In San Francisco, CBS Local recently posted an article titled “Airdog Autonomous Drone Flies Through Gray Area Of Law” that highlighted a very interesting element of current UAV law in the United States.
Today, the FAA is very clear, they require that the drone operator maintain visual line of sight or VLOS with their drone at all times. If you lose sight of your drone, in theory, you could be fined. Now consider this class of UAV:
The Airdog 2 or AD2 for short is one of a number of next-generation, hands-free drones that promise to take selfies to the next level, all while buzzing through a gray area of the law.
Drones like the AD2 and GoPro Karma for that matter are designed to follow the “operator” and capture action photos of various activities; activities that require you to maintain visual focus.
If you aren’t looking at your AD2 or Karma, are you breaking the law? It’s a bit grey and murky here, but generally speaking I think you are OK, but I raise the issue to highlight just how sticky it can get when you want to operate a drone for any purpose past basic flights.
Avoid the complexity and leave the UAV operation to the experts at Vertworx. We are always happy to help.
