More About Drones

Tuesday, November 25, 2014 | Blog

While our original blog discussed drones being used for transportation purposes, this article touches on other areas drones can be particularly helpful. How about for surveying? Showing clients and potential clients an aerial overview of completed projects? Monitor jobsites? Inspections? These are all things that can be done with a drone by simply installing a camera.

It seems that the biggest hurdle is not creating one of these drones but the legality of using them. The Federal Aviation Agency prohibits the use of all unmanned aircraft for personal use without the agency’s express approval. Although the FAA has said that it plans to allow commercial UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) use once it has drawn up proper regulations for the aircraft, the deadline is not till farther into 2015.

According to the article, “the FAA lumps both UAV (unmanned aircraft system) and drones under the single category of UAS. However, they have done so with guidelines originally designed for model aircraft and the definition of ‘commercial use’ isn’t always cut and dry.” Because drones are already flying over jobsites (some people receiving cease-and-desist letters and lawsuits by the FAA), it will be interesting to see how this will affect future projects. We will have to continue to wait and see.