Recent content by PatR

Even more scary is a city official thinking he controls the airspace. His authority is limited to hangars, buildings, and auto parking areas. Anything an aircraft rolls on or flys from at Fresno belongs to the Feds.

Look at the Scan Eagle drone as it has been used, in conjunction with the FAA, state and federal fire fighting teams to map and direct retardant drops in forest fires. Started out the fire fighters were very resistant to using it. It didn’t take long for them to rely on it.

Individual components making up an assembly are not a security threat. Many times they can create reliability issues, but not security. Anything requiring a direct link to the web, be it for authorizations, updates, telemetry records, applications, or other purposes does present security...

Way back when I was a flight instructor is was pretty well established we could teach any monkey to fly. Landing was a different story. In all that time nothing has changed.

I’m one that chooses to delete telemetry files periodically. I won’t use equipment that auto transmits telemetry to the maker. If telemetry serves no other function than to possibly be used as evidence against me there is no purpose in retaining it. Having flown RC for over 45 years, a...

A smart drone operator would maintain a log book for all their flying. There will be a time in the not too distant future it will become required of commercial pilots. Recreational pilots may well find keeping a flight log useful for tracking flight hours, something insurance companies and...

If you do a little research you will find that drone insurance rates are almost double what s full scale pilot pays for similar or equal hull and liability coverage. As of my last insurance quote, had I been flying a Cessna 152, 172, or a Piper Archer my rate would have been at least...

Hip hip hooray!

If you’re interested in drones, buy a good one and fly it as a hobby. If you get good enough at it and stumble on paying jobs, move accordingly. There are thousands of people that bought drones thinking they could start making money with them. There’s an equal or greater number that found to the...

They’ve been using them in Sacramento, CA for almost two years to monitor low income housing areas.

The people accepting the jobs know their worth...

The reg concerning flight directly over people does not have an altitude limit or definition. Lacking one, there is no defined vertical separation that would allow flight over people at any altitude. The higher the drone the more difficult is is to determine if the drone is or is not over a...

Did that in 1990 and never regretted it.

Walking the same path but having different views is not a bad thing as we get to see both of the street at the same time.

The FAA’s free, online Remote Pilot test is only applicable to full scale pilots that are current. Your full scale and 107 certificates do not share the same dates unless you obtained them on the same day. In all probability they have different currency expiration dates. If you maintain full...