Drone safety, risks topic for 80 at UA’s conference

Jim Robbins (left) and Larry Purcell, both with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, discuss Thursday the variety of unmanned aircraft on display at the UAS Summit at the University of Arkansas Global Campus in Fayetteville.
Jim Robbins (left) and Larry Purcell, both with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, discuss Thursday the variety of unmanned aircraft on display at the UAS Summit at the University of Arkansas Global Campus in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE — The flames spewed out in a line, shot from an airborne craft bobbing unsteadily.

Video of the fiery demonstration showed the noisy contraption aimed at a cooking spit. On YouTube, it’s titled “Roasting the Holiday Turkey.”

“There’s not a criminal problem here. But there’s a lot of questions we have to address,” said Scott Birkland, a supervisory special agent with the FBI, after a few gasps from the audience.

At a conference Thursday hosted by the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Birkland and others discussed drone safety, as well as how to make the technology more useful.

Access to drones has been “revolutionary,” Birkland said. The FBI recognizes that most drone activity is not malicious, but as use of the technology increases, “it does open up that new threat arena that really we have not addressed before,” he said.

About 18 months ago, the agency “took a hard look” at concerns relating to drones, he said. The FBI now conducts outreach with hobby users as well as academic users and specialty manufacturers, he said.

Among other concerns, a drone could be used to down a passenger plane, Birkland said. Potential threats vary when it comes to drone technology, Birkland said. And the FBI is vigilant against the use of drones as weapons of mass destruction, he said.

But “we don’t have any indicators that there’s an imminent plan to use [drones] to commit a terrorist act in the United States,” Birkland said. From January of last year to this August, the agency logged 197 drone flyovers resulting in a report to local law enforcement officials or the FBI, Birkland said.

The largest number of reports, 73, involved a concern about a drone flying near an airport or another aircraft, according to Birkland’s presentation.

Data from the Federal Aviation Administration as of May listed more than 460,000 drones registered to hobbyists and more than 8,400 to nonhobbyists. Kenny Maldonado, with the FAA, at the Fayetteville conference said he worked for the agency’s Office of Security and Hazardous Materials Safety and described the agency’s approach to safety.

The FAA this year finalized what’s known as the Part 107 small unmanned aircraft rule.

Part 107, which took effect Aug. 29, set forth what the agency has described as operational rules for routine commercial use of unmanned small aircraft systems.

The rules state that a pilot must have either a remote pilot airman certificate with a drone rating or “be under the direct supervision” of someone who holds such a certificate.

They also state that no one may act as a remote pilot in command for more than one aircraft at a time and set maximums for aircraft weight and flight altitude, as well as other limits. The aircraft must weigh less than 55 pounds and fly no higher than 400 feet above ground level or, to fly higher than 400 feet, be within 400 feet of a structure.

But the rule also states that “most of the restrictions” are waivable if an applicant can demonstrate the safety of an operation.

At this point, the FAA is “in the educational phase,” Maldonado said, adding, “we want to make sure everyone is aware how and where to operate that drone safely.”

He acknowledged that some users have been disregarding the new rule, with hobby users “kind of pushing the limits” and operating as if they are commercial users. “Then they’re just doing, ‘I didn’t know I couldn’t do that,’” Maldonado said adding, “we’re not in the business of issuing civil penalties or arresting people.”

He said “at some point” the FAA will move into a “compliance phase.” FAA investigations start with a formal letter asking for a response within 10 days, he said.

“If we don’t hear back, then we go a step further,” Maldonado said. “If people respond and explain the reason why they were doing what they were doing, it may not be anything at all.” He said a warning letter might be the result.

A business user in the audience, Charles Wilson, flight operation manager for Aerial Digital Photography in Little Rock, said it is not easy to comply with FAA regulations, also noting that some business operators do not even attempt to do so.

“It’s very frustrating,” Wilson said, describing how his business works to meet the wishes of clients while staying in compliance with FAA rules. “We’re in the gray all the time.”

About 80 people attended what UA called a “drone summit,” said Rich Ham, associate director of the operations management program in the university’s engineering college. Ham said it was the first event of its kind in the state.

Another presenter, Terry Spurlock, with the University of Arkansas’ Agriculture Division, described how data collected from aerial imagery could be useful to farmers.

But he said there remains a wide gap that must be bridged so farmers can interpret and utilize such data.

As far as drones flying at working farms, “there’s very little use going on,” Spurlock said. But drones equipped with thermal and other advanced imaging can aid with several farm operations, he said.

Col. Leon Dodroe with the Air National Guard’s 188th Wing, based at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, discussed military drone operations.

“The Air Force would call it remote piloted aircraft rather than drones, because there’s so much of a human element,” Dodroe said, adding that there is intense demand for drones in the military.

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