Export limitations won't be lifted any time soon ..,
Not only, the real beef is the impending elimination of the
non commercial use clause for autopilot based radio controlled
flying models. My speculation .. by I can read the writing on
the wall.
Ever heard of the near miss collision between a jetliner in
final and a "drone" in Florida?
Well, it was not a gov licensed flying unmanned device.. so
it must have been an FPV or paparazzi based model or similar
and it was flying into the path of a jetliner. ..here is the
possibility it was something more sophisticated, but those are
all controlled. Now for a pilot to actually see it, it must
have been relatively large and slow. So what was it?
Apparently it came so close, the pilot said it was convince to
have had a collision.
We have been flying paparazzi for quite some time .. you
all know that to get a flying model to go up high and close
to a jetliner , one needs to work actively to make it fly into
reserved airspace quite deep . It could be an accident ..
someone with an autopilot board with failing return to home
safety lost radio control of an FPV or paparazzi based model.
Regardless ...
Do you see where the problem is?
If , the exporter as described above, went to the extreme
of recalling a package that was already out to the FedEx
destination station, it means the exporter did get a phone
call from someone with enough convincing power to make them
stop the delivery. Really .. that's a step a business takes
only if they are about to get in serious legal troubles,
Now what could they be? Read the writing on the wall.
To be frank with, if the above accident was a hobbyist,
the it was a real idiot, but the reality is that the FAA
won't let this happen again and controlling export of
paparazzi board is just the first easy step .
This is not going to go away.
This is just the beginning .Expect to lose the ability to
fly paparazzi without commercial license in the near future.
Not to mention ... commercial flight of small drone
technology is about to get a official spot in the NASA/FAA
plan for integration with general aviation . There is an
entire industry that is waiting to get the green light and
that spells troubles for hobbyists because it might well be
that non commercial unlicensed autopilot based flying model
won't be allowed anymore some time soon.
So, fly till you can ...