FAA is deep into a power grab with respect to commercial use of drones especially small UAVs (sUAVs) that would typically be classified as RC in the past. They have a hard job to integrate them into the NAS but there is an immense amount of politicking going on around this issue right now with a lot of DoD contractor money in the drivers seat. Unless it's a formal notice (a phone call is not) he does not have to do anything. He should probably contact an attorney anyway though. A number of them are now specializing in this area.
If you are interested in this kind of stuff you should join this meetup my Co-Founder and I run: http://www.meetup.com/SF-Drones-Startup-Meetup - We just did "US Drone Regulations" last thursday.
And guess who takes most of the heat if/when irresponsible drone operators cause problems for others? I think they're a lot less worried about quadcopters and suchlike than the potential for accidents involving large RC planes like the Skymasters, some of which have a 10 foot span and approach airspeeds of 200mph. I don't know what their ceiling is like but I've already heard a lot of grumbling from general aviation folks about the cavalier attitudes of some RC pilots, so I don't think the FAA is just throwing its weight around for no reason.
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FAA is deep into a power grab with respect to commercial use of drones especially small UAVs (sUAVs) that would typically be classified as RC in the past. They have a hard job to integrate them into the NAS but there is an immense amount of politicking going on around this issue right now with a lot of DoD contractor money in the drivers seat. Unless it's a formal notice (a phone call is not) he does not have to do anything. He should probably contact an attorney anyway though. A number of them are now specializing in this area.
If you are interested in this kind of stuff you should join this meetup my Co-Founder and I run: http://www.meetup.com/SF-Drones-Startup-Meetup - We just did "US Drone Regulations" last thursday.
And guess who takes most of the heat if/when irresponsible drone operators cause problems for others? I think they're a lot less worried about quadcopters and suchlike than the potential for accidents involving large RC planes like the Skymasters, some of which have a 10 foot span and approach airspeeds of 200mph. I don't know what their ceiling is like but I've already heard a lot of grumbling from general aviation folks about the cavalier attitudes of some RC pilots, so I don't think the FAA is just throwing its weight around for no reason.