In This Chapter

Staying legal with your drone

Identifying where you can fly

Respecting others

Knowing the laws in other countries

The safety of airline passengers and commercial air travel has been first and foremost on everyone’s mind since the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The FAA has worked with Congress to pass legislation to address new issues that arise as new technologies become more and more readily available to the general public. You may recall a news story or two involving laser pointers and passenger jets. Or if you’ve flown recently, you may have noticed that you can use electronics like phones and other handheld devices during taxi and takeoff, whereas in recent history, no electronics were allowed until the aircraft was above 10,000 feet.

The advancements in drone technology have allowed for rapid development and distribution of drones that are capable of technological feats that were once the subject of science fiction. As a result, the FAA and government agencies around the world have had to quickly roll out rules and systems to manage the influx of air traffic. In addition to simply managing air congestion, many people have expressed concerns regarding personal privacy issues, use by law enforcement, surveillance, and property rights.

The legal landscape is evolving, but it will take time to open the skies to everyone. In early 2015, the FAA rolled out new guidelines for commercial use of drones, but it wasn’t reasonable enough to allow for mass adoption. Some organizations, including Amazon and a few movie studios, have gotten special dispensation, but these instances are determined on a case-by-case basis.

The goal of this chapter is to give you an understanding of what the law is and how that will impact where you can fly your drone, what you can use your drone for, and what to do in the event someone is using a drone in a manner that makes you uncomfortable. Last, you explore how other countries’ rules regarding drone use differ from those in the United States. You may not realize it, but this is a historic moment in America as we set the foundation for how to further integrate advanced machines into our culture.

Know Before You Fly in the United States

Remote-controlled vehicles have been around for quite some time. As discussed in Chapter 1, remote-controlled aircraft were first developed for hobby flyers back in the 1940s and 1950s. As you can probably imagine, the technology required to fly these aircraft was limited. Duration of flight was short, the method of controlling the craft was archaic at best, and the cost to get into the hobby was prohibitive enough that there wasn’t an immediate need to enact strict legislation to govern the use of model aircraft. This is no longer the case. The two main drivers in the growth of the hobby unmanned aircraft industry are advancements in battery technology and smartphone technology.

The new LiPo batteries hold more charge for a longer time and can output charge at a rate needed to power high-energy-consuming motors on modern drones. The other major advancement is smartphones and wireless communication protocols used therein. Long-range cellular connections, GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi have made it possible to change how unmanned aircraft are controlled. The advancements in technology and the decrease and cost have made it possible for more flight enthusiasts to get into the hobby. The dramatic increase in civil drone use has caused many questions to be raised that quite frankly are still unanswered. Questions like:

• Who is going to manage all of the additional air traffic and how will they manage it?
• How do we protect people and property underneath the air traffic from accidents?
• Big brother programs and government surveillance is already in question. How will we determine fair use by the government that does not violate constitutional rights?
• How will we re-define property rights, trespassing, and personal protection?
• How do you manage commercial use for unmanned systems?
• Who is going to insure all of these people?

Currently, the law is very precisely designed to cover use of antiquated hobby model aircraft. As a result, congress has mandated to the FAA that they produce a plan for integrating civil unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or as we call them, drones, into the national airspace system. The plan is to be presented to Congress no later than September 30, 2015. Until the new plans are presented, approved, and implemented, drone usage is limited to the following:

• Aircraft is flown specifically for hobby or recreational use only.

  Hobby or recreational use is generally understood to mean any use that is not resulting in compensation in any form. Using your drone for recreation, personal joy, taking photographs, videos, and so on is generally thought to be recreational or hobby use. Using your drone to perform a task on the job like inspecting structures; capturing video or photos for marketing or documentation; performing surveillance; working security; conducting environmental monitoring; or capturing video or photos that you intend to sell, would all be considered commercial uses and would likely be found to be in violation of law.

• Aircraft is flown in accordance with community-based set of safety guidelines.

  Community-based safety guidelines are generally considered to be safety guidelines as set forth by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA). A complete and updated listing of the rules can be found online at www.modelaircraft.org/files/105.pdf. The current rules are also shown in Figure 7-1.

• The Aircraft must be under 55 lbs.

  The good news is that unless you custom built your drone or you have a lot of excess cash and purchased an extremely high-end Boeing aircraft, your drone should be nowhere close to violating this.

• Aircraft does not interfere with manned aircraft.

  This is generally interpreted to mean that a drone can’t come anywhere near a manned flight. Regardless if it is a private plane, commercial passenger flight, or anything else as long as there are people in the aircraft. This is also where the flight ceiling comes into play. Flying your drone in excess of 400 feet above the ground is considered illegal. This is largely due to the fact that commercial airspace tends to start around 400 feet above the ground and flying a drone above 400 feet would be deemed an interference with manned aircraft regardless if there is a manned aircraft in the vicinity of your drone. That said, “interference with manned aircraft” is relatively vague and would be left to a court to interpret in the event you were caught in violation and prosecuted.

• The Aircraft is not flown within 5 miles of an airport unless cleared beforehand with the Air Traffic Control (ATC).

  The AMA rules of safety say that you cannot fly within 3 miles of an airport unless you have prior clearance. In this case the FAA’s ruling would prevail so as a rule of thumb, flying within 5 miles of an airport without clearance should be considered a major no-no. While the law says that you can get clearance from the air traffic control, the likelihood of this being granted is slim-to-none. Therefore, stay away from the airports. This may not sound like a difficult task but the map in Figure 7-2 shows a radius of the different airports in the Indianapolis area. Notice the radius of each airport and how much of the airspace above Indianapolis is restricted.

• The Aircraft is flown within line of sight of the operator.

  Flying within line of sight means that you can see your aircraft at all times while it is airborne. Until recently, hobby model aircraft flyers were restricted to flying in line of site simply because that is all that the technology would allow. With today’s drones you can fly line of sight, or you can use GPS tracking, first person video feeds, and other advanced autopilot modes to fly your drone well beyond the restriction of line-of-sight. Current laws make this method of flight, illegal. Figure 7-3 shows a tablet that has several GPS beacons indicated for a drone’s flight path. As long as the drone remains within eyeshot, this is legal.

No-fly zones

In addition to the rules set forth by the FAA, there are regulations that have restricted drone flight near or over government buildings, in national parks, and anywhere near military installations. Also, due to the concentration of government facilities, personnel, airports, and military bases, flying a drone in or around Washington D.C. is a bad idea — if you are caught, you will likely be prosecuted swiftly. In late January of 2015, a government employee was in a lot of hot water for not only flying a drone while under the influence of alcohol (a big no-no according to the AMA safety guidelines), but he crashed his DJI Phantom on the lawn of the White House. The official statement was that he was intending to prove that the aerial alert system at the White House was inadequate and needed to be upgraded. He was right, but time will tell if he will get a promotion at work or jail time.

To stay up-to-date on no-fly zones in the United States, check out the website https://www.mapbox.com/blog/dont-fly-here, shown in Figure 7-4. This site has an interactive map that is community updated. It shows where you can and can’t fly your drone in the U.S.

State and local laws

In 2014, a total of 35 states had begun considering legislation impacting Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) but only ten have actually enacted the laws. Although your city or state may not have enacted laws governing the use of drones, that doesn’t mean that you won’t get some grief from law enforcement anyway. Police Chief Robert Marshall of Naperville, Illinois, began a legal inquiry to determine if the city could arrest and prosecute a drone pilot for taking video and photos of the city of Naperville at night. Below is a listing of states that have enacted UAS (drone) legislation along with a summary of the legislation and the Bill identification:

• Alaska: Bill HB255

  This bill outlines procedures and standards for law enforcement use of unmanned aircraft. The bill requires law enforcement to get FAA authorization to use the aircraft for all activities. It also requires a law enforcement to have a search warrant to use a drone to search private property.

• Illinois: Bill SB2937

  This bill created regulations for how law enforcement can obtain and use information gathered using unmanned aircraft. It also loosens regulations regarding how law enforcement uses unmanned aircraft during disasters and public health emergencies.

• Indiana: Bill HB1009

  This bill outlines warrant requirements and exceptions for police use of drones. It also enacted a new law that created the crime of “Unlawful Photography and Surveillance on Private Property,” which makes it a Class A misdemeanor to knowingly and intentionally survey private property without permission.

• Iowa: Bill HF 2289

  This bill makes it illegal for a state agency to use a drone to enforce traffic laws. The new law also requires a warrant, to gather information with a drone and later use the information in a civil or criminal court proceeding.

• Louisiana: Bill HB1029

  This bill created the new crime of “Unlawful use of an unmanned aircraft system,” which defines the unlawful use of an unmanned aircraft system as the intentional use of a drone to survey a targeted facility without the owner’s prior written consent. The crime is punishable by fine and imprisonment.

• North Carolina: Bill SB744

  This bill prohibits anyone from conducting drone surveillance of a person or private property and also prohibits taking a photo of a person without their consent for the purpose of distributing it. The bill also authorizes commercial use of drones for agriculture, mapping, research, and forest management. Law enforcement can use drones to monitor public spaces and counteract terrorism as long as a warrant is secured. The bill also created several new crimes: using UAS to interfere with manned aircraft, possessing an unmanned aircraft with an attached weapon, the unlawful fishing or hunting with an unmanned aircraft, harassing hunters or fisherman with an unmanned aircraft, unlawful distribution of images obtained with an unmanned aircraft, and operating an unmanned aircraft commercially without a license.

• Ohio: Bill HB292

  This bill created Ohio’s aerospace and aviation technology committee. One of their duties is to research and develop aviation technology including unmanned aerial vehicles.

• Tennessee: Bill SB1777

  This bill makes it illegal to conduct surveillance on anyone that is hunting or fishing. Bill SB1777 makes it a crime to conduct surveillance of an individual or their property, to possesses surveillance photos or video footage, or to distribute those photos or videos. The bill also outlines legal commercial uses for unmanned aircraft.

• Utah: Bill SB167

  This bill requires law enforcement to acquire a warrant in order to use a drone to “obtain, receive or use data.”

• Wisconsin: Bill SB196

  This bill requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant before using drones in a place where an individual has a “reasonable expectation of privacy” like your home. The law also created a new law to prevent weaponization of drones and another law to prevent the use of a drone to observe another individual in a place where they have a “reasonable expectation of privacy.”

As you probably noticed, there were several laws enacted to protect the people from improper an unfair use by law enforcement. Some states are also implementing laws to protect the general public from twenty-first century peeping toms and other generally annoying and potentially unsafe behavior.

Multiple states have legislation on the docket for addressing the use of drones to disrupt hunting and fishing. This is gaining momentum as animal rights advocacy groups like PETA continue to encourage animal rights activists to use drones to harass lawful hunting and fishing. Figure 7-5 shows a picture of the PETA air angel.

Stay up-to-date on which states are doing what by checking the American Civil Liberties Union website here: https://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/status-2014-domestic-drone-legislation-states

Taking Matters Into Your Own Hands

Drones are definitely controversial largely due to the general public’s perception of them as a tool for the government surveillance and other violations of personal civil liberties. The government’s expansion of domestic use of drones for surveillance has caused many people to raise concerns, so much so that the ACLU has stepped in and recommended the following list of safe guards (that can also be found on their website, https://www.aclu.org/issues/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/domestic-drones?redirect=blog/tag/domestic-drones):

• Usage limits: Drones should be deployed by law enforcement only with a warrant, in an emergency, or when there are specific and articulable grounds to believe that the drone will collect evidence relating to a specific criminal act.
• Data retention: Images should be retained only when there is reasonable suspicion that they contain evidence of a crime or are relevant to an ongoing investigation or trial.
• Policy: Usage policy on domestic drones should be decided by the public’s representatives, not by police departments, and the policies should be clear, written, and open to the public.
• Abuse prevention & accountability: Use of domestic drones should be subject to open audits and proper oversight to prevent misuse.
• Weapons: Domestic drones should not be equipped with lethal or non-lethal weapons.

For some, however, things aren’t moving fast enough and so they’ve opted to take matters into their own hands. In 2013, the town of Deer Trail, Colorado, considered an ordinance that would pay a bounty for every drone shot out of the sky. This was not passed, but the proposal elevated the conversation on domestic surveillance with drones and ethical and legal boundaries for domestic drone usage, civil, commercial, and public.

In 2014, a New Jersey man was arrested for shooting a drone out of the sky with a shotgun. He felt the drone was invading his property and therefore defended his home from the invasion. He was, however, arrested for 2 gun-related crimes and the drone operator was not charged simply because there were no laws on the books preventing the use of his drone over his neighbor’s property.

The home owner that took matters into his own hands argued that the drone was on private property; unfortunately, case law precedent said otherwise. In a 1946 Supreme Court decision U.S. vs. Causby, it was ruled that airspace is public highway and that airplanes could fly through it unencumbered by property law. Later in the 1980s, the Supreme Court also found that law enforcement didn’t need a warrant for aerial images and that home owners did not have any expectation of privacy. In fact, if you were to damage someone else’s drone, even if it was flying over your property, you could be found by a court to owe damages to repair or replace the drone. If someone parked their car on your lawn, you couldn’t set it on fire, but you could have it towed and then sue the owner for any costs associated with the towing and repair to any damages to your lawn.

If you find that someone is invading your privacy with a drone and you want to take matters into your own hands, your best bet is to start with contacting law enforcement. The next step is to put your vote to work. Contact your state representatives. If you don’t know who your federal representatives are, you can find out by visiting sites like: https://www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup. If you want to know who your state-level representatives are, go to your state government’s homepage.

Knowing the Laws in Other Countries

Generally speaking, the world tends to follow the lead of the FAA. Simply put, this is because if you want to fly into the US, you have to abide by the FAA’s rules and regulations for the safe operation of an aircraft. The FAA’s rules and regulations are typically regarded as rigorous. They should be; that is what ensures the safety of the millions of people who fly in and out of the United States every day. Laws regulating drones do, however, differ from country to country because, for the time being, no unmanned aircraft are being flown between sovereign nations. So if you are going to another country with your drone, you should get familiar with the country’s laws so you don’t end up the star of an episode of Locked Up Abroad. Below is a list of countries and a brief summary of their laws as well as a link to online resources:

• Canada: The laws in Canada are pretty strict when it comes to flying a drone legally. If you are using your drone for personal and recreational use, the drone is under 77 pounds, and you are absolutely not using it to make money, then the drone is considered a model aircraft. Anything else requires a special certification. Good luck! Here is a link to more information:
• United Kingdom: The laws in the UK are very similar to the U.S. Your drone needs to be under 20kg, you can’t fly it for commercial purposes so no business functions or revenue generation with your drone without certification. You also need to fly line-of-sight, away from congested areas, and no higher than 400 feet above the ground. Also, similarly to the United States, there is criminal code that likely comes into play with privacy issues, trespassing, and such that you will want to be aware of. For more information:
• Europe: For most aviation-related topics, Europe is governed by European Aviation Safety Administration (EASA), however for remotely piloted systems (drones), they relegate responsibilities to each country in the European Union.