Tag Archives: regulations

Commercial Droning Regulations to Take Off

Along with the huge rise in the commercial use of drones has come the need to regulate this activity. Such laws are about to emerge which will clear the way for a regulated business-related drone flight everywhere in the US, hopefully bringing some order to what some have considered chaos.

The FAA announced its first set of laws which will permit anyone to use drones, as long as they follow the steps and meet the requirements. The first of those will be the acquisition of a remote pilot’s certificate, which can be had by sitting for a written test at an FAA testing center.

Once you’ve received your license to fly, you will need to make sure your drone is under the 55 lb. (25 kg) limit. This covers the vast majority of drones generally in use.

The new rules also limit the maximum altitude an operator can send their drone to under 400 ft. (122 m). Speeds must also be kept under 100 mph (161 kmh) and must always be within seeing distance of the pilot. No night flying with the exception of 30 minutes before sunrise and after sunset, but only if your drone is fitted with anti-collision lights. One pilot-one drone: a single operator cannot fly more than one drone at a time, and a drone is never allowed to fly over the heads of people.

The FAA says it is willing to be lenient on some of the rules if the operator can demonstrate that safety will not be compromised. A special on-line portal will be set up for pilots to make their cases for special waivers.

This is a step towards the future of retail drone delivery, but as Matt Sweeney, whose startup Flirtey carried out the first FAA-approved drone delivery exercise last year explains:

“This is to some extent broader than some people in the industry were expecting. But as currently written, you can still not fly over people, you can still not fly beyond the line of sight and you cannot operate more than one drone at a time. And those are really the three key things that are required for the drone delivery industry to emerge at scale.”

Senator Warren Wants Big Banks Reigned In

US Senator Elizabeth Warren
US Senator Elizabeth Warren

In order to get the financial system in the US to work better for average people, US Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from Massachusetts, is calling on Republican law makers to take steps to reign in big banks.

Warren is calling on Republicans to break up big banks, put limits on bank executive bonuses and change tax laws to encourage financial institutions to take fewer risks with their capital. She is using the interest spurred by the current tax season to make her points, and added that her suggestions would not be hard to implement. The overall result of her talking points would be to create a more stable financial environment that would be less prone to the kind of disaster that befell the country between 2007 and 2009.

She would like to see a break-up of the largest banks by elected officials. Placing restrictions on the Federal Reserve on their lending policies to banks during financial crisis should also be implemented so banks understand that they cannot turn to the government for a bailout when things go south for them. Perhaps that realization will help the banks to act more responsibly.

Changing the tax code would also help banks and other financial bodies to refrain from taking too high risks, or indulging in unfair banking practices. Lawsuits filed have shown that many bankers had persuaded homeowners into mortgages that they could not afford and would not qualify for. The bankers said that they could skip paying their mortgage or pay a lower amount until they went through the process. Then the banks turned around and tried to foreclose on the home when the homeowners were disqualified from the program, according to the lawsuits.