Drones - where will they end up?

I suspect thT might be initially resolved in the case mentioned. There really does (IMHO) need to be some balance between drone operators rights, the use of airspace, and personal privacy. OTOH, I'm not sure I even know where/how to start thinking about this.

Josef

This article on an interesting issue with that particular model addresses some of the social concerns that exist around drones.

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/vide...ore-being-shot-down/

The notion of who owns the airspace above their house may get revisited as the drone topic, er, drones on. (sorry... )

Also, There's proposals afoot to re-jigger the airspace to have specific segments for drone flight - in the 200-500 foot AGL range. I think Amazon's behind that push.

Lots of changes coming....

I just watched a video on the DJI Phantom 3 Professional. What a machine! It guides itself by GPS and, if GPS isn't available, by sonar and visual recognition! Even without GPS, the drone can hold itself perfectly stable by pinging the ground for altitude and visually looking for movement in the ground below. It has a "takeoff" button and it starts itself up and rises to about 10 feet to hover until the operator takes over. The operator sees the drone's perspective from an iPad or iPhone. It has a "return" button - if you lose it and can't figure out how to get it back, this button will instruct it to return to it's takeoff point and hover at about 3 feet. The come coded to not fly higher than 120 meters, but that can be overridden. Perhaps it shouldn't be. Maybe these things should be forced to have ADS-B by 2020 so that ATC can keep an eye on them! These things are so sophisticated, and have a range of over a mile from the operator, that it is very concerning that these things could easily get in the way of manned aircraft. Perhaps hard limited to under 400 feet, with a built in map that makes them ion within 5 miles of an airport, with professional models that have ADS-B with those limitations removed? Thoughts?