According to comments made in a speech in Orlando on May 13, 2014 by Jim Wheeler, chief of the FAAs unmanned aircraft division, the FAA may have a fast track approval process in place for low risk commercial RCMA applications like agriculture, film making and inspections of utilities and oil and gas facilities by November 2014.
The AUVSI, which sponsored the conference at which Williams spoke, has estimated that the unmanned aircraft industry will generate 100,000 jobs and $82 billion in economic impact once the FAA begins approving commercial operations.
This is encouraging news! I hope the FAA is capable of delivering on this. The stakes are high. If the FAA doesn’t do something reasonable soon for the under 400 feet and less than 55 lbs crowd they may have a world class mess on their hands that they may never recover from. They need to demonstrate some progress even if it’s not the ultimate solution. Frankly, I’m skeptical. They have demonstrated serious incompetence as they’ve over promised and under delivered on everything related to RCMAs. Recently a reader that has extensive experience with the FAA told me that their motto is, “we’re not satisfied until you’re not satisfied.”
Started out doing photography at the age of 6 using an uncle's old 1940 kodak brownie box camera. At 15 years of age, I decided to buy my very own 1975 Praktica SLR camera. I now shoot with a Nikon D850. I do unpaid TFP and commercial paid work.