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Will a new war change aviation regulations?

A significant conflict has broken out between Israel and militants in the Gaza region.

It really pisses me off to see people treating human life as if it had no value and rejoicing in the deaths of others. What has our species become when we dare to behave like this?

We are no better, in fact some would argue we are worse, than even the most primative forms of animal life on the planet, despite our supposed greater intelligence.

I take no side in such conflicts, there is no "right", only "wrong" when the taking of people's lives is involved.

Both sides in the current conflict have compelling justifications for their actions until you recognise that there is never good reason to take the life of another human being and that the only intelligent way to resolve such disputes is around a table, not by hurling missiles and bullets at those with whom you have a grievance.

These people are behaving like petulant children and lives are lost as a result.

All we can gain from such conflicts are lessons in what not to do.

There is also perhaps a rather strange connection between events of this weekend and a video I posted to my YouTube channel last week.

In that video I drew comparisons between the way the US airspace regulator handles RC planes and drones to the way it handles ultralight manned aircraft such as paramotors.

In essence, if you take video with or make video of your RC planes/drones and post that video to a monetized YouTube channel or other social media, the FAA requires you to obtain and operate under a commercial operator's license called a "part 107".

The FAA's argument is that posting videos of your flying constitutes a non-recreational activity and therefore you need to be certified.

Yep, that's right... an eight-year-old kid who posts videos of himself flying his toy plane needs to sit a rather complex exam to gain commercial accreditation or they are in breach of the regulations covering model planes and risks huge fines or even a term of imprisonment.

WTF America?

Of course that RC plane must also be registered with the Federal Government, the kid must have also passed another knowledge exam and it must now be fitted with a tracking beacon called "Remote ID".

Compare and contrast this with the fact that in the USA *anyone* can design, build and fly their own ultralight manned aircraft without any form of training, certification, licensing or approvals from the FAA. It's just "off you go and she'll be right" as far as the FAA is concerned.

Hell, you don't need a tracking beacon, registration number or even a radio onboard and if you post video of yourself flying your ultralight aircraft on a monetized YouTube channel that's fine -- there's no problem -- apparently it still qualifies as a "recreational" activity.

When I posted a video pointing out this seemingly crazy situation most people agreed that it represents an unreasonable bias against the RC/drone hobby on the part of the FAA. However, some suggested that it was because drones were being used in places like Ukraine as a weapon and therefore they needed to be more regulated than ultralight aircraft.

Well getting back to the start of today's column, I wonder how they'll sustain that argument now -- in light of the fact that some of the terrorists who attacked Israel arrived by way of ultralight paramotors?

Will the use of these craft in what is clearly a violent act of terror suddenly see such aircraft now subject to the same stringent regulation and control as drones -- at least in the USA?

I doubt it. In fact I can pretty much guarantee that nothing will change.

Why is that? Surely, now that the potential for these craft to be used for terrorist attacks has been so clearly demonstrated, they must be at least as heavily regulated as drones... right?

No... because drones aren't being restricted and regulated due to safety concerns at all -- although that is the excuse being used. The real reasons drones are being increasingly marginalised to the point of disappearing is because some very large corporations have seen the opportunity to take control of the 0-400ft airspace and make money from it.

As the Commercial Drone Alliance told the US government, there is no room for a hobby in airspace that commercial drones need to make money. Given the huge amount of lobbying budget that corporations such as Google and Amazon have, there's little surprise that in the wake of this, ever-increasing regulation has been applied to the hobby while the freedoms granted to commercial operators have been growing by the day.

It's not okay to fly your little lightweight plastic drone over your own house but it *is* okay for Amazon or Google to do so with a 20Kg drone and payload.

Follow the money.

Carpe Diem folks!

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