Who’s Monkeying With The Numbers Again?

I don’t know if the folks at the FAA UASIO are just trying to muddy up the water for job security purposes, or are they going for totally inept? I’ve been listening to what amounts to the mental defective league (formally known as the toy company cabal) bray about the necessity of bringing the rogue and clueless Best Buy flyer to heal.

The stark reality is, you and I friend, are woefully unrepresented in the public rule making process.

I guess it is hard to make NAS integration progress when the only tool you have in the toolbox is a monkey wrench? The DAC and Pony show is in full swing with a tainted and troubled industry chair. An administrative lawmaking regulator that has spent 30 years on a grind that only disenfranchises the aviation community. These same people throw the safety of the NAS to the wind when the entity has VC money to spend on lobbyists.

I’m not sure if the FAA has established a baseline for VC $ mulligans, but maybe I’ll FOIA that along with the long-awaited baseline for Sense and Avoid.

The gaggle of sycophants (aka the mental defective league), bolster the FAA’s flawed policy they are killing it while hoping for mandated members and customers (you) that will allow or justify another round at the investment well.

I like to FOIA!

I made a request recently to ascertain exactly how many drones (commercial and hobby) are legally registered. I know the toolbox crowd likes to use the “active registration” terminology, but I am the traditional type that likes the old “in compliance with the law” stuff. Just getting through the UASIO’s own brand of obfuscation numbers is a treat. Lest we forget that the hobby numbers aren’t actually aircraft but are, in fact, people, and some of those people are minors.

The following numbers are a cut and paste from the FOIA response and are “registrations in compliance with the law!”

I asked for the number of “new” registrations and this is what I got.
 
Part 107 2018 188,092
Part 107 2019 128,503
Rec Flyer 2018 110,072
Rec Flyer 2019 114,732
 
Part 107 is the commercial registrants and Rec Flyer are the hobbyists. These numbers are much lower than the FAA would have you, the congress, or anyone else that is listening believe. You will see in the graphic updated February 18, 2020, that the FAA contends that there are “1,552,633 Drones Registered.” Allow me to break it down for you…

The total number of drones (and people) in compliance with the law, according to the FAA, AFB-711 Aircraft Registration Branch is 541,399. Or less than a third of what the FAA UASIO likes to call active –

In closing, we have seen the same downward trend with the Remote Pilot Certificates, and the numbers are moving in the wrong direction and hardly warrant spending the taxpayer-funded $69 million a year.

@TheDroneDealer on Twitter