Buzzy the Drone
I believe it is an insult to those of us who have spent years of our time and countless thousands of dollars trying to safely integrate UAS into the NAS. During my tenure, I have seen colossal waste; dysfunction and jockeying for consulting gigs take precedence over the domestic industry. That goes for FAA, NASA, DoJ, DoD, DoT, AUVSI, AMA and the associated Bonus visionaries.
The bottom line here, the FAA facilitated the demise of the U.S. domestic drone industry. You cannot impose a 10-year prohibition and expect to stay out in front with the technology. Sure we heard them bray “safety of the NAS!” However, the reality of the situation was that people were doing whatever they wanted in the NAS and the FAA just decided to pull the old ostrich routine for a decade and pretend the circus wasn’t happening. The FAA brass is left monkeying with the GA numbers to put on the charade that the U.S. aviation sector isn’t dying.
This latest effort was probably an idea hatched under the guise of safety. However, let’s talk about the missed opportunities to be the champion of safety and or aviation for that matter. How about the NFL approaching the FAA about doing no drone zone PSA’s. That one got swept right under the rug as it was just too much work for folks to fit in between junkets and cocktail parties.
There is no denying that there have been so many missed opportunities over the years to quantify the risks and do the science to achieve the stated goal of safely integrate UAS into the NAS. After 26 years of trying to stifle the industry and technology the best the Federal Aviation Administration (you pay for) could come up with is a Chinese monopoly and Buzzy the Drone?
