Airspace CEO Jaz Banga attended the first FAA Drone Advisory Committee (DAC) meeting of 2018, which was chaired by FAA Administrator (acting) Dan Elwell and Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. The DAC spent time reviewing the products of various sub-committees before launching on a more circumspect discussion on the future of the Federal Advisory Committee.
All agreed that, as “Phase 2” of the DAC moves forward, a renewed focus should be placed on the advisory nature of the DAC industry partners, realized via more “real-time” feedback to the FAA. Airspace’s Banga noted the pivotal significance of both consumer education on legal drone operations, as well as the enforcement of FAA existing drone regulations. With the repeated FAA statement that drone identification (aka – “drone license plates”) is a priority for the government, Banga stressed the importance of remembering that there are “cooperative” (i.e., license plate holders) and “non-cooperative” (i.e., rogue vehicle) drone operators in the national airspace system and that regulations must prioritize the enforcement of both types of drone operators. Members of the DAC agreed with the importance of these statements and recommended a dedicated FAA effort to ensure that these concepts were reinforced for the public, consumer drone operator. When coupled with the recent announcement that the Trump Administration will be proposing drone-interdiction authorization for the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigations, Airspace recommendations to the DAC were seen as the first page in the next chapter of counter-drone policy reform. Airspace will be attending the next DAC meeting, scheduled for July 2018.
For more information on the DAC https://www.rtca.org/content/drone-advisory-committee