Drubbing Drones: Unmanned = Unauthorized, Says the FAA

Amazon fans throughout the U.S. are certain to be disheartened with the FAA’s announcement last week. The official certificate limits the use of Amazon’s new Amazon Air technology to “400 feet or below” and requires the pilot of the aircraft to “have at least a private pilot’s certificate and current medical certification”. Needless to say, this renders the purpose of their drone useless.

I’m certain that most see the FAA’s position as ruining all the fun for everyone but if you've ever flown in a small plane, you would understand their concern.

My partner here at Go By Truck has been a private pilot for many years now so I have quite a bit of first-hand experience with the safety measures that must go into every flight. To give you a closer look, imagine that you’re a pilot of a small aircraft who is monitoring several gauges and communications with traffic control. Inevitably, at least once on every flight, air traffic, who monitors all things flying, will advise the pilot to watch for another aircraft or a flock of birds and in what would be in this case, a flying package.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s as cool as the next guy. I can assure you that if I had even a single package arrive by Amazon’s innovative drone delivery service, not only would my staff insist on being present to witness its delivery but likely our entire building would be glued to their windows.

There remains the unlikely possibility for Amazon to deliver packages to homes from nearby trucks or small distribution centers (think UPS or FedEx stores) which may save a bit of fuel and man-power while keeping the “cool” factor but this is clearly not the big picture trying to be attained.

The age of the UAV is certainly upon us. Widely used in law enforcement and by the U.S. military, UAV technology is currently being authorized from a controlled environment perspective. The challenge here is that unleashing UAVs into the wild and expecting nothing more than happy customers may be a bit naive.

Photo Courtesy: SDI Analysis