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UPDATE: FAA Corrects Misleading Drone Registration Guidance To Law Enforcement

This article is more than 8 years old.

UPDATE:  The FAA has corrected law enforcement guidance to show the correct compliance date for new registration requirements for hobby flyers. (But the guidance continues to show the incorrect regulatory citation for law enforcement to request registration information.)

In what is certainly likely to lead to harassment or even arrest of hobby flyers, the Federal Aviation Administration has posted incorrect and misleading guidance to law enforcement officers regarding the requirement for hobby flyers to register their model aircraft or drones. According to information posted over the weekend on the FAA UAS website, which can be found here, the FAA is incorrectly advising law enforcement that all UAS, including those flown by hobby flyers,  "Must have Registration and Markings (required for all UAS greater than 0.55lbs) [emphasis in original].

The FAA's notice contains no clarification with regard to the registration rule's actual compliance dates applicable to most hobby flyers today.  In fact, the notice contains a footnote which is also incorrect and misleading: "Aircraft Registration and Markings: All UAS greater than 0.55 lbs are required to be registered, regardless of the type of operation. The operator must provide the registration certificate upon request and the UAS must be marked with the appropriate registration or serial number. To verify registration, contact a [FAA] agent during normal business hours or the Regional Ops Center after hours."

The FAA's registration rule for hobby aircraft weighing from .55 to 55 pounds clearly states that hobby flyers who operated their model aircraft or drones before December 21, have until February 19, 2016 to register their drones:

(a) Small unmanned aircraft used exclusively as model aircraft. For small unmanned aircraft operated by the current owner prior to December 21, 2015, compliance with the requirements of this part or part 47 is required no later than February 19, 2016. For all other small unmanned aircraft, compliance with this part is required prior to operation of the small unmanned aircraft.

I checked with my colleague at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology, Loretta Alkalay, a former top attorney at the FAA and expert in drone laws, who pointed out that the notice to law enforcement officers was not only misleading but actually cited the incorrect regulatory section for law enforcement to rely on in requesting registration information.  "It's obvious to me that in the FAA's zeal to register model aircraft it's not taking the proper time to legally vet the information disseminated.  This notice to law enforcement is indeed likely to result in police officers questioning and even arresting model aircraft operators who have legally and properly decided to wait until the legal deadline to register."

It seems to me that coupled with the misleading privacy FAQs I wrote about last week - where the FAA misstated the public availability of registrant names and home addresses - the people at the FAA responsible for this new registration requirement are either woefully incompetent or - worse - intentionally misleading the public and now law enforcement about its new registration requirements.  It seems high time for the DOT Inspector General or Congress to step in.