A Lesson In Patience, And Due Process... But Is Anyone Listening?

by ANN Correspondent Valentino Valencia

A beautiful opening day at Oshkosh, and it's about 4:10 pm. I'm late for my last forum of the day. This forum deals with unmanned aircraft in the NAS, and is a subject that I'm really interested in, as someone who works with UAVs.

As I walk into the pavilion -- located next to the flight line -- I notice there are only eight people in attendance. No wait, there are 9 people. Oh wait, he was just turning a chair around so he can watch the air show with the 14 people standing next to the pavilion doing the same thing.

Needless to say, this forum was provided at a time when there was definitely more interesting things going on. And every time one of those interesting things flew by, forum speaker Michael Gallagher had to stop. Not because it was so interesting, but because the noise was so overwhelming.

Michael is a former Manager of the FAA Small Airplane Directorate and has been very involved in general aviation issues since 1987. He is also a member of the leadership group of RTCA SC-203, which is developing standards for sense and avoid and communication and control for unmanned aircraft systems.

RTCA stands for Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, and the standards that they are developing will be submitted to the FAA for approval. At the request of AOPA and the FAA, Special Committee 203 (SC-203), was formed to help integrate Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV's) safely into the NAS.

The first of several steps for SC-203 is to develop an Operational Services and Environment Description (OSED). Because UAV's come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and different mission profiles, SC-203 needs to be able to distinguish these different platforms and label them accordingly. The OSED is scheduled to come out later this year.

What does this mean for GA? This means that you still have a voice. Anything that is submitted by SC-203 has to go through an approval process through the FAA. This is where you can express your opinion.

UAVs have a valid and important role to play in the future... and it seems that integration into the NAS is important, and inevitable. Although the attendance was small and the venue was poor (for now), this is a subject matter that is going to get increasing coverage in the future and will eventually affect everyone that uses the NAS.

Even though SC-203 is there to ensure that UAV's "do no harm" to existing NAS users, every user of the NAS should stay informed of upcoming issues that affect their way of life.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.rtca.org/