Genghis9
 First Officer
United States
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hallmark007 Posted at 2017-8-19 07:42
Funny you should mention ICAO , I attended a seminar in Europe held by EASA, there was a speaker from ICAO who spoke of engaging with drone manufacturers ( No specific ones) regarding the safety measures being taken by them regarding the air safety of their drones.
Specifics were not given or announced but I got the impression that talks with drone manufacturers are ongoing all the time.
I know particularly in US much of the NFZ are poorly constituted and how and where or with who these were put together doesn't seem to be privy to anyone , it seems strange that dji would be allowed to just impose all these NFZ without any permission or imposition by those responsible for NFZ zones. As I have commented on this subject before, I recognize that no serious person in our hobby, sport, and/or profession (applied accordingly) has an issue with flight safety and exploring ways to ensure airspace deconfliction. The problem comes down to reasonableness and practicality. Even google has trouble keeping up with their maps and satellite imagery, the world is a dynamic place and especially in countries like the US where we are constantly building, rebuilding, and changing things. I feel DJI has enough on their plate just to design, improve, and produce their equipment, look at the trouble they are having with firmware, and some of it is self-inflicted. I would be less opposed to permanent and precisely identified airspace definitions of “major” airfields and military installations, but even that could be a major headache keeping track of all the changes that occur with them. The problem with military airspace is in itself dynamic, one day a chunk of airspace is wide open and the next it is blocked off, sure, you have the NOTAM system, but most droners can’t read the manual to their own craft. However, even this presents problems for legitimate drone operators that have a valid and therefore right to operate their aircraft in some of these flagged airspace areas. For example, many airshows invite model aircraft operators to their events, at airports. Most all model aircraft do not have the onerous restrictions put on them by their designers/manufacturers that DJI does, and therefore can fly at such an event with no trouble. At present, a US DJI drone owner, who has proper clearance and permission from the controlling FAA authority, still has to deal with a foreign company to get permission to operate their property. Even more burdensome is that the FAA will grant a waiver for 72 hours or more, but DJI will only give you 24 hours on the Go App and 72 on their website, if you already have clearance for a week or so DJI should not be requiring you to keep “mother may I’ing” them every day or so. That makes no sense to me whatsoever. In the US the FAA is the controlling authority, not China’s DJI, sorry I refuse to see that aspect of this any other way, last I checked we did not cede sovereignty of our airspace and ipso facto our property to China’s DJI.
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