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Man vs Drone: Some Pilots Fight Back Against Robots
1. Man vs Drone: Some Pilots Fight Back Against Robots
Jan. 15, 2015 1:47 p.m. ET
In an unfolding battle over U.S. skies, it's man versus drone.
Aerial surveyors, photographers and moviemaking pilots are increasingly losing business to robots
that often can do their jobs faster, cheaper and better.
That competition, paired with concerns about midair collisions with drones, has made commercial
pilots some of the fiercest opponents to unmanned aircraft. And now these aviators are fighting
back, lobbying regulators for strict rules for the devices and reporting unauthorized drone users to
authorities.
Jim Williams, head of the Federal Aviation Administration's unmanned-aircraft office, said that many
FAA investigations into commercial-drone flights begin with tips from manned-aircraft pilots who
compete with those drones. "They'll let us know that, 'Hey, I'm losing all my business to these guys.
They're not approved. Go investigate,'" Mr. Williams said at a drone conference last year. "We will
investigate those."
Unlike the vast majority of commercial pilots in the U.S.--those that helm passenger jets tens of
thousands of feet above the ground--the primary drone opponents operate helicopters and small
planes generally between 500 feet to 2,000 feet, making maps, inspecting pipelines and spraying
crops. Drones are supposed to stay below 400 feet, but the FAA has received dozens of reports of the
devices flying too close to manned aircraft--typically smaller planes and helicopters.
"I'm now looking for lawn mowers flying around," said Mike Peavey, a former Vietnam War pilot who
flies helicopters around New England to monitor power lines and shoot movies. "A 40-pound object
impacting certain parts of a helicopter would be disastrous."
Mr. Peavey said he initially refused to film a sailboat competition in Newport, R.I., in June because
drones would also be buzzing above the water. He lobbied Rhode Island's aeronautics inspector to
reconsider its authorization for drones at the event.
A week before the event, the inspector said operating a drone near an open-air event would be a
misdemeanor under Rhode Island law. Mr. Peavey filmed the sailboats but drones did not.
The FAA has effectively banned the commercial use of drones until it completes rules for the devices
in the next few years. Meanwhile, the agency has approved limited commercial-drone flights for 15
operators.
In many of those exemptions, the Air Line Pilots Association, the biggest U.S. pilots union, and the
National Agricultural Aviation Association, a trade group for crop dusters, helped persuade the FAA
to place tight restrictions on the drone flights, including requiring operators to have pilot licenses
and to keep the devices within eyeshot.
For several exemptions, the FAA agreed with the crop-duster group's recommendations to require
2. operators to file notices with local aviation authorities two days before flying and to display
identification numbers on their drones. The group urged the FAA to also require bright paint, strobe
lights and transponders that broadcast the drones' location to other aircraft, but the agency
declined.
Last year, after a judge struck down the FAA's first-ever fine against a man for operating a drone
recklessly, the crop-duster group filed the only outside legal brief in support of the fine. If the FAA
can't punish unsafe drone users, "then the safety of flight of agricultural air operation (and all
manned aircraft operations for that matter) is in jeopardy," wrote the group, which urges its
members to report drone sightings to the FAA.
Pilot Chuck Boyle, president of the Professional Aerial Photographers Association International, said
drones have been a hot topic at group meetings for years. "We have lots of members who are very
frustrated," he said. "I hear stories of them losing business to a construction company who's decided
to do it themselves [with a drone], or a drone operator who just took another job from them."
Mr. Boyle has started reporting drone users who flout the FAA ban. "I am very concerned that the
cavalier attitude that he displays and his very open commercial 'drone' offering will get someone
hurt," he wrote to an FAA inspector last year, reporting an Orlando, Fla., businessman whose
company shoots TV commercials with drones.
The inspector told the company, CineDrones, that if it was using drones commercially, "I must insist
you stop operations immediately."
CineDrones President Mike Fortin said he ignored the warning and is still operating without issue.
Many pilots, however, aren't as critical of drones, and some are even adopting them.
Former U.S. Air Force pilot Robert Hicks, who runs an aerial-photography company using manned
aircraft, said he recently started his own drone company after realizing his industry was shifting. He
has targeted Latin America for customers because of the strict regulations in the U.S.
Julie Belanger, who runs an aerial-mapping company with her husband in San Martin, Calif., said
they want to use drones but are waiting for FAA rules. Meanwhile, they're competing against
entrepreneurs who are using the devices against FAA policy. The system is encouraging unsafe
users, she said. "In the right hands drones produce beautiful stuff and are safe," she said. "In the
wrong hands, they're a danger to aviation."
Bill Richards, a pilot who shoots films with his helicopter in New York City, said that while
"everybody in my business is pooh-poohing them," he decided to build his own drone for $15,000.
"They can do something I can't: get within a few feet of you without blowing everybody off the set,"
he said.
Still, he said, manned choppers will maintain a role. "The speed and power of a real helicopter is not
going to be challenged."
Indeed, some pilots say drones don't threaten them because their manned aircraft can carry heavier
payloads and fly much longer and farther.
Japanese farmers have been using Yamaha Corp. helicopter drones since 1990 to spray crops; those
devices carry 4.2 gallons of pesticide, fly 12 miles an hour and cost about $150,000. That is not
3. commercially viable in the U.S., said Andrew Moore, executive director of the agricultural aviation
association. His members' planes sometimes cost a fraction of the Yamaha drone, carry 500 gallons
of pesticide and fly 160 miles an hour.
"I think that drone works fine in Japan where they have postage-stamp-sized fields," he said. "But
when you're looking at agriculture on the U.S. scale, it doesn't translate."
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications
Julie Belanger runs an aerial-mapping company with her husband in San Martin, Calif. Her first
name was incorrectly given as Jill in an earlier version of this article.
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![operators to file notices with local aviation authorities two days before flying and to display
identification numbers on their drones. The group urged the FAA to also require bright paint, strobe
lights and transponders that broadcast the drones' location to other aircraft, but the agency
declined.
Last year, after a judge struck down the FAA's first-ever fine against a man for operating a drone
recklessly, the crop-duster group filed the only outside legal brief in support of the fine. If the FAA
can't punish unsafe drone users, "then the safety of flight of agricultural air operation (and all
manned aircraft operations for that matter) is in jeopardy," wrote the group, which urges its
members to report drone sightings to the FAA.
Pilot Chuck Boyle, president of the Professional Aerial Photographers Association International, said
drones have been a hot topic at group meetings for years. "We have lots of members who are very
frustrated," he said. "I hear stories of them losing business to a construction company who's decided
to do it themselves [with a drone], or a drone operator who just took another job from them."
Mr. Boyle has started reporting drone users who flout the FAA ban. "I am very concerned that the
cavalier attitude that he displays and his very open commercial 'drone' offering will get someone
hurt," he wrote to an FAA inspector last year, reporting an Orlando, Fla., businessman whose
company shoots TV commercials with drones.
The inspector told the company, CineDrones, that if it was using drones commercially, "I must insist
you stop operations immediately."
CineDrones President Mike Fortin said he ignored the warning and is still operating without issue.
Many pilots, however, aren't as critical of drones, and some are even adopting them.
Former U.S. Air Force pilot Robert Hicks, who runs an aerial-photography company using manned
aircraft, said he recently started his own drone company after realizing his industry was shifting. He
has targeted Latin America for customers because of the strict regulations in the U.S.
Julie Belanger, who runs an aerial-mapping company with her husband in San Martin, Calif., said
they want to use drones but are waiting for FAA rules. Meanwhile, they're competing against
entrepreneurs who are using the devices against FAA policy. The system is encouraging unsafe
users, she said. "In the right hands drones produce beautiful stuff and are safe," she said. "In the
wrong hands, they're a danger to aviation."
Bill Richards, a pilot who shoots films with his helicopter in New York City, said that while
"everybody in my business is pooh-poohing them," he decided to build his own drone for $15,000.
"They can do something I can't: get within a few feet of you without blowing everybody off the set,"
he said.
Still, he said, manned choppers will maintain a role. "The speed and power of a real helicopter is not
going to be challenged."
Indeed, some pilots say drones don't threaten them because their manned aircraft can carry heavier
payloads and fly much longer and farther.
Japanese farmers have been using Yamaha Corp. helicopter drones since 1990 to spray crops; those
devices carry 4.2 gallons of pesticide, fly 12 miles an hour and cost about $150,000. That is not](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)