I don't know what the new proposed regulations are, but, for recreational use, I think the current set are fair and appropriate:
Don't fly outside your unaided line of sight.
Don't intentionally fly over people.
Stay away from sensitive areas (Stadiums, etc...)
Don't fly near an airport without contacting the airport.
Stay under 400ft
Register it and label it, so that if it does fall and hit someone on the head, they can find you and let our legal system handle the repercussions.
Given the lack of inspection, that most of these rolled off an assembly line in China, have Lipo batteries that are prone to instantly shutting off if malfunctioning or overloaded(to prevent runaway thermal effect) meaning that these likely might fall out of the sky at any time, the restriction on flying within line of sight and not over people seems reasonable, along with the sensitive area restriction.
I can't think of a major recreational use for flying over 400ft AGL, besides wanting to snap a picture of your neighborhood from the air.
The most heavy handed one I can think of (and this one is enforced in DJI firmware) is the airport restriction. The official line is 'Don't fly within 5 miles of an airport without contacting the airport' -- There are enough airports that this covers a good bit of area, and, if a plane is below 500ft more than a mile or so from the airport, drones are probably not going to put it at any more risk.
A DJI drone will not leave the ground if it detects it's within a couple miles of an airport's radius, and there is no way to override it, even with the airport's consent.
The commercial regulations, as I understand them, are a bit more ridiculous. I haven't found the relevent text in the CFR, but I'm told that to fly a drone commercially(say, for a photographer to take pictures at a wedding) actually requires a full blown pilot's license, at least a 'sport pilots license'[1]. This seems a bit ridiculous for a photographer flying a drone 10ft above the ground. I hope some changes to this portion are coming.
I agree, the airport restriction is heavy. It isn't really '5 miles of an airport' but just not 'in regulated airspace', which is frequently around 5 miles around an airport. Sadly, there's no provision for just flying under 100 feet.
I didn't pull from the actual CFR, but, from the FCC UAS section[1]:
Don't fly within 5 miles of an airport unless you contact the airport and control tower before flying
But, for example, there is an airport near me that is not a controlled field, yet it is marked as a no-fly zone in DJI firmware. Some helipads are marked also even though they are not controlled fields
I paraphrased the rest from memory, left out the 55lb restriction(55lbs is pretty reasonable I think). If you are flying large(>55lbs) model aircraft, there is a clause that permits it as long as it is designed, inspected, tested, and flown within 'community-based safety guidelines'
I assumed it was, "Don't fly in regulated airspace" which would make sense. Some airspaces KSEA have a floor of 2,000ft pretty near them since planes pretty much always take off north/south
Thank you -- information I didn't have. Seems this, as well as the 400ft rule, is inline with the FAA's requirements for determining if an object is a hazard to the navigable airspace (Anything over 499ft, and -- within 3NM of the airport, anything over 200ft, adding 100ft for each NM in excess of 3) [1]
But, for the most part, this glideslope should extend only in the direction of the runways, correct? AFAIK There shouldn't be any aircraft approaching the airport below 500ft at a significant angle from a runway?
For the general masses, I can understand the FAA's reluctance to have everyone work out the angles of runways, glideslopes, etc... to see if they can fly and how high.
My main complaint is that DJI firmware won't let you leave the ground, even if you have worked out an agreement with the airport. For someone that lives near an airport, this pretty much grounds them.
Firmware seems overly restrictive - I thought drone rules were only to ask ATC if inside controlled airspace. Unless there's temporary airspace restrictions you should be OK.
Runway is typically set depending on the prevailing winds. Obviously if it's a single runway GA airport you only get two choices. If it's two or three runway, the active runway can change any time with the wind direction, and the pattern adjusts.
There's a few other factors that may influence the exclusion.
First is the VFR GA circuit (pattern) - which is 1000ft agl. You fly a rectangle - parallel to the runway, turn left, left again and you're on approach. You want as little as possible around you as it's a period of high workload doing landing checks, and other GA pilots will be joining and leaving the circuit, usually from the side. You'll be well outside the threshold for most of it. You're already scanning for potential impacts, but the traffic is arranged such that nothing should be coming at you, or from below you - they're the really difficult ones to spot.
If the weather is crap and the cloudbase lowers you'll do bad weather circuits - perhaps down to 500ft. You;ll be a lot tighter in to the field though.
Second, you'll sometimes extend circuit, usually downwind, to avoid commercial, military or heavy traffic (737 747 etc). ATC will sometimes (rarely) send you off in a random direction to keep separation with commercial or a heavy. You should still be circuit height agl though.
Commercial IFR stuff won't be mucking about in the pattern at 1000ft agl of course.
I doubt many drones are big enough to show on radar.
So a couple of miles out there shouldn't be anything at 500ft agl to the sides of the runway, unless something something exceptional is going on.
If it's a GA airfield like some of the more rural unmanned US ones, where you're the only thing in the sky, it's stupidly restrictive. If it's the airfield I learnt to fly at, with many aircraft in constant movement and two heleports, I don't want any more dots to scan for thanks very much.
It's probably more dangerous in whichever local area the instructors use to practice engine failures and emergency landings. Often a local beach or farm fields near the airfield, and usually uncontrolled airspace.
I'm guessing the rules are to try and limit things in the sky near airfields to those who know what they're doing, contact ATC, read NOTAMs and METARs, not scaring the students on their first solo and what have you.
Don't fly outside your unaided line of sight.
Don't intentionally fly over people.
Stay away from sensitive areas (Stadiums, etc...)
Don't fly near an airport without contacting the airport.
Stay under 400ft
Register it and label it, so that if it does fall and hit someone on the head, they can find you and let our legal system handle the repercussions.
Given the lack of inspection, that most of these rolled off an assembly line in China, have Lipo batteries that are prone to instantly shutting off if malfunctioning or overloaded(to prevent runaway thermal effect) meaning that these likely might fall out of the sky at any time, the restriction on flying within line of sight and not over people seems reasonable, along with the sensitive area restriction.
I can't think of a major recreational use for flying over 400ft AGL, besides wanting to snap a picture of your neighborhood from the air.
The most heavy handed one I can think of (and this one is enforced in DJI firmware) is the airport restriction. The official line is 'Don't fly within 5 miles of an airport without contacting the airport' -- There are enough airports that this covers a good bit of area, and, if a plane is below 500ft more than a mile or so from the airport, drones are probably not going to put it at any more risk.
A DJI drone will not leave the ground if it detects it's within a couple miles of an airport's radius, and there is no way to override it, even with the airport's consent.
The commercial regulations, as I understand them, are a bit more ridiculous. I haven't found the relevent text in the CFR, but I'm told that to fly a drone commercially(say, for a photographer to take pictures at a wedding) actually requires a full blown pilot's license, at least a 'sport pilots license'[1]. This seems a bit ridiculous for a photographer flying a drone 10ft above the ground. I hope some changes to this portion are coming.
[1] http://uavcoach.com/drone-certification/#pilot