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DRONES Drone operators face a variety of new rules to follow Comment By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier MailTribune.com By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Dec. 28, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Dec. 28, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Jonas Stewart likes to fly a camera-mounted DJI Phantom quadcopter, making it hover and turn with a hand-held control. It looks like a square helicopter and weighs about 3 pounds. It could also be called a multi-rotor video platform, unmanned aircraft system (the official terminology), or most commonly, a drone. Whatever the name, using one is like handing a camera to a bird for a rare perspective on life below. "Every dad wants a drone. It's kind of a craze right now," said Stewart, of Grants Pass, who uses his to take videos and photos. "There's going to be a ton of them under the Christmas tree." As of Dec. 21, Stewart and millions of other Americans are now required to register their remote-controlled flying devices with the Federal Aviation Administration. The palm-sized kind weighing less than 250 grams (0.55 of a pound) will be exempt. The regulation grew out of concern that the flying objects could collide with an airplane. Firefighting agencies became concerned about drones at least two summers ago, and grounded aircraft several times last summer because of drones near fires, the FAA said. Pilot reports of interactions with unmanned aircraft have increased from 238 sightings in all of 2014 to 780 through August of this year, also according to the FAA. "If somebody is flying something like a drone up 400 or 500 feet, it could hit an airplane," said Kim Stearns, of the Jackson County Airport Authority. "Now you're hitting airspace that aircraft fly in. There's been so many near-misses." Airport officials found a drone that crashed within a half-mile of the Medford airport in October, Stearns said. It weighed 15 pounds. "If that would have hit an aircraft it could have been catastrophic," she said. "This wasn't one of those hold-in-your palm drones." The FAA has already ruled that drones can't be used for commercial purposes unless the operator has a pilot's license. The new registration will make it possible to track down violators of FAA rules, the most critical being no flying within five miles of an airport, Stearns said. "Because that drone we found wasn't registered, we have no idea where it came from," she said. "That incident really painted a picture for us, and the knowledge that drones are probably at the top of the list for Christmas gifts." You can buy them at Walmart, with names like Air Hogs Helix and Sky Viper, which don't require registration because they're so small. But the Parrot BeBop does, as does the DJI Phantom because they exceed the weight threshold. An employee at Al's Cycle & Hobby in Medford said some of the devices come with cameras mounted. The store has been selling them quickly. It has only two models that qualify for registration, and another dozen that don't, the employee said. Larry Graves, airport manager for Josephine County, doesn't like the new rule requiring registration, saying money would be better spent on education. He also believes that it will hurt radio-controlled model airplane businesses, because "inadvertently" the new drone registration rule includes them. The Academy of Model Aeronautics sent out a release urging all model airplane users to ignore the registration. But Graves agreed that drone use has become problematic, saying that a lot of people are buying hobbyist drones and flying them with first-person goggles or tablets into busy airspace. "The problem is a very sudden influx of people who own drones now, who don't know anything about the Academy of Model Aeronautics rules or regulations," Graves said Friday. "It's a matter of time before a drone hits a plane. It's a huge, boiling controversy." Graves said that one of the busiest functions at the Illinois Valley Airport now is a flight instructor teaching people how to fly a plane, not because they want to fly planes, but because they have to have a pilot license to use drones commercially. Chief Aircraft, based at the Grants Pass Airport in Merlin, is among the largest radio-controlled airplane makers in the country. It sells an array of what people call drones, a name that irritates Steve Coleman, head of sales for the company. "Drones are what the military use to spy on and attack people," Coleman said. "They're starting to call anything with remote controls and a video on it a drone." Coleman isn't a fan of the registration rule, although he doesn't think it will hurt sales of model airplanes. Antonio Melendez of Grants Pass said he's a drone hobbyist with a DJI Inspire, which will require registration. He uses it to help friends out with footage of sports and other subjects. He's also getting his pilot license so he can use it with his video production company Heartisan Films. "I've had drones for about four years," he said. Melendez said the FAA went too far requiring a pilot license to use them for commercial purposes, but doesn't have a problem with the registration requirement. "Say some guy crashes a drone into someone's property and hurts it," he said. "It makes it easy to identify the guy. I don't want to be confused with some other drone operator, if we have the same drone in the same area." Reach reporter Jeff Duewel at 541-474-3720 or [email protected] By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier MailTribune.com By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Dec. 28, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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