Railfan Technology > Names And Addresses in Drone Registry Will Be Publicly Available

From an article I read today, the FAA admits that names and addresses of drone registrants will eventually become publicly available by search of registry number.  However the Academy of Aeronautics is appealing. The artice is here:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoglia/2015/12/18/faa-finally-admits-names-and-home-addresses-in-drone-registry-will-be-publicly-available/

 

No big deal, the registration data for aircraft is public.  

So now someone can search for someone with a nice drone in their area to steal? Great.

Ryan Wilkerson
Fair Oaks, CA

You can already search for a nice airplane in your area to steal.

The kind that fit in a backpack?

Ryan Wilkerson
Fair Oaks, CA

... and any ham (radio amateur) who shows his call sign
gives away the farm... I've got my call on my license
plate. Should I be worried? Don't think so.

John.

chakk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You can already search for a nice airplane in your
> area to steal.

as with my car, motorcycle, or boat. 

Privacy of ownership is just one of the concerns.  Privacy of operation is another.

There is already a provision for wealthy people, politicians, and government to have their aircraft data blacked out from flightaware and other tracking sites.  This all started when the University of Alabama complained that their football coaches were being tracked on recruiting trips by other schools.  FAA agreed and allows Alabama and other colleges to make stealth flights.  Most corporate aircraft owners are now jumping on this loophole, saying "why is my trip any less important than Nick Saban's."

There is a lively discussion going on about whether or not aircraft of any type, using the public airways, taxpayer supported air traffic control, transportation security administration employees and resources, should be tracked in the public domain.

At the present time, only aircraft on instrument flight plans are tracked, but this will change in a few years when the ground based radar system is dismantled.

At the point in time where the satellite based system is the only way of tracking aircraft, the system will be dependent upon having live operable transponders turned on.

Any aircraft that does not have a live operating transponder will be invisible to tracking.

Further, it is unclear whether the monitoring systems will be impervious to hacking and spoofing.

Since only the larger unmanned aerial vehicles will have capable electrical systems, it is doubtful that any of the smaller ones will be trackable by anybody.  And most of those are currently owned by sneaky large government agencies and law enforcement.  Fed Ex, UPS, and Amazon are talking about unmanned cargo aircraft in order to cut payroll and bust pilot unions.  It remains to be seen whether any of those agencies will allow their equipment to be traced and tracked. 

There is admittedly a huge difference between the toys that were unwrapped under the Christmas tree, and the unmanned behemoths that can run around carrying 500 people, a tractor-trailer load of cargo, smart bombs, laser guided missles, and so forth.

Currently the FAA does not have a clue that there is any difference between the various sizes of unmanned aircraft, and is treating all of them with a one-size-fits-all regulatory approach.  They are going to get themselves into such a pickle of overregulation and information constipation, that they will end up not being able to control or regulate anything.

And, by the way, I have the same opinion of the postitive train control systems that are out there today.  They are not going to work as advertised, and like the FAA's disasterous "next gen" program, are going to have to be scrapped and started over from scratch.  

  



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/15 12:01 by NewRiverGeorge.

NewRiverGeorge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Currently the FAA does not have a clue that there
> is any difference between the various sizes of
> unmanned aircraft, and is treating all of them
> with a one-size-fits-all regulatory approach. 
> They are going to get themselves into such a
> pickle of overregulation and information
> constipation, that they will end up not being able
> to control or regulate anything.

This statement tells me you do not have a clue about the FAA or the people who work for it.

Ray