If you like flying or doing business with drones in accordance with traditional federal authority, don’t want hobbyist regulation, and don’t want meddling local and state government regulating our airspace, call or write your congressional representatives in the U.S. House and
Senate right now. Insist on crystal-clear express federal preemption in the 2017 FAA Reauthorization Act, and ask them to prevent the Drone Federalism Act from becoming law.
In sum, we must insist that Congress (1) maintain the letter and spirit of the current “hands-off” approach to recreational/hobbyist drones and RC aircraft in the new 2017 FAA Reauthorization Act, as it now stands under the current FAA Act’s Section 336; (2) include the language known as the “express federal preemption” in the 2017 FAA Reauthorization Act to stop local and state governments from regulating drone airspace; and (3) vote “no” on the Drone Federalism Act.
If there is not a huge grassroots uprising this summer demanding these two things from Congress, we stand to lose, in my opinion, a great deal of autonomy as well as the traditional freedoms from intrusive local governmental regulation of aviation we have enjoyed for generations. Oh, and if you are running a business operating, supporting, or supplying drones, you could lose a lot of money. To contact your congressional representatives, call the Capitol at 202-224-3121 or visit the following links to find your representative: U.S. Senate—senate.gov/senators, and U.S. House—house.gov/representatives.
BY JEFFREY ANTONELLI
