AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 12

LETTERS

FROM OUR NOVEMBER 2020 ISSUE

This genie won't go back in the bottle
Drones were the topic of Editor in Chief Tom Haines' column, and readers have their own ideas
Tom Haines is quite right,
there's no way that drones will
go away now, rather it is likely
that a lot of low-flying flight jobs
(helicopters on powerlines and
pipelines, for example) will disappear. I'm sure the same kind
of complaints existed when
every new technology was
introduced.
That said, I am really concerned that it is just a matter
of time until a commercial airliner or GA aircraft ingests one
of these things. I think we know
how irresponsible and just plain
stupid people can be. And since
some 6-year-olds will be playing around with them it could
be even worse than teenagers
with cars. I really don't know
what can be done about this. It's
too late to ban them, even if that
was a good option, and now that
they're widely known I expect
that people will start building
their own anyway.
As a start I would encourage more folks to get the UAS
license [remote pilot certificate under FAR Part 107]. For
those of us who are pilots it's
really easy with a simple written test on FAASafety.gov. I'm
surprised more people haven't

Aviation history has long been full of

WAYPOINTS

This genie won't go back
in the bottle

Editor in Chief
TOM HAINES has
been using
hackneyed phrases
in his column for
nearly 25 years,
despite the best
efforts of the rest
of the editorial staff.

THE SHIP HAS SAILED. The train has left the station. The
genie is out of the bottle. There are many idioms that can
be applied to what is happening in aviation regarding
developments around drones and autonomous flight.
Even drones flown within line of sight raise the ire of
pilots who believe that such flights should be stopped.
I shouldn't be surprised by such comments-and yet
I am because I just don't see how someone could believe
that genie could be put back into the bottle. Drones
have proven to be useful in many circumstances, from
commercial photography to firefighting or search and
rescue. There are millions of them in existence, including 1.7 million registered with the FAA. About 500,000
of those are operated commercially and another 1.2 million are operated recreationally. In other words, eight
times as many unmanned aircraft are on the FAA registry as traditional aircraft. To date the FAA has issued
191,570 remote pilot certificates.Pilots, especially helicopter pilots, are concerned about safety-and rightfully
so. Although there have been few documented collisions
between manned and unmanned aircraft, the threat is
real, which is why everyone involved is working hard to
establish procedures that allow safe operations for all.
Currently, with few exceptions, civilian drones can
only be operated within line of sight of an operator and
at low altitudes. Anyone operating a drone near an airport must obtain an ATC authorization. Of course, not
everyone follows the rules, thus the headlines we occasionally see about airline pilots reporting drones near
their flight paths at major airports-reports that have
been known to shut down airports for hours on end.
As unmanned aircraft continue to develop, including those designed to ultimately carry passengers, the
goal for most is to be able to fly beyond line of sight of
an operator or, ultimately, to fly autonomously-in other
words, they can fly from point A to B by themselves.
In efforts to keep pilots informed about such developments, AOPA reports on these test flights, which
occur in highly controlled environments and through
close cooperation with the FAA. Such reporting, though,
often generates negative comments and calls for AOPA
not to write about these subjects because the commenters somehow believe that if we just ignore them,
the " threat " of drones will go away-whether that is a
safety threat or a threat to pilot flying jobs.

For example, after we recently reported on AOPA
Live This Week about Reliable Robotics conducting an
autonomous flight in a Cessna 172 and Caravan, several
pilots commented negatively on our reporting, seeming to suggest that us simply talking about it somehow
made it more likely to become a regular thing in the
ATC system. Here's an example of a comment on our
YouTube channel: " Why would we give publicity to a
company literally trying to take away pilot jobs in the
airline, corporate, and 135 industry by making airplanes
100 percent autonomous capable. "
Burying our heads in the sand (I'm not quite out
of idioms) will not stop this progress. Electric vertical
takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft are advancing. And
while most will be piloted to start, companies with big
budgets are working hard to free up that pilot seat to put
an extra paying passenger on board. And I believe they
ultimately will be successful-but not for years to come.
AOPA is on the Drone Advisory Committee, which
advises the FAA on how to safely integrate unmanned
aircraft systems (UAS) into the national airspace system (NAS). And AOPA staff have been on committees
working closely with NASA and other global representatives to develop a special low altitude air traffic control
system that would allow the safe operation of such aircraft in the same environment where GA airplanes and
helicopters might be. AOPA's position on UAS hasn't
changed in decades. It requires that UAS not be allowed
into the NAS until they can safely separate themselves
from other aircraft, and that no equipage burden be
placed on GA aircraft to make that happen.
While the progress is interesting, it is slow. We are
years away from wide-scale implementation of such
systems, despite headlines you may have seen about
eVTOL soon darkening the skies over our cities. We will
keep reporting on trends in the UAS space because for
some it is inspirational. For those who feel threatened,
know that our reporting stems from AOPA's involvement to make sure that we're all protected before UAS
becomes widespread. After all, we don't want to put the
cart in front of the horse and we certainly don't want the
tail wagging the dog.
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

@tomhaines29

20 | AOPA PILOT November 2020

Aviation eBrief poll

12 | AOPA PILOT January 2021

milestones-Kitty Hawk, Amelia Earhart, Neil
Armstrong's walk on the moon, Sully's landing
on the Hudson. And now, a future with pilotless
aircraft. Events mostly good, some bad,
have all been accomplished with a learning
curve attached. Innovation is the reason our
airports today are full of modern aircraft
instead of Wright Flyers.
Anthony Carbone
AOPA 972264
Altus, Oklahoma

done it, but perhaps most certificate holders don't know about
this. I took the exam in less than
an hour and my CFI signed off
on his phone.
Otherwise if I was in the
FAA, I'd make it as simple as
possible to get licensed; maybe
cut the written price way down
would be a good start. None of
this will help the irresponsible people, but at least it might
avoid some midairs.
Richard Weil
AOPA 3783046
St. Paul, Minnesota

If you could make one major enhancement
to your aircraft, what would it be?
Avionics
New or overhauled engine
Paint
Interior
Other

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

Unmanned progress needn't threaten our freedom to fly

50%
25%
12%
7%
6%

6%
7%
12%
25%

50%

Difficult conversations

Thank you for " Safety Spotlight:
Difficult Conversations. " I
was cheering all through the
article. When I was an underwriter, I was part of a research
team for AERI (the Airmanship
Education Research Initiative).
The " difficult conversations "
topic was one that came up
again and again. We used it as
an opening when we started
providing our AERI findings to
pilots at forums.
We would start the presentation by asking the question:
" How many people here know
a pilot who killed themselves in
an airplane? " About 75 percent
of the hands in the room would
shoot up. Next question: " How
many of you were surprised? "
Only one or two hands would
remain. The reason? We all
know that one pilot who jumps
in the airplane without doing a

preflight, or buzzes the family
reunion, or prepares to fly on
a day where you wonder what
kind of personal minimums
they adhere to, or if they have
personal minimums. We wonder, but yet not one of us says a
word-how do we change that?
Marci Lyn Veronie
Thurmont, Maryland

When we see dangerous behavior by another pilot, we should
somehow point that behavior
out. What troubled me was the
low-altitude flyby by a Cessna
182. What did it being in the
backcountry have to do with
making it dangerous? If he had
performed it at a 6,000-foot,
tower-controlled field, would
it have been any more or less
dangerous? Are you saying that
low-altitude, high-speed flybys are always dangerous? I've
never flown in the backcountry;
my 20,000-plus hours was spent

http://www.FAASafety.gov

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021

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