FAA Drone Registry Task Force Recommendations

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Unmanned Aircraft Systems Registration Task Force Aviation Rulemaking Committee released its final report earlier today. The recommendations contained within the report are non-binding, but the FAA is not expected to significantly deviate from the plan outlined in the report. There is very limited time remaining if the FAA is to meet its objective of having a working registration process in place prior to the Christmas holiday, but the Task Force's recommendations may be manageable. The key recommendations were to require owners of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (under 55 pounds) to register their drones with the federal government online prior to operation, as opposed to at the point-of-sale. The Task Force recommends that registration be free of charge, and open to any person, citizen or not, as long as he or she is at least 13 years of age. Owners would only be required to provide their name and street address when registering. After registration is complete, each drone will be assigned a registration number which the owner will be required to affix to the drone. There is little to object to in the report, as the registration process described should hardly inconvenience drone operators. This hasn't prevented some drone enthusiasts from objecting on principle to the notion that the FAA has the statutory authority to mandate registration of non-commercial drones, which remains a live question, though one that the FAA likely  won't have to litigate until 2016. On the pro-regulatory side, there is concern that not requiring registration at the point-of-sale will lead to widespread non-compliance with the registration requirement. The Task Force recommended the imposition of monetary penalties for non-compliance but did not include specific amounts.