News UK government to mandate drone registration, safety training

"The UK is at the forefront of an exciting and fast growing drones market and it is important we make the most of this emerging global sector."

I see that "make the most of" now translates to "completely destroy civilian use of".

 

Not entirely sure what other option they have when numptees fly them stupidly and shut down airports unless they just tried a registration process to begin with.

 

Unfortunatley too many idiots with no self control have bought them, so this is the result.

 

Perhaps we should instead deregulate everything and just have a register for idiots.

 

Being a slow day i had a quick read of the report into the effect of drone collisions on aircraft because i was expecting it to cover what happens when they go into an engine, very disappointed that it only covered windscreens and helicopter tail rotors.

I know turbine engines can withstand some bird strikes but I'd love to know how they handle drone strikes, i mean who doesn't like the idea of seeing what happens when a drone meets a million pound blender.

 

I have a feeling that for people who use drones for nefarious reasons will be unaffected. Have they set down what makes a drone?

 

True. The cynic in me just assumes any modern licensing plan will be exceedingly onerous.
But the mindset is already "drone ownership is a problem", so I feel like the inherent response is to view them as a thing to be stamped out.

Also, the "geofencing" mandate strikes me as damaging even without burdensome licensing rules. Sure a GPS receiver isn't that expensive these days, but it still raises costs. Especially in conjunction with the added cost of testing the firmware and updating the ban lists. Assuming manufacturers actually test their new firmware.
Depending on how this is written(does it exempt smaller, cheaper, less-intelligent devices?), it could completely eliminate the lower-cost "entry level" quadcoptors from the market while looking like a reasonable concession.

 

From what I read in the UK you can't fly within 150 metres of a congested area nor 50 metres near a person or anything manned from what I gather. Mind you that's all pointless without registration.

 

I misparsed things, apparently. I thought the "250g or more" clause was only in regards to licensing and there was no size clause attached to the "geofencing" portion.

To my understanding, the current "geofencing" configurations are optional and easily disabled, but this would make them mandatory and presumably difficult to disable. And my admittedly-cursory research on the issue turned up a few instances of glitched GPS implementations grounding drones in what should be clear-to-fly areas.

(I still think "geofencing" is a dumb word, but have no intention of fighting it beyond putting it in quotes.)

 

Another unfortunate case of why we can't have nice things. Too many people out there doing downright idiotic things for measures like this not to be pushed forwards. Fingers crossed it will actually do something to curb perhaps not malicious use but purely irresponsible behaviour, else it's just another piece of frustrating tape.

 

Yup, it's a real shame that the RC aircraft & helicopter community has managed to self-regulate for decades without incident, and it's taken a scant few years for people with NEW TOY syndrome to ruin it for everyone.