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Old 02-07-2020 | 10:44 AM
  #10  
ira d
 
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 3,249
Received 5 Likes on 5 Posts
From: Maricopa County AZ
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Originally Posted by grognard
Not really. Delivery drones and electric air taxis will be short ranged, so most operations will be in or near major metropolitan areas. Those of us who live in "fly over country" may never see one of these things.

There is also no reason why commercial traffic can't "detect and avoid" RC models equipped with Remote ID. And models flown LOS in a FRIA can be avoided simply by going around the FRIA.



The airspace around major airports is already severely congested with full scale traffic, especially at certain times of day when airliners are making connections, and certain times of the night when package delivery services are doing the same. Add commercial drones to that mix and the existing ATC system will be totally overwhelmed. Plus for drones there's no range or fuel economy advantage to operating at higher altitudes.



Approach and descent "corridors" already exist; that's why the floor of uncontrolled airspace is at 400' near major airports, and lower on the published approach routes.

A better idea for "commercial drone corridors" might be to route them at low altitudes over major highways. These are easy to find and follow, and tend to be obstruction free once you get above the bridges and light poles. It's also an unlikely place to encounter RC model traffic. Collision risk could be minimized by staying right of the centerline. And in the event of a failure the people below are relatively well protected, convertible drivers excepted...
I agree with routing commercial traffic over highways and streets because there should be no RC hobby traffic there either. Bottom line is the FAA needs to find specific places for this influx of commercial
traffic they are expecting and tell hobby traffic to well clear of these places. As for corridors to ascend and descend I think a lot of this new traffic that is being proposed will be away from airports and
they need their own corridors.

I say there is no need to try and track all hobby RC but just let them have their own places to fly for one and two for some degree let them fly at places where there is no commercial corridor.