Comment from Ryan Bemis
Ryan BemisSupportIndividual
Summary: Ryan Bemis, a small agricultural drone spraying business owner, supports the new regulations but urges the FAA to create a specific category for drones weighing under 500 lbs. He argues that current weight thresholds may exclude smaller businesses and suggests that agricultural drones with specific safety features (like geo-fencing and obstacle avoidance) should have their own regulatory category to keep costs and risks manageable.
I'm a small...... 2-3 drone ag spraying business who looks forward to these new regulations, with that said, these new regulations need to consider weight class of ag drones, as knowingly they will get bigger and bigger... regulations applying to such larger drones is fine, however from 110 lbs to the jump to over 1000lbs is huge, also rules out smaller businesses such as mine, a middle weight say under 500lbs (ag drones are spraying under 250lbs loaded now) and keeps smaller drone work plausible maybe with less regulations, lower risk, lower insurance costs etc etc.... the technology and safety is there now, but I don't want to see this new rule..... rule out 100s if not 1000s of smaller drone spray companies from being able to participate.... We must be able to empower smaller businesses to engage in the industry as well. Or another consideration might be agricultural drones in their own category say under 500lbs ...they fly low altitude, un occupied rural spaces, with mapped geo fenced routes, obstacle avoidance, night flying - beyond sight flying with proper mapping and fly to home features etc... it may well deserve a category of its own? Thank you for this consideration Ryan Bemis