There were 14,400 aircraft collisions with birds at just 700 of the 15,000 airports in the U.S. in 2017. 285 people have died since 1988 due to bird strikes. 0 people died due to drones.
Source: https://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/wildlife/faq/
Adds perspective to the hysterical mania created by “journalists” regarding the public use of model aircraft and their alleged danger to aircraft.
Brian is a big fan of 3D:
Not content with touring the world as a member of Queen, Brian May has also been busy bringing back Victorian 3D for a generation raised on digital technology.
Source: Rock legend uncovers Victorian 3D – BBC Reel
Brian May is well known as guitarist for Queen, and after Queen, completed a PhD in astrophysics. His 3D business is online at London Stereoscopic Company.
Told ‘ya:
The planned legislation would aim to introduce the mandatory use of an app – most drones are flown through a smartphone or device – which all fliers would have to download.
This would mean they would have to register and provide information which would make them more easily traceable, in a situation where a pilot was committing an offence.
The app could also allow a means of real time two-way communication between the user, other users around them, and relevant government authorities.
Users could even be pushed to pre-file notification of their flight before using a drone at certain heights.
There may be a push for consumer-level drones to have a short battery life of say less than 10 minutes. This would reduce the distance over which a consumer drone could be used for malicious purposes.
Source: Are drone laws going to change after the Gatwick incident? | The Independent
This is in the U.K.:
“A drone in the wrong hands could be just as lethal as a gun.
“They are unregulated and can easily be bought by anyone online for under £30. Even the cheapest has a range of 150 metres and can fly for half an hour.
“Drone users should be regulated and registered in the same way as firearms certificates.”
Note – there’s a lot of oddities in this story and some things – like 30 pound quadcopters flying for half an hour – that are not true.
The logic is kind of weird. In the U.S., firearms killed over 30,000 people in 2017 alone. Model aircraft? To the best of our knowledge, no one in the nearly century has been killed by model aircraft.
Transport Canada is advising a minimum age of operation of 16 in those zones, and would-be pilots would also have to pass a written test, register their devices and affix government-issued registration marks to the aircraft.
….
Diana Cooper, senior vice-president of policy & strategy at PrecisionHawk, a commercial drone and data company, said the U.S. is currently moving forward with rules for remote identification of drones.”(It) is similar to a license plate for cars, it allows law enforcement to remotely identify information about a drone such as the name and the location of the operator,” she said.
Source: Canada to impose stricter rules for drone operation next year | CTV News
Looks like my predictions about future regulations are spot on.
Good thing that eco-warriors and terrorists will put their government issued registration number and remote identification system on all their own model aircraft!
A lot of “FUD” will be used to justify regulatory burdens on everyone, yet such regulations will not not solve any of the original problems.
The goal is not to actually solve problems – the goal is to make model aircraft flying de facto so expensive and cumbersome that few will participate. The FAA already did this to the ultralight aircraft industry and they will do it to the consumer drone industry too.