Feds Seeks to Extend Drone Rules to Hobbyists

Safety measure...

Preparing drone for flight.

The federal government will seek to register all drones, including the lighter, remote-controlled crafts favored by hobbyists, so it can track down any drone pilots who collide with other aircraft or violate rules for safe flights, Bart Jansen reports on usatoday.com.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Monday the new rules will apply to hobbyists as well as commercial drone operators, who already register, Jansen wrote.

Government regulators and industry leaders are eager to get rules in place as interest in remote-controlled aircraft surges.Quadcopters equipped with a high-definition cameras cost little more than $40 and can be purchased easily online, while models that fly longer and higher can run thousands of dollars. Retailers expect drones to fly off the shelves as gifts this holiday season, according to Jansen.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) already requires registration numbers on commercial drones and it has approved 1,891 special permits through Oct. 15 for a variety of uses, such as aerial photography, pipeline inspections and agricultural monitoring. But until  now, the FAA has not required hobbyists to register, although hundreds of thousands of remote-controlled aircraft have already been sold, Jansen reported.

For more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/10/19/dot-drone-task-force-registry/74210902/