Appeals for government transparency over drone reports have led to media statements from John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman yesterday; a classified briefing for lawmakers on Capitol Hill today; and a public briefing at the Pentagon, also today, from U.S. Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, who serves as Press Secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense. The message was consistent.
Unintended consequences of this push by Congress and certain businesses to get remote controlled flying objects (drones) incorporated into the airspace system. And now that there is a war on in Europe, along with the Middle East, using drones as weapons, civilians here are now getting all excited with drone sightings. I wonder how much longer US citizens will put up with drones until Congress bans them altogether.
Venus has been bright in the evening sky for a week or two recently. If we correlate the number of sightings to this as well as cloudy skies a clearer picture will emerge. Hopefully extraterrestials will arrive shortly with chemical formulas that will explain to us how to convert biowaste into gold and/or platinum. Personally Iād be happy with a conversion factor for silver or copper. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Reminds me of the Air Canada first officer who took evasive action to avoid a collision with Venus.
What we have is a bunch of people who havenāt looked up at the night sky in years, maybe not ever, suddenly realizing that there are lights up there! Throw in social media, and we have a rather silly panic.
The flight pattern going into EWR descends them down in trail to around 5k right over the area where people have been complaining. At night, you can see multiple aircraft, sometimes as many as 5 or 6 on a clear night. Combine this with a few people practicing flying their drones at night, and you have the hysteria. The area is rural with lots of woods and farmland. Drone operators can and will fly from their property without anyone seeing where they land.
Yup. Right over my house. That said, I have seen actual drones from my front yard, but they could easily fit the profile of legitimate operators - albeit more numerous than Iāve seen before.
As usual, most posts here are missing the point. The reaction by the public comes out of distrust for govt. and its historic lack of transparency in recent years. The āmove along folks, nothing to see hereā attitude of many govt. agencies and institutions.
There was a recent rule change requiring all drones be equipped with āRemote ID.ā This technology allows authorities to locate a droneās control station if one is operated contrary to the law. Anyone operating a drone without Remote ID is subject to a fine up to $250,000. It seems to me if this were the case (people operating drones without Remote ID) authorities would say so.
Iāve no doubt there are SOME drones flying in the night sky. If authorities are not pursuing the operators then either: a) they are doing nothing illegal, or b) they are operated by the government and therefore are not subject to the Remote ID requirement.
Rather doubt weāre being visited by aliens, China, or Iran āmothershipsā but:
The mishandling of the Chinese āweatherā balloon certainly didnāt help build public trust. Neither does saying ānothing to seeā for the general public but holding a classified briefing for lawmakers. The lack of transparency just leads to further speculation.
An early press release to the effect, āwe donāt know what they areā but āthereās no dangerā didnāt help matters either.
Not to encourage illegal behavior, but whereas historically many have felt a sense or presence of hypervigilance by the authorities on the activities of general aviation operations, it appears that if one leaves the transponder off and doesnāt slam through Bravo airspaces or MOAs at combat altitudes, kind-of-thing, no-one in the government really cares what we do. Which kind of explains why no-one I know has ever seen or been ramp-checked despite gnawing paranoia that one is waiting for me every time I arrival at my hangar.
I wonder how many law enforcement agencies actually have the equipment and/or manpower capacity to read the Remote ID and act on the information. Considering that in some places the LEO response time can be measured in hours for non-critical events (if they show up at all), I donāt think random drone reports are going to get much action from the local constabulary.
The reaction by the public comes out of a lack of knowledge of what is, and what is not legal drone operations.
Of all the reports since November, I have read 3 cases of illegal drone activity.
Joe public believes that any drone activity not in your own back yard, while ātalking to ATCā on āa flight planā, and only during the day is legal.
The FAA needs a PSA explaining to the public what ānormalā, legal drone operations look like.
Right now, the public cannot discern from legal and illegal activity so everything looks nefarious.