So CNN runs this anti drone “report”. Complete with clips of the US Air Force Predator drone in the context of civilian drones being a collision threat to airliners. Um, us civilians face an all up 55lb limit. Just the landing gear on a predator may weigh more than that.

And their “expert” repeated the claim the FAA wants commercial drone operators to have full blown pilots licences, which is mostly learning all the wrong skills and regulations to have. Excessively expensive at at least $10,000. remember most of that is wasted time & effort. Do you or I need to know how to approach an airport use the radio, nav gear and fly the right approach path to understand you may not fly your drone within 5 miles of an airport? Do I need to demonstrate the ability to land a Cessna to loft a Phantom DJI?

Clearly a bunch of folks see the $$ value and career positions that will come from an excessive regulatory system rather than one scaled to the issue. Nobody was on to talk about a more reasonable approach. Not a soul. Not a farmer that might want a phantom instead of a helicopter for surveys. Not a single film maker to talk about how much safer a drone is that a helicopter for all concerned.

It’s as if PETA did a report on a meat packing plant basically. The media / agency fix is IN.

Just to be clear, they need weight classes, a set of rules for a drone / model plane license. Regulating a 1.5lb toy drone that can only fly a few minutes within a few hundred feet of the controller really need not be regulated like the big octo copters that can loft a DSLR or Alexa 4k camera and be flown beyond sight with an oculus viewer.