On February 23, 2015, the FAA issued a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking for the regulation of commercial operation of small
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). UAS advocates breathed a sigh of
relief, as the proposed regulations are not as onerous as had been
feared, particularly insofar as they require neither airworthiness
certification, nor traditional pilot's licenses and medical
certificates. They do, among other things, require registration of
the UAS and a newly created operator's certificate that focuses
on aeronautical knowledge, and restrict operations to daylight,
line-of-sight, 100 mph or less and an altitude of 500 feet or less
above ground level.
About halfway through the sixty-day public comment period (which
ends April 24, 2015), the docket presently contains well in excess
of 1,000 comments by commercial and private operators of manned
aircraft, UAS operators and enthusiasts, educators, and concerned
individuals without any apparent aviation background. The
