Strip Advertising Drone Violated FAA Rules

A 19-year old tech wiz literally launched a drone advertising company by setting one free on the Las Vegas Strip.

The only problem is, his drone was in violation of FAA policy.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

The FAA’s line in the sand differentiating commercial drones from model aircraft flown as a hobby is in its potential to make money.

But it’s not a hobby when “receiving money for demonstrating aerobatics with a model aircraft,†“a Realtor using a model aircraft to photograph a property that he is trying to sell and using the photographs in the property’s real estate listing,†“delivering packages to people for a fee†and “determining whether crops need to be watered that are grown as part of a commercial farming operation.â€

It does seem a bit strange to me for the FAA to be regulating devices that only hover 20 feet above the ground.  It seems like the thinking and coordination that need to go into these types of craft is very different from other aviation issues.

Click through to see a picture of the device.  It’s pretty wild.

The most disappointing thing I learned from the article is that the FAA banned the Cosmopolitan from delivering drinks to the pool via drone.

Sigh.

 

About Jeanne Marie Hoffman

Former bartender, still a geek. One equal part each cookies, liberty, football, music, travel, libations. Stir vigorously. +Jeanne Marie Hoffman Jeanne on Twitter

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One comment

  1. A big one that falls within that is the GoPro quadcopter flights. Some people just use them for personal use, but there are a lot of videographers that would use that for professional footage if there were no hoops. That could make somethings quite crowded! 🙂
    It is the same as the FCC and certain aspects of radio communication. While the regulations do not seem to make sense in certain instances, if there were no hard lines for regs, it would become very fluid as to what is allowed and what is not.

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