old&ugly

There still isn't the FAA manpower to handle any kind of one-on-one proficiency demos. Back in the early '70s the GADOs all had offices full of inspectors, both flight & mechanical to handle flight tests. But, even then they were only doing 1-2 flight checks per day.....WEATHER PERMITTING! Then, civilian designees became more popular, starting with private pilot rides as the Feds started downsizing in the mid-70s. Of course then they even released their sacred written test authorizations to us civilian aviation folks. That helped. But still, even if you compared the amount of aviation people on NAT vs the amount of new drone owners, it would be head-spinning, I'm sure. Keeping in mind that the drone thing has really grown in the last year with more auto control availability & the lack of need to fly or land. The FAA will have put the certification out in the private sector, if it indeed feels the need. The weather will always hinder scheduled flights for airplanes & drones. You can't ask some guy to bring his drone that he's never flown (we haven't covered "student pilot" authorizations, have we?) in a 20 mph wind & demonstrate safe practices. That has become an oxymoron by his appearance with drone in hand. Not even sure where they'll be able to go for flight checks...sure won't be on an airport.

I agree that one small step would be to grandfather in all present certificated pilots, including student pilots that have passed their written exams. If elected president, that would be my first move. Why not? Medical certifications would no longer be needed. You can lay on a gurney w/IV hookups & fly a drone.

Not sure how to handle the written part of any potential drone certification. I suppose an abbreviated on-line course & exam would suffice. 99% of the present written material would have 0.0 bearing on drone flights in airspace. Again, we were all here in the '70s when those crazy guys flying lawn chairs w/snowmobile engines (aka ultralights) started appearing & asking for use of airspace and AIRPORTS! I know on our particular airport, Greater Kankakee, there were some prophesizing that the airport area would be littered with debris from mid-air mishaps. old&ugly, I'm sure you can imagine the difference between sucking up a 2.5# plastic DJI drone & getting tangled in a 500# conduit, fabric, snowmobile engine, & human being mess called an ultralight. I don't remember any such problems in reality after the fact however. We've gotten along just fine. 2 place ultralights make excellent photo platforms.

Keep the ideas coming. I hope only good things transpire for the mix of airplanes & drones.

Ron

CFIAI/ATP