The Current Status of UAVs

UAVs

Currently, there are many civilian purposes for UAVs in the United States. This is huge in infrastructure industries, to include telecommunications, power and utilities, oil and gas pipelines, mining, wind turbines, and solar energy. UAVs increases safety, providing imagery for inspections on tall structures. Inspections traditionally been carried out by climbing the structures. (Advantages, n.d.).  This is wonderful news, because my research from (Fall Statistics, n.d.) reports that their information from the OSHA, The Department of Labor, and the CDC, report that over 76,000 non-fatal work-related falls resulted in injury in 2009, and 800 fatal workplace falls happened in 2014. Falls are the second leading cause of work-related fatalities in the U.S. Even choosing to set aside concern for the well-being of those entrusting you with their employment, the cost of OSHA citations, litigations, and settlement are massive. It would be great to eliminate these statistics all together with the use of UAVs. Other uses of the UAVs, are used by videographers, surveying on construction sites, hurricane hunting, 3-D mapping, farmers use UAVs for crop inspection, protecting wildlife, scientist and universities, and companies that use thermal imaging (Smith, S. n.d). All of these purposes can translate to scores of man-hours saved, reducing inspection times, and a positive decrease in safety issues.  

Below, are the current regulations on UAVs, found from (Fly, 2017, December 14).

·        Be at least 16 years old

·        Pass an aeronautical knowledge test at an FAA-approved knowledge testing center

·        Unmanned aircraft must weigh less than 55 lbs. (25 kg).

·        Visual line-of-sight (VLOS) only; the unmanned aircraft must remain within VLOS of the remote pilot in command and the person manipulating the flight controls of the small UAS. Alternatively, the unmanned aircraft must remain within VLOS of the visual observer.

·        At all times, the small unmanned aircraft must remain close enough to the remote pilot in command and the person manipulating the flight controls of the small UAS for those people to be capable of seeing the aircraft with vision unaided by any device other than corrective lenses.

·        Small unmanned aircraft may not operate over any persons not directly participating in the operation, not under a covered structure, and not inside a covered stationary vehicle.

·        Daylight-only operations, or civil twilight (30 minutes before official sunrise to 30 minutes after official sunset, local time) with appropriate anti-collision lighting.

·        Must yield right of way to other aircraft.

·        May use visual observer (VO) but not required.

·        First-person view camera cannot satisfy “see-and-avoid” requirement but can be used as long as requirement is satisfied in other ways.

·        Maximum groundspeed of 100 mph (87 knots).

·        Maximum altitude of 400 feet above ground level (AGL) or, if higher than 400 feet AGL, remain within 400 feet of a structure.

·        Minimum weather visibility of 3 miles from control station.

·        Operations in Class B, C, D and E airspace are allowed with the required ATC permission.

·        Operations in Class G airspace are allowed without ATC permission.

·        No person may act as a remote pilot in command or VO for more than one unmanned aircraft operation at one time.

·        No operations from a moving aircraft.

·        No operations from a moving vehicle unless the operation is over a sparsely populated area.

·        No careless or reckless operations.

·        No carriage of hazardous materials.

·        Requires preflight inspection by the remote pilot in command.

·        A person may not operate a small unmanned aircraft if he or she knows or has reason to know of any physical or mental condition that would interfere with the safe operation of a small UAS.

·        Foreign-registered small unmanned aircraft are allowed to operate under part 107 if they satisfy the requirements of part 375.

·        External load operations are allowed if the object being carried by the unmanned aircraft is securely attached and does not adversely affect the flight characteristics or controllability of the aircraft.

·        Transportation of property for compensation or hire allowed provided that the aircraft, including its attached systems, payload and cargo weigh less than 55 pounds total; o The flight is conducted within visual line of sight and not from a moving vehicle or aircraft; and o The flight occurs wholly within the bounds of a State and does not involve transport between (1) Hawaii and another place in Hawaii through airspace outside Hawaii; (2) the District of Columbia and another place in the District of Columbia; or (3) a territory or possession of the United States and another place in the same territory or possession. •

·        Most of the restrictions discussed above are waivable if the applicant demonstrates that his or her operation can safely be conducted under the terms of a certificate of waiver.

I do foresee UAVs integrating into the National Airspace, NAS, because of safety and security problems that can potentially arise. These UAVs need to be maned properly because they could in fact fall out of the sky and cause harm to people and/or property. Since a drone is highly portable, some drones can be carried in and out of nearly any location on foot. This is great for companies trying to be green, their footprint being nonexistent. But, this characteristic of the drone, being able to go anywhere is not so great for security, which can cause some thought for concern. I feel that staying on top of the ownership and usage of the UAVs is critical. If for any reason this process falls behind, the UAVs can fall into the hands of the wrong people and the outcome, devastating.

The military have been using UAVs, and I believe these machines have transformed military strategy. The incredible transfer of risk that UAVs offer, cannot be ignored. Drones can be used to protect the lives of our men and women in the military. Intel that a UAV can provide the troops before rushing into combat has and will continue to save lives and make combat more forgiving, and save more lives of the enemy's, innocent civilians. UAVs make combat more intelligent, the information gained can mean the choice of going to war or not going to war, dropping a bomb or not dropping a bomb. Financially, a drone may be costly to build and operate, but, there is no comparison between the life of a robot to the life of a human.  

I did find an advertisement for UAV jobs at https://flyguys.io/Pilots This position is to become a Drone Pilot, for a company named Fly Guys. I feel that we will be seeing more and more advertisements for these types of positions in the near future. Without a doubt, I can see the benefits of having UAVs in our life.

Advantages of Drone Aerial Inspections over Traditional Inspection Methods | Inspectifly, LLC. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2018, from http://inspectifly.com/advantages-drone-aerial-inspections-traditional-methods/

Fall Statistics: The Alarming Truth About Labor Environments. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://ww.safetyrailcompany.com/pages/Fall-Statistics.html.

Fly under the small UAS rule. (2017, December 14). Retrieved February 10, 2018, from http://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/part_107/

Smith, S. (n.d.). Tactical and Practical Uses for Drones. Retrieved February 08, 2018, from http://www.thebalance.com/military-and-civilian-drone-use-4121099