Commercial drones are taking to the Northwest skies even though the rules aren't clear. Now the FAA has gotten the first reports of close calls between manned aircraft and small drones in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Idaho’s First Reported ‘Near Miss’
Rod Thomas operates an aerial spraying and seeding company out of the Gooding airport in south-central Idaho. One day this summer, one of his crop duster pilots was spraying potato fields in Blaine County. That's when the crop duster had Idaho's first reported "near miss" with a small drone.
"Some gentleman was either trying to chase us or block our path. We haven't figured out exactly what he was doing,” Thomas said.
The crop duster pilot pulled up to avoid a collision, but not before he got so close he could identify the make and model of the drone.
"My pilot who was involved in this encounter has one of these quad copters for his kids. He was close enough to see it was identical to the one he owns,” Thomas said.
Thomas says the average person may think there's no problem flying remote controlled airplanes and copters close to the ground in a rural area. But Thomas is quick to point out his company uses that low-level airspace, too.
"The regulatory agencies have not yet caught up to where they need to be. We're worried that, number one, it hasn't been thought all the way through. And number two, we do not want this settled in the courts because there is a fatality from running into an ag airplane or a Life Flight helicopter,” Thomas said.
Thomas says his company reported its near miss to the county sheriff and the Federal Aviation Administration. A sheriff's deputy located the person responsible. Thomas declined to press charges after the drone owner showed contrition to the deputy.
FAA: Recreational Drones OK, Commercial Drones Not OK
I got to wondering how often the FAA has cracked down on drone scofflaws. So I put in a public records request to the FAA's Northwest Mountain Regional Office for warning letters or related enforcement activity against people suspected of flying drones for commercial purposes.
A few weeks later came this reply: "No records, documents or files pertaining to your specific request were located." A spokesman declined to make anyone from the agency available for an interview to elaborate.
The FAA makes a distinction between recreational and commercial flying. It's okay for hobbyists to fly model aircraft within line of sight and away from manned planes. But a notice from headquarters to agency field offices this summer repeats that commercial drones are prohibited. Exemptions are few and far between.
But we know as drone prices fall and capabilities increase, more and more people are flying drones for money in the Northwest. Just Google "aerial photography" in your state, for starters.
"I am being very transparent," said Joe Vaughn, the owner of Skyris Imaging, which ranks high in search results in his home state of Oregon. The Portland-based company uses drones to take aerial shots up to a pre-programmed maximum altitude of 400 feet.
In an interview, Vaughn said he informed the FAA's Portland office in 2012 and several times since about his business plans. He remembers the exact words of the staffer he spoke with the first time: “’Go to town,"’ Vaughn recalled her saying. ‘"I appreciate you calling in."’
Many Resorting To Common Sense Safeguards
This summer's FAA policy notice says the agency's preference is to "use outreach and education to encourage voluntary compliance."
What's more, a drone operator in Virginia earlier this year successfully challenged the FAA's authority to fine him. The FAA just won on appeal, but the case drags on. The case involves a man named Raphael Pirker, who was fined by FAA for allegedly flying in a "reckless manner" while filming a promotional video for the University of Virginia medical school.
This all gives some farmers, photographers and others here in the Northwest confidence they are within their rights to fly using common sense safeguards. Dennis Healy founded a startup in Redmond, Washington, called FarmCloud. It helps farmers analyze and use aerial images of their fields and vineyards.
“Supreme Court decisions have said the air rights over one's property, not into the national airspace, are the domain of that property owner,” Healy said. "That's exactly where we come down. Under 500 feet, you can pretty much fly what you want to do."
Could ‘Great Deal Of Ambiguity’ Stunt Industry?
Industry analysts frequently put the ag industry at the top of the list of biggest potential users of civilian drones. It's a market entrepreneur Paul Applewhite of Seattle would like to serve, along with surveying and wildfire reconnaissance.
He has designed several lightweight, fixed wing drones for his startup called Applewhite Aero. But Applewhite fears "the great deal of ambiguity" about domestic drone flying could stunt a promising industry.
"What's difficult is the uncertainty. You could have the federal government show up and for every time you flew a UAV, they could slap you with a $10,000 fine. In our case, we're actually trying to do everything legally. We're struggling to get a Styrofoam airplane in the air and it took two years to do it, to get all the permits,” Applewhite said.
Next month, Applewhite plans to go to British Columbia to test fly a larger aircraft that he hopes will become his flagship product. He says Canada has proved much more accommodating.
The U.S. Congress has directed the FAA to formulate rules for how manned and unmanned aircraft can share the domestic skies. Draft regulations have been promised by the end of this year with a final package due by next year. But at an unmanned aircraft industry conference in Oregon last month, many speakers were sure the deadlines will slip.
Transponders The Answer?
"Sense-and-avoid" transponders could be a big part of the solution to safely integrating drones, according to an air cargo pilot from Camas, Washington who has given aerial "traffic conflict" a lot of thought.
"Companies are already making transponders that are very small," said Dave Bower. "That is the key to the whole thing... those kinds of systems."
Larger aircraft, such as the cargo jets Bower flies, already carry transponders that continually transmit position, altitude and velocity to air traffic control and nearby planes. For situational awareness, "the tools are already available," Bower said.