed are being able to fly over people, and only being able to fly by line of sight unless you have special permission. I believe you should be able to fly over small groups especially if it is being used for filming purpose. I believe the regulation should be closer to that of a aircraft. Aircraft are not able to fly over football games, baseball games, and music festivals. Aircraft are not allowed to fly over large open air gatherings of people. I believe UAS regulations should be more closely modeled to that of aircraft. This would allow for more film footage projects and better shots of what ever was being filmed. The second regulation that should be changed is only being able to fly by line of sight unless you have special permission. I believe that if the UAS platform has GPS tracking, a return to home, and a gimbal camera the platform should be able to fly out of the line of sight. These features keep the platform safe allowing the platform to see its surrounds and know where its located on the map. The return to home feature will return the platform to its launch point if it loses GPS connection or if the battery charge gets to low. If this regulation was changed it would make the UAS operators job easier to inspect buildings, pipe lines, etc if the platform could leave the operators line of sight. Changing these two regulations would make the UAS business boom more then what it already is and would make the quality of the jobs preformed so much better.

UAS Usage After A Hurricane

Hurricanes in America are one of the deadliest natural disasters. The golf coast and the southeast coast get many hurricanes every year varying in strength. Even though hurricane Florence was only a CAT 1 hurricane it causes immense flooding, destruction, and some loss of life. Drones could be instrumental in search and rescue after hurricanes. Most high-quality drones with cameras such has the DGI phantom 4 have GPS along with waypoints and altitudes set. If thermal cameras were attached to a drone such as the phantom 4 search and rescue operations could be run 24/7 right after a hurricane. Multiple platform could be flown at once in a zig zag grid formation. The zig zag grid flight pattern could be set up by using the GPS waypoint system. Once the drone finds a survivor the drone could either go into hover mode until rescuers arrive or they can mark the GPS location on a map and give it to the rescuers so they can go get the person while the drone continues to search for people. Rescuers could also fly the drones into unstable partially destroyed buildings to look for survivors instead of sending in a person and risk their life. This would a great use for the platform and could make rescue operations faster and safer.  A final use that could be used for the drones after a hurricane would be using them to measure water levels and look for dangerous hazards with different types of sensors. One of the hazards to rescuers in the water would be down powerlines that can’t be seen. These are some very useful way to use drone platforms after a hurricane to make search and rescue efforts much safer, faster, and efficient.

Clear Prop

Hello my name is Colton Edling and I am a junior majoring in UAS with a minor in flight. I am at the end of my flight training to receive my private pilot license.  My career goals are to fly large UAS such as reapers. I am hoping once i graduate school that I am able to fly drones for NASA or border patrol.