Drone NAS Integration, What Really Happened - sUAS News - The Business of Drones: "As we look forward to working with a new FAA administrator, we have to remember some of the past integration mistakes so we do not relieve them on the regulatory wheel of suffering. Some of these whoppers have put the U.S. behind the rest of the world in adapting and innovating with this technology.
Randolph Babbitt picked up the pieces after Marion Blakey’s administration did the arbitrary policy clarification in February of 2007. Before that, you could fly drones in class Bravo airspace, BVLOS, at night over 400′ or whatever you wanted. Folks that asked for procedures for operations from the FAA were told to use AC91-57 and to have a nice day.
Hard to believe that the policy clarification was made up, done on the fly and in private. At the time the FAA didn’t even have an Administrative Procedures manual to work from! They used Title 5 of the U.S.C. and some other documents and stuff. I can’t give the reader complete details because I am still waiting on the information promised from a call I had with FAA counsel and the Congressional liaison almost a decade ago. " Read More
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