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Drone Users Will Be Required To Register With FAA

The new standards apply to all unmanned aerial vehicles weighing between 0.55 pounds and 55 pounds.

(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)

Drone hobbyists will be required to register with the Federal Aviation Administration by mid-February under new regulations announced Monday.

The new standards apply to all unmanned aerial vehicles weighing between 0.55 pounds and 55 pounds.

Drone owners that operated their aircrafts prior to Dec. 21 must register via paper or through an FAA website by Feb. 19. New drone users will be required to register prior to flying the aircraft outdoors following the Dec. 21 cutoff date.

“Make no mistake: unmanned aircraft enthusiasts are aviators, and with that title comes a great deal of responsibility,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. “Registration gives us an opportunity to work with these users to operate their unmanned aircraft safely."

Registrants would provide their name, home address and email address. The website would then generate a certification form with a unique identification number. The number would then need to be displayed on the user's drones.

The standards were largely based on the recommendations of an FAA panel filed last month. The panel, however, called for a free registration system in order to ensure maximum compliance.

Registration will be free for the first 30 days of the new regulations, but users will be charged $5 after Jan. 20 — the same price as registration of a large commercial jet. Drone registrations would be good for three years.
 

Officials said that registration would improve users' understanding of aviation rules and help alleviate hundreds of incidents involving drones and conventional aircraft.

Critics, including the Academy of Model Aeronautics, countered that registration was an "unnecessary burden for our more than 185,000 members who have been operating safely for decades."

The FAA also conceded that the new regulations wouldn't resolve ongoing issues with drones as hundreds of thousands more are likely to be bought during the current holiday season.

Foxx noted that "bad guys" would simply ignore the registration requirement.

The regulations would not apply to commercial drones, such as those developed by Amazon.com and other companies as a shipping vehicle. The FAA hopes to develop rules and online registration for those drones later in 2016.

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