[TowerTalk] the future of antenna and tower inspection

[Jim Lux]

On 4/14/13 3:43 PM, David Jordan wrote:
> Cell companies are already using drones for tower inspections ;-)  Less
> expensive than a climber!
>

We're doing some work with quadcopters at JPL and have found that there 
are substantial regulatory hurdles.  I can run out and buy myself a 
Parrot AR.Drone and do what I want at home, but if a business wants to 
do this legally, they have to have a CoA (Certificate of Authorization) 
from the FAA which requires some documentation of your plans, a minimum 
sized team, all of which have to have third class medicals, etc.  That 
is, there's no "part 103" kind of exceptions like there are for balloons 
that are less than a certain weight and size.


Mostly it's because there aren't any good rules yet, so they're trying 
to fit it into the rules they've got, and this kind of thing doesn't fit 
in the model airplane kinds of exceptions.  Kind of like hams can do a 
lot of things with radios that the rest of the radio using world cannot, 
except there's no "model airplane amateur license".

For instance, if you're flying that drone as part of your job, you're a 
pilot and you're doing it for money, so don't you need a commercial 
certificate?  They've sort of decided not really, but...

I think the whole "submit a plan including training processes" for your 
CoA is sort of like the process for being a student pilot.

There's also all sorts of local rules about where you can operate a 
drone (including anti-paparazzi laws and 
anti-looking-at-animal-husbandry laws).


So, as with many things, making a business of doing antenna patterns 
(which I think would be way cool) is more about navigating through the 
the regulatory thicket than the technical issues.

Technical issues have solutions.  you want "electrically short" dipoles 
or loops that can have calibrated response and you want three axes, 
reasonably close to orthogonal.  Those could be integrated into your 
quadcopter pretty easily.



http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/service_units/systemops/aaim/organizations/uas/coa/faq/

Can a civilian company operate an UAS as part of a business?

Currently, civilian companies may not operate a UAS as part of a 
business without obtaining a Special Airworthiness Certificate - 
Experimental Category (SAC-EC). However, this SAC-EC is very limited in 
scope of operational use. Contact FAA for details or see FAA Order 8130.34.

Who can receive a COA to fly a UA in the NAS?

Only public agencies operating an unmanned aircraft.

another nugget of problematic nature: "Routine UAS operations shall not 
be conducted over urban or populated areas"