• News

• Regulations

The 2019 Update on Regulations of Recreational Drones

Drones are not limited to business and professional usage anymore. People can buy them off-the-shelf for recreational purposes quite easily now. However, due to the awareness and increase in recreational drones the FAA has also introduced new regulations that will be implemented this year.

The FAA Reauthorisation Act

Last year, FAA passed the FAA Reauthorisation Act that will go into action starting in 2019. In the past, the recreation drones were protected by the old reauthorisation act under Section 336 which was for all recreational aircrafts. However, it was repealed due to several reasons. One of the major reasons is the fact that national security agencies were concerned about the safety of the nation which pressurised FAA to change the rules. Meanwhile, the commercial drone advocacy groups also played a great role in this reauthorisation keeping in mind the over-sighting of the hobby.

What is Included in the FAA Reauthorisation Act?

As an owner of a recreational drone, it would be best to understand everything that is covered by the FAA Reauthorisation Act to practice your hobby without violating any rules and regulations.

• The one thing that the FAA regulation includes is the area coverage for recreational drones. Before this, you could only fly recreational drones in limited areas. One benefit for the owners of recreational drones is that they can share the space with commercial drones.
• On the other hand, the restrictions of area are applied for specific places such as airplanes. Recreational drones cannot be flown around airports for safety measurements.
• Secondly, at the moment, recreational drone owners don't have to acquire a license. But an ongoing development in regulations might require them to take online course for drone flying before they can take their recreational drone out in the open.
• The recreational drone owners also cannot fly above the 400 feet altitude.

Ongoing Development in Regulations Regarding Recreational Drones

The authorities are still developing new rules when the recreational drones are concerned. Since this is a fairly new hobby, it will take nit picking and envisioning a future with drones to perfect a law. The Air Traffic Organization is satisfied with the present laws as they looked forward to the integration of drones in a way that won't disrupt traffic.

Teri Bristol who is a chief operating officer at Air Traffic Organization also stressed that the team is working on regulations that would allow recreational drones and aircrafts to be flow with more freedom. Despite the fact that many people see a positive change coming, others are concerned about owners of recreational aircraft s who are not aware of the FAA Reauthorisation that has taken place.

Important Changes

Recreational drone s have to actively make the effort to avoid regulated aircraft spaces. If they want to fly their drone in such spaces, they will require a certification given by the FAA if they want to fly in controlled airspace. In the past, you had to notify the airport authorities only which was more risky as aircraft was controlled on case-by-case root.