DAC meeting this week
This Thursday, 10/22/20, the FAA will host a Drone Advisory Committee meeting. The DAC is a leading body to provide requirements to the FAA on UAS. This is a formal advisory committee and is guided by the Department of Transportation.
The FAA creates "Tasking Groups" which are problem statements in the form of a question. The Tasking Group, led by a DAC member and staffed by DAC and non-DAC members from General Aviation (manned) and UAS includes representatives from manufacturers, associations and operators who research the question and create recommendations. Nominally, these groups meet weekly and each member is expected to research the topic and contribute documents to the team as well as assist in writing up the recommendations. This normally takes about 10 meetings.
Our philosophy in the FPV Freedom Coalition is to work from within to help shape UAS regulations. To that end, I've worked on these Tasking Groups since June of 2019 including Remote ID, BVLOS C2 spectrum, UAS Facility Maps, UTM and Safety Culture. I had the privilege of representing a great team when I presented the UAS Facility Map recommendations on 2/27/20 in Washington, DC. In addition, I led the sub-group on C2 Spectrum.
This week, the FAA will respond to the DAC recommendations on UAS Facility Maps and UTM. I have worked in a company that is ten times larger than the FAA so things don't move quickly and frequently, the responses from the FAA are not what we want. For example, the FAA's response to our Remote ID recommendations was essentially, "thank you for the comments". We understood this had to be their position as the NPRM comment period was still open when the response was made on February 27, 2020. That said, this is the best process we have available to us and we are engaged and optimistic.
This week I'll have the privilege once again of representing another team from General Aviation and UAS manufacturers, associations and operators on the subject of how small businesses may take advantage of manned aviation's safety culture experience to ingrain a safety culture within the UAS community. I also participated in the recreational UAS sub-group which will be presented by the AMA.
If you can, check out the live stream of the virtual event. The info is below. Also, as noted, the FAA will record the live-stream and post it on their YouTube channel.
The next FAA Drone Advisory Committee meeting will be held on October 22, 2020, between 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
The meeting will be held virtually. Members of the public who wish to observe the virtual meeting can access the livestream from either of the following FAA social media platforms on the day of the event, https://www.facebook.com/FAA or https://www.youtube.com/FAAnews. For copies of meeting minutes along with all other information please visit the DAC internet website at https://www.faa.gov/uas/programs_partnerships/drone_advisory_committee/.
Thank you for supporting the FPV Freedom Coalition.
Dave Messina
