By: Ben Gielow

On 2 June, the FAA issued a press release
hailing its efforts to grant one-off exemptions to allow for commercial
UAS activities for seven companies in the movie and TV industry before
formal rulemaking is complete. At AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems 2014
conference in Orlando last month, Jim Williams, the executive manager of
the UAS Integration Office,
said these exemptions would need to be thoroughly vetted and published
in the federal register for public comment, and even if they are
approved, a licensed pilot would still be required for flight
operations. This process is likely to take many months, and it in no way
will open up the skies for small UAS companies or users.

So, although AUVSI applauds the FAA for taking this
important first step toward expediting the approval of certain low-risk
commercial applications of UAS, the FAA can and must do more. Congress
gave the FAA broad authority (under Section 333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012)
to allow for commercial UAS activities before rulemaking is complete
and we want the FAA to immediately create a registration, training, and
approval process for small UAS that only weigh a few pounds and pose
minimal risk.

We should be taking advantage of the tremendous potential of
UAS in certain low-risk areas, such as rural farms, around power lines,
and around flare stacks today. Accelerating these uses will not
only help businesses harness the tremendous potential of UAS, they will
also help unlock the economic impact and job creation potential of the
technology.

Jim William’s announcement last month came on the heels of an April 2014 letter
to the FAA in which AUVSI and the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA)
joined 31 other organizations encouraging the agency to expedite the
rulemaking process for UAS. The letter also called on the FAA to allow
the limited uses of small UAS for commercial purposes before the final
rulemaking is completed.