RC-Hangout

Some good news there

Interesting:)

I'm not expecting a refund.

And I fully expect either the FAA to appeal or for Congress to end up explicitly granting them the authority to maintain and perhaps even expand the registration requirement, now that it has been done already. But that will all take a year or two to play out, so enjoy the freedom while it lasts. And if you give a damn about it as an issue, make sure you write/call your congress critters and encourage them to stand with the hobbyists, not the DJIs and FAA interests.

That's the interesting thing in all this. DJI and other "big time" drone makers are all on board with the registration requirements, and even more. For a while I was perplexed by this. Why would the actively seek government mandated restrictions they have to implement into flight controllers, enforce through device registration and firmware upgrades, etc. and also act against the interests of the bulk of their consumers (mass market, non professional/commercial users) who pretty much across the board want no part of a federal registration scheme. I've come to believe they support it for three reasons:

1) If there is federal restrictions and they implement them to the satisfaction of the FAA and consumer protection boards, then they effectively indemnify themselves against law suits should something happen. Legalities being what they are, from their perspective it is better to produce products that exist in a defined regulatory framework than it is to make products that impose no restrictions, let the consumers get into trouble, and then turn around and sue the company for producing the no-rules product.

2) Implementing firmware and registration systems that enforce this regime places large burdens on the industry of mass market drone makers. It acts as an unnatural barrier to entry into the market, making it that much more difficult for competition to pop up and eat their lunch in an otherwise fast paced, R&D heavy industry.

3) It gives them a legally justified hook to literally force consumers to keep plugging their drones into the internet. This allows them to keep the devices up to date, collect usage data, etc. It's a customer support and marketing analysis dream come true.

I was told recently that it is now illegal to fly a drone in at least Indiana State Parks. That sucks for people that want to photograph some of the awesome sights. I heard a few people had their drones confiscated by DNR.. Don't know that it's true, just heard that.

can't fly in State Parks?? That's just rude!!!

As a general update on this thread: I guessed wrong! For those that did register with the FAA after the auto-refund period, you can now seek a refund. And for all that registered you can also seek to have your registration data removed from their database. There is a mail-in form to do it. Unfortunately I can't dig up the link right at the moment. Will try to find it in email on the other computer tomorrow.