Recent content by Ryan Van Scotter

I feel your pain. Make no mistake about it the FAA has declared a war on drones, making it incredibly difficult, timely and costly to do much of anything. I was excited for 5 minutes when the DJI spark was announced because I thought just maybe it was under .55 lbs. but nope it's .65 lbs...

For a better understanding of privacy, or taking pictures of people in public, go to professional photography forums, then tend to be more informative and accurate. Generally speaking, taking the photo isn't the issue its what you do with it afterwards.

So you're saying make it Army proof!

I think there looking for a bit more than "...using an anti-collision light". Maintaining VLOS is obtained (3) ways: 1) through the use of a anti-collision light... add details 2) the use of a visual over sever... 3) reduce the fly off distance and altitude to enable VLOS, aircraft orientation...

I opted for a traditional logbook.

I agree it's a great idea. The problem so seems that rather than prescribing specific requirements and procedures they want each UAS pilot to reinvent he wheel by creating their own Methods and strategies. I ended up with a 22 page Flight ops Manual by the time I was done with my waiver submissions

For the US flight operations all the low level routes are published in a AP1/B, (it's online) All the SR, VR and IR routes are published with everything you may want to know, including the controlling agencies, schedulers, and deconfliction. There is also a series of large scale maps, however...

I'm interested to see the results. In the process of submitting my waivers I created an entire Flight Operations Manual (FOM). Thus far it's 22 pages and I expect that to grow quickly... overkill perhaps.

I got mine on the 1st at the Atlanta FSDO. I was in and out in 15 minutes, they were great. Appointments are required and they only do them on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I used my 121 carrier recurrent sim report in leu of BFR, I also had an Air Force Form 8 from a Qual/Instr. check ride as a...

Great Post, We need to create a organization! "Pro Drone Pilots" with a very modest membership fee to cover costs and provide such things. Like AMA or AOPA that can help professionals like us. I had a photography business and I going to be using my old forms just modified. Most notably...

Here's some perspective, The age of digital cameras changed the photography business considerably. For example, A single image that sell online with iStockphoto, now iStock by Getty Images has sold 150 copies and I have made $150 from it. The price of the image is $12 USD. I get $1 per...

Amateur photographers destroyed photography by constantly underbidding each other, to point that you can't earn enough to sustain a viable business. The UAS drone industry in the US needs a single serious association to set standards and pricing that reflects the time, costs, and training to...