"Pressure" on FAA to Approve UAV Operations in Civilian Airspace

AviationBull has been covering developments in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) issues for some time. The operational and economic benefits offered by UAVs are enormous - they can fly longer and cheaper than equivalent manned aircraft in most cases. Most importantly, they can operate in dangerous conditions that would otherwise put a pilot at risk.

Though these benefits are great, there is one key fact preventing UAVs from flooding our skies: Right now, UAVs are completely incapable of operating safely in the same airspace as manned aircraft.

As Google and the AP report, the FAA is thankfully taking the careful approach to UAV certification in spite of growing pressure.

The Google/AP article mentions some of the angles the FAA is worrying about when considering how to integrate UAVs into manned airspace. It also mentions that Congress has passed legislation directing the FAA to figure out how to make this work...soon. I found an article on page 20 of the FAA's May/June 2010 Safety Briefing, that also did a good job detailing the FAA's current position on the issue.

The most fundamental question in this issue is: how can we equip UAVs to sense and avoid other air traffic? Everything I've read has whisperings of "ADS-B" and "NextGen" as magical fixes that will be the background of a "sense and avoid" system for UAVs. While these technologies have the potential to help, they are definitely not a catch all. My biggest concern is that a lot of the people who want to use these aircraft want to fly them below 10,000 ft in places not covered by Class A, B, C or D airspace (oil pipelines in remote territory, search and rescue, municipal police departments, etc.) The recent, highly controversial, ADS-B rule just published doesn't require ADS-B equipment for manned air traffic in these types of airspace. Bottom line: even with a fully implemented ADS-B/NextGen system, UAVs aren't going to get any help in avoiding manned air traffic in this airspace. Additionally, I imagine that anyone operating a UAV, especially a small one, is going to be concerned about the extra costs and payload demands of ADS-B equipment. Unfortunately, NextGen won't solve the UAV problem by itself.

So it seems that UAVs are going to need some type of onboard sensors that can identify other air traffic. Maybe the need some type of radar, or maybe something along the EO DAS on the F-35 would do. Unfortunately, I don't see those being attractive to manufacturers wanting to keep costs low. They're definitely going to need something though.

I think one critical concern with UAVs needs to be that an operator or "remote pilot" needs to be treated like a pilot. He or she needs to go through the same training that any other pilot does and needs to have a currency requirement for operating manned aircraft. I think most UAV users are dangerously tempted to let non-pilots operate these aircraft, and that it's too easy for the operators to forget they're supposed to be acting like pilots.

Let me give you two examples. I'll preface them by saying that Uncle Sam pays me to fly and I think I have enough experience operating in the same airspace as UAVs to speak on this topic with authority. These are real, personal experiences.

I was on a flight sharing some airspace with another UAV. We were operating under the jurisdiction of an air traffic controller and were assigned to altitudes with 1000' separation. Things were working fine until I got a TCAS Traffic Advisory and saw that there were two aircraft within the 1000' below me, each about 500' apart. I called those pilots and asked what the deal was. It turns out the first aircraft's replacement (also a UAV) had just shown up and they unilaterally decided to encroach into airspace near my aircraft to effect their hand-off. Did they clear that through the controller? Nope, they were talking to each other on a government version of AOL's Instant Messenger. Neither the air traffic controller or anyone else in the air got any notice.

I dare someone to try something like that in some busy Class B airspace and see how long the FAA allows them to keep exercising pilot privileges. It's probably tough for UAV pilots to keep their head in the game. However, that doesn't excuse them from obeying the rules just like the rest of us. If you like that story, wait until you hear this one:

I had made several flights at a towered airport where UAVs were being used. Those aircraft were allowed to operate at traffic pattern altitude on pattern ground track. (This would be the equivalent of a municipal police department being allowed to operate a small UAV wherever they feel like - even near a local airport.) They were equipped with transponders and had lights on at night. They were always under positive control of the tower and continuously monitored tower frequency. I was on a VFR descent to this field one night and noted that tower didn't mention any UAV traffic (they usually gave me a heads-up when I checked on.) Suddenly, my TCAS gave me a Traffic Advisory for an aircraft very nearby. My copilot and I both started looking to acquire the traffic, but couldn't see anything. We ended up flying a high pattern and made a pretty assertive avoidance maneuver. We never saw the offending aircraft, but I asked tower about the conflict. They said something to the effect of, "Oh yeah, that UAV is orbiting right where you are."

Why was this conflict so bad? First, the UAV had its lights off. Second, the tower never mentioned them to us, even though they cleared us to fly a pattern with this traffic conflict. Third, the UAV operators were not trained as pilots. Though they monitored tower's frequency it was only to ask permission to change location. If they'd had even a little pilot education, they might have known to speak up when tower cleared us to fly directly at them. Basically, the UAV almost killed me that night; the only thing that saved us was TCAS. I'll give the tower controllers a break - they were especially busy and it was a late night and this was an isolated mistake. However, if the aircraft operators out there had known how to act like pilots, they would have ensured their aircraft was lighted and they could have interpreted the radio communications of traffic in the pattern and recognized the conflict.

So, at risk of being the guy who claims the sky is falling without presenting any solutions, I've written a set of recommendations on how to make this whole thing work. The list isn't exhaustive and maybe I'm going a little overboard. Please take a chance to read it and let me know what you think. Click here when you're ready.