United States

Organizations

Regulatory

• FAA - Federal Aviation Administration
• FCC - Federal Communication Commission
• Local Air Traffic Control
• ATF - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (for amateur rocketry)

Voluntary

• AMA - Academy of Model Aeronautics
• IRCHA - International Radio Control Helicopter Association
• RCAPA - Radio Control Aerial Photography Association
• AUVSI - Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
• NAR - National Association of Rocketry
• TRA - Tripoli Rocketry Association

Legal

Status

Commercial Aerial Photography

• How the FAA Defines Commercial Use - DIYDrones

FPV

• U.S. FPV Safety Code and SUAS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking - RCGroups
• So Today I was contacted by the FAA - FPVLab

Paraglider

• Paragliding Airspace Regulations

Rocket

• FAA says tethered rocket moon lander testing requires authorization - HobbySpace
• US Code Title 14: PART 101—MOORED BALLOONS, KITES, AMATEUR ROCKETS AND UNMANNED FREE BALLOONS

Kite and Tethered Craft

• Tethered vs Moored Hot Air Balloons and the FAA - Balloon Life

Voluntary Organization Rulesets

AMA

The Academy of Model Aeronautics is a large flying club, with a federated structure that licenses local clubs & their airfields, and provides a voluntary rule set for its members to which it provides liability insurance. They are generally highly unfavorable to UAV and FPV usage, and their regulatory focus is oriented to provide increased exemptions for turbine aircraft, and very large balsa scale models which are generally not of interest to the drone-developing community. Their advisory influence in crafting regulation is a matter of some concern to UAS enthusiasts, in particular an attempt to co-opt all hobbyist model aviation by trying to push regulation mandating membership in an approved voluntary regulatory body.

• 2012 Safety Code

RCAPA

RCAPA was created to be an AMA alternative oriented towards aerial photography.

AUVSI

• AUVSI Releases UAV Code of Conduct

Changes

US UAV policy is rapidly evolving, and the FAA has been very slow to adjust to new technologies and new activities.

• AC-91-57 (ref) was an explicitly voluntary guideline encouraging a 400' AGL elevation limit, and Unaided Visual Line of Sight, for recreational fliers. This has been interpreted by the RC community as a positive right - a defense against liability, rather than a mandated restriction. "PURPOSE: This advisory circular outlines, and encourages voluntary compliance with, safety standards for model aircraft operators"
• AC-91-57 MUST be followed per this documents explains the theory that later the FAA began to assume that AC-91-57 was a mandatory restriction, without revising the actual laws
• Aware of how far behind the rest of the world the US' commercial UAV industry is (and how much UAVs are used by the military), Congress has been demanding that the FAA form official rules for UAVs in the national airspace for years. The FAA has regularly stalled.
• HR 658 Passed, which set some hard deadlines for first police/government/military, and later civil unmanned aviation rulesets & authorization procedures from the FAA.
• Timeline for FAA Regulation on Civilian Drones
• The FAA has been conducting a series of closed-door NDA-mandated conferences with industry representatives to determine rules that might work, and hobbyist groups have occasionally had a seat at them. UAV, FPV, and aerial photography enthusiasts have been vehemently opposed to the attempts of organizations like the AMA, which are hostile to these interest groups, to monopolize the 'hobbyist' label (at one point there was a panic that the AMA would enshrine its organization as mandatory in legal regulation). Aerial photography users who prefer electric vehicles lightweight enough to safely crash also have to worry about regulations handed down for the purpose of regulating half-ton gasoline-powered UAVs. The AMA's overly cautious stance shows signs of being revised in 2012.

Regions

DC

• The District of Colombia is in a blanket exclusion zone for essentially all non-governmental unmanned flying devices. We are likely to hear more about this ban in the context of drone journalism, because DC is one of the #1 destinations for large protests and events which attract news coverage.