Recent content by Racklefratz

No "fiddling of the words" happening. Your assertion that "all IFR approaches require a barometric altimeter is wrong - apparently you're unfamiliar with WAAS - WAAS-equipped aircraft rely solely on GPS information for precision approaches. Nor did I say they did.

Which is exactly why, in real-world aviation, pilots are required to obtain the current LOCAL barometer setting prior to attempting an instrument approach to the airport, and also why ATC provides the local altimeter setting as part of the initial contact with any pilot.

That's an incorrect statement, and you're mixing terms you don't understand. Re-read the Garmin discussion you referenced. Nowhere does it mention the word "altitude". The discussion is about GPS accuracy of ELEVATIONS, not altitudes. Elevations refers to ground-level, as in the term "field...

It's moot. "VFR traffic" is NOT scanning the skies, looking for dinky little "drones" - they're looking for "real" airplanes. None of this nonsense makes any difference whatsoever in the probability of a drone/real airplane midair. However well intentioned, it simply doesn't make a...

I don't know if that's true or not, but, if it is, it's goofy. Airplanes operate from uncontrolled airports every day and night, and many of them DON'T have any kind of instrument approach. Designing geo-fencing to be active only where an airport has a published approach leaves the rest...

Flyboard® air en - Zapata Racing

I think the simple fact that confusion abounds on this subject, and that no one, ANYWHERE, can claim to have a clear understanding of all this "drone" stuff is abundant proof that it's not "pretty straight forward".

Easy - all the "drone cowboys" on YouTube who fly their toys up into clouds 5,000' or more AGL where they lose sight of it and are up where real airplanes fly want to "go higher". How else can they get their "altitude record" bragging rights? Not coincidentally, these losers were one of the...

I don't see where NPS has any authority over drone operations outside their boundaries. They DO, however, have control over what goes on inside those boundaries. And I think it's silly to posit that if it's on the ground, NPS can regulate it, but if it's 6' off the ground, they have no say...

OK, I'll play. Who wants to be the first to define which parts of a drone flight are "landing" and "operating"? When does "operating" end and "landing" begin? Cite regs applicable to drones. Also, please report back when you've had a confrontation with an NPS Ranger and prevailed, asserting...

Oh, I see. Wow - Latvian, huh? No wonder I misunderstood. ;)

Dunno. I saw that "grid" stuff here today for the first time, and I'm skeptical. This concept has a long way to go before FAA would be willing to interface its "grid" system with the various drone manufacturers' navigation systems. And unless something like that happens, I can't see how drone...

I'm not a lawyer, but I do have many years of dealing with FAA as a licensed pilot. I agree - FAA's main concern is safety and efficient airspace use. They'd never know what anyone does with their aerial photography, and they don't care. They just want to keep aircraft from swapping paint.

Can't hurt to try, and I can see you're doing as much of that as you can. As an instrument rated pilot (real airplanes), I come from more than 40 years of FAA-certificated flying and owning two aircraft. That experience provided me with a realistic view of how the FAA operates from a user...

What you apparently aren't willing to accept is that no amount of making "points" on some internet forum will change the FAA's position on its operating regulations. FAA typically employs something called "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" prior to implementing new regulations, and interested...