Dear Bug,

Given my mounting disillusionment with the mental capacity of my fellow man,
I'm inclined to agree that your fears are probably well founded.

That said, I must confess my observation of the powerful UAV industry lobbies'
attempts to force the FAA to integrate UAVs/UASs into the National Airspace
System despite their inability to comply with the see-and-avoid regulation
smacks of arrogant hubris indeed. This is just what the airline flying public
needs, a blind aerial hazard exempt from FAA regulations. :-(

The latest proposed immigration reform bill mandates the purchase of eighteen
MQ-9 Reaper drones at $20-million each, not to mention the cost of operating
them with multi-man crews, satellite communications links, ground support
trailers, ... It seems to me, that we could put a lot of airmen to work flying
boarder patrol for a lot less expense and less impact on safety.

Additionally, a Texas professor has publicly demonstrated recently how a drone
can be commandeered, and "piloted" by anyone with a small radio transmitter
capable of overriding weak satellite based GPS signals, and spoofing a bogus
location. Think terrorists who don't need to die for the cause...

In any event, drones are a big issue, that needs some light shed on it pronto,
IMNSHO.

Best regards,
Larry


On Mon, 09 Sep 2013 09:09:44 -0700, Bug Dout wrote:

One could treat this as a humorous hahaha story. But at $25 per license,
clearly people are taking it seriously and will want to exercise their
new right to shoot at things zooming through the air. I doubt too many
will take much care between a manned and un-manned airplane. Never-mind
what the town is doing violates Federal law, the yahoos who have already
sent in their money now feel they literally have a license to kill. The
FAA should put a TFR around this entire town.