FAA Grounds College Students Pursing Drone Degrees

In drone school, students study math and
learn robotics. What they do not do is fly drones.

That’s because per Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules,
unmanned aerial vehicles cannot be operated for commercial
use—and
that applies to for-profit teaching programs.

To get around the rules, schools like Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University train students on flight simulators or have students fly
drones indoors.

But this restriction is still likely to stifle academic
research, according
to a lengthy letter signed by 29 professors and sent to the
FAA.

The letter details several issues that concern drone
enthusiasts:

1. Unprecedented Expansion of FAA Jurisdiction

The Interpretative Rule states that “the FAA intends to apply
its enforcement authority to model aircraft operations that
endanger the safety of the National Airspace System
(NAS).”While federal statutes in place since 1926 grant the FAA
authority to regulate the navigable air space, understood to be the
airspace above approximately 500 feet altitude in most areas, the
NAS is a term that the FAA now implies comprises all airspace in
the United States, including our campuses, private backyards,
and possibly even inside buildings.

2. Unreasonably Broad Definition of “Aircraft” 

The Interpretive Rule also vastly expands the conventional
definition of “aircraft” to include, in a most literal sense, “any
contrivance invented, used, or designed to navigate, or fly
in, the air”. Objects the size of butterflies and
even toys that are “used in the air” appear to be gaining
the rights, regulatory obligations, and federal protections
afforded to full-sized passenger aircraft.

3. Unwarranted Distinction between Recreational and Commercial
Model Aircraft

The regulatory distinction between “recreational” and
“commercial” use of model aircraft is troubling in that the FAA has
not substantiated how this distinction promotes safety. It is
concerning, for example, that a ten-year-old hobbyist can freely
fly model aircraft for recreation, while our
nation’s scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs are
prohibited from using the same technology in the same types of
environments.

Private for-profit schools are not the only ones getting on the
FAA’s nerves.
Last year, the agency sent letters to two public universities
telling them to shut down their drone journalism programs. The
University of Missouri and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were
both told to halt their programs and obtain Certificates of
Authorization. The process for being granted a certificate can take
several months. The schools had been trying to operate under the
rules set for recreational use of model aircraft. But the FAA
didn’t consider the programs as recreational.

The FAA considers the journalism drones to be “public aircraft”
and the university to be a public operator, which places it in a
more restrictive category than amateurs.

Under amateur rules, unmanned aircraft must stay under 400 feet
and conduct flights away from populated areas. Under the more
restrictive rules, the program must designate a small area—up to 2
square miles—and provide proof of the airworthiness of each
vehicle.

Entrepreneurs, researchers, and students trying to use drones in
new innovative ways will have to continue to wade around in murky
waters because the FAA has not finished writing its drone
regulations. Congress gave the agency to September 2015, but
according to a report from the Department of Transportation’s
inspector general’s office,
the FAA is “significantly behind schedule” will likely not meet the
deadline.