Idaho Airships, Inc.

Snaps to our friend Dave Witt for locating this piece in the Federal Register. Simply stated, the operation of remotely controlled or autonomous unmanned aircraft for the purposes of commercial imaging is illegal.

Idaho Airships, Inc. doesn’t completely agree with the FAA’s position on the question, but we do recognize that it is law and will comply with the letter and obvious intent of the policy.

Just for the record, this Notice of Policy is substantially consistent with all earlier expressions on the matter by the FAA that we can recall. Thus, any previous commercial operations should be considered violative and subject to sanction. The fact that the FAA felt a second Notice of Policy was necessary is unsettling.

Another matter that this 2/13/08 Notice of Policy doesn’t specifically address is the point of speculative imaging-that is, imaging in no immediate commercial context but with the reasonable expectation of commercial benefit (e.g. “stock”or “speculative” products). I’d hate to be advocating for someone trying to avoid enforcement on such a flimsy and transparent reasoning. If the operation was produced by or produced any reasonable, significant element of motivation by potential profit, it was violative.

This includes, in our opinion, the production of images not intended for resale but used to promote a commercial enterprise.

That is chilling.

One final thought-there is no specific address in the two most recent Notices of Policy concerning FAR Part 101 (”tethered blimps” under the title “Moored…”) operations. However, the statements in the notices seem expansive in their reference to the definition of “UAS” and may be reasonably extended to Part 101 operations. In any event, there is no language in the notices that provide any relief from the express requirements of FAR 101.

L