Big bureaucracy grabs more power...

Big bureaucracy grabs more power...  Not much news there, I suppose.  Still, its depressing to see how a bureaucracy's instinctive and all-too-predictable action is to control as much as it can.  In this case we're talking about the FAA and its ongoing efforts to regulate the use of drones.

The FAA's main role is to promote safety in the air.  Common sense (as opposed to bureaucratic sense) would say that in order to do so, the FAA should regulate those drones which actually pose some sort of risk to air safety.  In fact, until quite recently, that's exactly what the FAA did – traditional radio-controlled model aircraft, which are in fact a primitive kind of drone, have long been unregulated by the FAA (their radios are regulated, but for different reasons).

Now that drones exist that could fly into manned air traffic, the FAA decided it's time to regulate drones.  All drones, not just the ones that pose a risk to manned aircraft.  But in order to keep excluding model aircraft, they've made an arbitrary – and really rather stupid – dividing line.  The FAA has declared that it has authority over all commercial drones, but not “recreational” drones.  If, just for fun, I want to fly a car-sized drone up to 35,000 feet and circle around – that's ok with the FAA.  But if I want to fly a drone 35 feet into the air (where it poses zero risk to manned aircraft) to take wedding pictures for a fee – well, the FAA says that's just plain not allowed.  Period.  Full stop.

The bureaucrats are grasping, and in their traditional clumsy and overreaching way.  Several lawsuits are pending already, more will surely follow.  Let's hope a court with some common sense slaps these bureaucrats silly...