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What America's drone owner database could look like in future

ID number per person, tiny gadgets exempted, personal info optional, etc

A task force assembled by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has revealed its suggestions for personal drone registration in the US.

The team's recommendations [PDF] aim to serve as an outline for the FAA as it moves forward with a plan to craft registration requirements for personal-use drones.

By registering citizens' drones, the FAA hopes it will be able to better enforce rules for safe operation and catch those who fly their drones into restricted airspace such as airports, sporting events, and secure locations.

The 25-member task force's recommendations will be considered by the FAA when it writes the registration rules and procedures. Members of the team included federal agencies, drone manufacturers, and personal aircraft hobby groups.

Among the recommendations is the suggestion that all registrations be free to complete via an online form. The rules also call for one single registration number that can then be used to connect an owner to multiple drones.

"The system would be powered by an API that would allow multiple app clients to feed registration information into the database, ensuring widespread compliance," the task force said.

"Provision of email address, telephone number, and serial number of the aircraft into the system would be optional. Information on US citizenship or residence status would not be required, but there would be a minimum age requirement of 13 years to register."

The task force also proposed the minimum requirements to define what should be considered a drone that must be registered, and what craft are too small to pose any threat of injury or interfere with commercial aircraft.

According to the task force, the limit should be 250 grams, or 0.55 lbs. Anything smaller than that, the team reckons, would not be able to cause serious injury to people on the ground or harm passing aircraft.

Other recommendations include requiring drone owners to memorize at least some of the FAA's "Know Before You Fly" safety guidelines when registering their drones.

While the FAA has promised the registration process will be simple and painless, some outside groups are already anticipating a mess of red tape for drone owners and are preparing to launch third-party registration services that charge a fee to complete the process for owners. The FAA has dismissed such services as unnecessary and advised the public not to use them.

As stressed, these are just recommendations – it's now up to the FAA to implement them as it sees fit. ®

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