Don’t Forget to Register Your Drones
If you live in the United States and own any sort of airborne drone that weighs between 0.55 and 55 pounds, you must register it with the Federal Aviation Administration. Existing drone owners have until 19 February 2016 to register, but new drone owners must register them before flying them. Registration is free for the next month but will cost $5 after that. The registration lasts for 3 years, and is applicable to all of your drones, not just one. So if you received a drone as a Christmas present, be sure to register it, or you could face civil penalties of up to $27,500 and criminal penalties of up to 3 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Ouch.
I imagine that the drones will take off without registration, so why register them? Can Registered drones still fly over private property or take pictures of women in their houses? Will drones now have the registration number easily visible like they are on boats and planes? Will they have a special signal transmitted so the authorities will know which is registered and which is not?
Are the Feds going to arrest someone for flying an unregistered drone on their own property? Will we have Drone Patrols across the country, checking registrations?
Yes, we have a problem with these flying toys being used inappropriately. But how is this paperwork going to solve the problems?
How about making it legal to destroy drones that fly over your property? That would make it a civil problem instead of a Federal case and it could be handled with local courts instead of the expense of trying something in a Federal court.
Note that this includes not only what are popularly known as "drones" but also model aircraft such as airplanes and helicopters.
This means that the 1000's of model aircraft hobbyists who have been flying Radio Control Airplanes for years are also now required to register with the FAA.
This registration is for the pilot, not the aircraft. The pilot receives a single registration number. This number must be placed on all aircraft.