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* Current Drone Law

* About Peter Sachs

Current Drone Law

By Peter Sachs, Esq.

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Nothing on this website is intended to be, nor should anything here be considered legal advice. Although I am an attorney, I am not your attorney. I do not seek to represent you or anyone else. Nor will I. This website in not intended to be a solicitation for business.

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Original publication date: December 14, 2013

This website relates to the remote-controlled model aircraft variety of drones, not military drones.

To most people, the word drone connotes a weapon of war. In part because every article you read and every television story you inevitably display this photo of a military drone. While the word drone finds its roots in the military, (where they were originally used for target practice), in reality a drone is any of a number of types of unmanned flying craft— some used in warfare, others used for pleasure or profit. For the purposes of this website, the word drone refers to the remote-controlled model aircraft variety, (“RCMA”), and nothing else.

The federal government has no authority whatsoever to regulate the operation of remote-controlled model aircraft.

Despite what you might have seen, heard or read to the contrary; despite the FAA’s claim that it has authority over RCMA; despite the FAA having sent several cease and desist letters, (obtained recently via FOIA request by Attorney Patrick Mckay), to persons who were operating RCMA for commercial purposes, there exists not a single federal statute, not a single federal regulation and no case law that in any way regulates the operation of RCMA.

None.

Federal statutes, regulations and case law concerning RCMA do not exist.

In the absence of any federal statute, regulation or case law that prohibits a particular activity, that activity is completely legal. That’s how the law works. Nothing is...