The FAA is reminding drone owners about this week’s registration deadline.
If you own a drone weighing more than 0.55 pounds, but less than 55 pounds, and you’ve been flying it outdoors or plan to fly it outdoors for hobby or recreation, federal law requires you to register by this Friday, Feb. 19.
You can register online at FAA.gov — it costs $5 and is valid for three years.
Once you complete the registration process, you will receive a certificate and an FAA registration number which must be marked on all unmanned aircraft that meet the registration weight requirement.
You must have your certificate with you when you fly. You can print your certificate or save it to your personal electronic device, like your smartphone, or do both.
“Besides being required by law, registration provides an excellent opportunity to educate yourself if you are new to aviation, and it will help you become part of the safety culture that has been the hallmark of traditional aviation for more than a century,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.
More than 342,000 people have already registered. Failure to register with the FAA could result in one or a combination of the following: A civil penalty of up to $27,500; a criminal fine of up to $250,000; or imprisonment for up to three years.
Fortunately there are some places where you are still free to fly your RC planes without having to register with the government……….Russia!
The FAA has now completely lost it. They are a hopeless case, with no idea what they’re doing, or why, especially with drones. Their proposed drone rules are completely ineffective and illogical, have inappropriate and completely non-scientific determined breakpoints, will not address the key major issues involved, will massively inhibit viable technical advances, are utterly impractical, are completely unnecessary administrative burdens, will be substantially circumvented both inadvertently and deliberately, will not assure needed safety for other airspace users, and in some cases such as FAA’s absurd idea of “Detect-Sense-and-Avoid”, even border on violating the laws of both physics and economics. Other countries will quickly take the lead in managing these issues due to FAA’s complete implosion and inability to exert leadership for two decades on drones. Let’s hope FAA is finally busted up by the Congress with the Schuster Bill, and a more rational rebirth of a new reorganized FAA is the result, with new executives with aerospace relevant leadership and vision, and specialists that have real operational experience, and with a separate ANSP split out, managed with oversight of real airspace users.
I am still trying to figure out how the FAA can require the registration of model aircraft, but yet at the same time not require the registration of Ultralights. Also why are they going to make the registry data public that has owners under 18 years old listed on it? And why did the “free” drone registration require a credit card?