Drone News: FAA $270k Fine, FBI Stop Drone Bombing, DJI Goggles N3

Welcome to Weekly UAS News! We have four drone stories for you this week: the FAA proposes a $270,000 fine, a man is arrested for a terrorism plot using drones, DJI releases Goggle N3, and Aloft getting “Before You Fly” approval. Let’s get to it!

FAA Proposes $270,000 Fine

The FAA has fined a Pueblo real estate developer in Colorado $270,000 for over 200 Part 107 violations. Henry “Hank” Berunda, known for his YouTube channel “Bums and Drones” where he harasses homeless people and posts their reactions online (which is despicable), violated 11 FARs a total of 230 times according to the FAA. He had until October 30th to furnish the settlement amount of $270,000 or submit additional information.

Violations included:

• Careless and reckless operations
• Operating over people
• Operating an unregistered drone
• Dropping objects in a careless manner
• Operating without a remote pilot certificate
• Operating at night without a strobe light

We’ll keep you updated when we hear more information about this. Please, please, please don’t be that guy.

Nashville Man Arrested in Drone Terrorism Plot

In Nashville, Tennessee, the FBI arrested Skyler Philippi after an investigation into a plot to bomb the electric grid using a drone. Philippi planned to use a small drone to drop pipe bombs onto substations in Nashville as domestic terrorism. The FBI utilized an undercover agent who scouted locations with Philippi. The plot concluded on November 2nd when Philippi and the undercover agent drove to a target location and were in the process of powering the drone with an armed explosive nearby. Philippi faces charges of using a weapon of mass destruction, which could result in life imprisonment.

DJI Releases Goggle N3

On to happier stories! DJI has released the Goggle N3 that has a 54-degree field of view and a 2.7-hour runtime, coming in at only about $229, which is quite a deal for goggles. The N3 includes the ability to do easy Acro with flips, rolls, and one-tap power loops. You can see a full review right here. We played with them for a couple weeks, and they’re actually pretty cool, especially for the price.

Aloft AirAware Receives “Before You Fly” Approval

Last up this week, Aloft AirAware has gotten “Before You Fly” approval. This may be confusing – we had talked about how the B4UFLY app itself was going away, and AirAware was a replacement. The FAA came up with this “Before You Fly” program instead of a specific app and has given a “Before You Fly” tag to certain apps. Now AirAware has that.

Many of you have asked why AirAware wasn’t “Before You Fly” approved before, and the answer was that we wanted to include additional information into the app in conjunction with Aloft. We’ve now joined the “Before You Fly” program after making sure that we can continue to add and display all that extra information. If you’re not familiar with the app, AirAware is a platform that we work with Aloft to create for recreational pilots so that you have access to additional information after the FAA discontinued the B4UFLY app. More upgrades are coming soon, so let us know in the comments what you’d like to see.

That’s all we have for you this week! We will see you next week. There’s no happy hour this Friday, but we will be back on Monday for a live Q&A.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​