In the kitchen at the 107 party
You’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties, it’s a great song (if you are of a certain age) two people will be in the kitchen at the 107 party today. They should really be on the stage.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Michael Huerta will preside over the formal FAA pomp and ceremony announcement of Part 107. With all the commercial love and joy, it may bring.
The Part 107 test is very simple being to PPL standard. Once you have passed it you are free to fly commercially RPA under 55lbs in weight with caveats. Most can be worked around with waivers.
Patrick first mentioned Part 107 in 2010 when we got wind of it.
One person and his team bought more sense to the FAA system than any other since 2007 when this drama started.
Jim Williams, ex-head of the FAA UAS Integration Office which he took charge of in March 2012 and has since left to take up a position with Dentons.
Jim and his crew found a slight gap in legislation that allowed a start for some operators. That gap became the 333 exemption. It was mentioned for the first time at our show in San Francisco in 2014
“Work is under way to implement the provisions of Sec 333 of the FAA re-authorization and reform act of 2012. this allows us to move forward with incremental UAS integration this section of the act can only be applied to specific limited low-risk uses in advance of the small UAS rule I stress the word may as we are still evaluating this option and developing our internal processes If we are able to leverage section 333 for low-risk operations there will be economic benefits as we begin to address the pent-up demand for commercial UAS operations.
Companies from four industries have approached the FAA and are considering filing an exemption request that will begin the process.
These industries include, precision agriculture, filmmaking, power line and pipeline inspections and oil and gas flare stack inspections.”
Whilst in no way perfect the 333 was really the start of commercial droning in America.
There are now more than 3000, 333 businesses already flying in the USA.
The next person, a bit of a cheat. It is perhaps more the company than the person.
I think Frank Wang CEO of DJI should be on the stand today.
His company sells more RPA every month 
than Brian Wynne’s old boys club has members.
More than any other group DJI pilots have caused the FAA to finally put their foot on the accelerator and get something done.
They are everywhere. I live in a tiny village in South Africa, population about 300 and there are four Phantoms here!
If DJI introduces a safety feature it immediately has a greater effect than anything the AUVSI can do or promulgate.
The AUVSI absence from Farnborough 2016, the world’s largest commercial drone show to date was noted.
I don’t understand why they got an invite. They represent the old, not the new.
