Man shoots down drone, gets hit with felony charges in Minnesota

Re:Man shoots down drone, gets hit with felony charges in Mi... by inamberclad on Monday May 18, 2020 @02:16PM (#23226255)

We're coming back to the same question about how to 'count' RC aircraft and drones. Right now, it's a felony to interfere with the operations of any aircraft. But is a quadcopter/drone an aircraft? What about an RC plane? How big can it be before it counts?

Right now, 14 CFR 107 only covers commercial UAS uses and 14 CRF 91 only covers full sized, manned aircraft. Not only do these two parts of the FAA regs not mix, parts are actively incompatible since, for example, an aircraft must stay 1000 feet ABOVE the tallest obstacle within 2000 lateral feet (when over 'congested areas'), and a part 107 regulated drone must stay BELOW 400 feet above the immediate uppermost portion of an obstacle or structure within 400 lateral feet.

Furthermore, neither of these regulations cover hobby flying, except perhaps that drones are generally prohibited from flying more than 400 feet above ground level.

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Re:Man shoots down drone, gets hit with felony charges in Mi... by zupzupper on Monday May 18, 2020 @03:16PM (#23227120)

Actually quadcopters/drones/fixed wing, RC aircraft et. al. are "aircraft" per the FAA.

14 CFR 91 defines both, here's the FAA interpretation of 14 CFR 91, which they also produced to explain why they were allowed to further regulate RC aircraft operations outside of the boundaries set by congress in the FAA FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/educational_users/media/model_aircra...

Basically the FAA took the stance that all these things are "aircraft" and the same sets of rules apply to their operation.

Shooting down or at a drone, or RC aircraft has always violated the same set of laws, perpetrators just haven't yet been prosecuted for it yet.

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