I feel a disturbance in the force. Not just because The Force Awakens here in Africa a whole two days before the USA. But because if disturbances in the force reaching sUAS News this weekend are correct another Force is about to wake.

The FAA are said by some close to the process to release the new registration rules tomorrow, Monday 14th of December. Within two weeks of the magic date that the UAS Registration Task Force was hastily convened to counteract.

Lets remind ourselves who was on the task force

Nancy Egan – 3D Robotics

Richard Hanson – Academy of Model Aeronautics

George Novak – Aerospace Industries Association

Chuck Hogeman and Randy Kenagy – Air Line Pilots Association

Jim Coon – Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Sean Cassidy – Amazon Prime Air

Ben Gielow–Amazon Retail

Justin Towles – American Association of Airport Executives

Brian Wynne – Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International

Parker Brugge – Best Buy

Douglas Johnson – Consumer Electronics Association

Brendan Schulman – DJI

Paul Feldman – General Aviation Manufacturers Association

Dave Vos – GoogleX (Co-Chair)

Tony Bates – GoPro

Matt Zuccaro – Helicopter Association International

Mike Fergus – International Association of Chiefs of Police

John Perry – Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors

Brandon Declet – Measure

Randall Burdett – National Association of State Aviation Officials

Sarah Wolf – National Business Aviation Association

Baptiste Tripard – Parrot

Tyler Collins – PrecisionHawk

Gregory McNeal – Small UAV Coalition

Thomas Head – Walmart

If what we hear is true the recommendations of the task force have for all practical purposes been ignored.

All RPA, private or commercial use are to be registered regardless of weight.

There will be a fee for each registration.

Not one person multiple vehicles, every drone you own will need to be registered.

This applies to all model aircraft there is no distinction between drone and RPA they are all RPA (Free flight and control line don’t count)

When the task force released its recommendations the AMA said they didn’t like them

“Unfortunately the task force recommendations may ultimately prove untenable by requiring the registration of smaller devices that are essentially toys and do not represent safety concerns. Based on its years of experience the AMA cautioned against unnecessarily encumbering the toy industry and urged the task force to consider several factors when determining the threshold at which UAS technology should be registered – including weight, capability and other safety-related characteristics. But, the recommendations do not reflect this comprehensive approach. The task force only considered weight, requiring any device up to 250 grams (0.55 pounds) to register. We believe weight should be only one of several factors considered when determining where the threshold should be for UAS registration.” Full response here

I guess we will all know the strength of the rumor tomorrow.

Don’t worry I won’t give away any Star Wars spoilers when I watch it on Wednesday.

Update 14th Dec its an 0930 EST announce https://www.suasnews.com/2015/12/40763/transportation-secretary-anthony-foxx-to-make-registration-announcement-0930-est/