ACLU releases major drone surveillance report, House passes ACERO Act, and South Carolina considers restrictive drone bill

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. We have three stories for you this week. The ACLU releases a major report on drone surveillance and airspace restriction. The House passes the ACERO Act for wildfire drone operations. And a questionable South Carolina bill. So, let’s get to it.

ACLU publishes major report on drone surveillance and airspace restrictions

First up this week, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU, has published a major report arguing that US drone policies are locking ordinary people out of the sky. The report is titled “Drones for Them, Not for Us.” And it claims that current rules give government agencies and corporations unchecked access to the sky while restricting citizens and journalists.

The paper cites several concerning examples, including reports of the NYPD flying their Skydio X10 directly over protest crowds without having a parachute recovery system, some massive airspace lockdowns, a 935-square-mile temporary flight restriction over Chicago during federal operations, and invisible 3,000-foot no-fly zones, which we’ve talked about, that follow Department of Homeland Security vehicles everywhere.

The report calls out the trend where hobbyists and commercial pilots face more restrictions while government agencies get what looks like a free pass. It also touches on the foreign drone ban, which we’ve talked about a lot on this channel, warning that it could price consumers out of reach basically.

Much of this is not really new to this audience, as we’ve been reporting on all of this for several years now. It’s just really interesting to see that some outside folks from outside of the UAS industry are beginning to take notice. We’ll keep an eye on this and let you know where it goes.

US House passes the ACERO Act for wildfire drone operations

Next up, the US House of Representatives has passed the ACERO Act, sending the bipartisan wildfire drone bill to the Senate. The legislation directs NASA to expand its Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations, ACERO. The goal here is to tackle airspace coordination during active wildfires.

Right now, when there’s a wildfire, helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and drones that are part of the operation all share the same airspace. The bill requires NASA to build a shared framework using their portable airspace management system, which shares aircraft location across a fire zone in real time. Think of this system as basically a portable unmanned traffic management system, which can be deployed in remote locations.

Using drones to keep firefighters safe and track wildfires is exactly the kind of innovation that we need in this industry. We’ve been talking about this for many years now, and we’re surprised they’re not being used more for this kind of stuff. We’re glad that Congress is doing something and is actually supporting this.

South Carolina lawmakers consider restrictive drone bill

And finally, South Carolina lawmakers are considering a new bill that would impose some restrictions on drone pilots. The bill is H4679, which proposes to ban UAS operations within a thousand feet of any critical infrastructure, over or within 1,500 feet of any state or county correctional facilities without authorization from the facility or from the South Carolina Department of Corrections, over or within 1,500 feet of any military installation, and over private property “in a manner that invades privacy, harasses occupants, creates a nuisance, or presents an obvious safety hazard.”

In addition, the bill would make it unlawful to operate within five miles of an airport without FAA authorization. As many of you know, authorization is based on airspace, not based on distance from an airport. It has not been like that for over a decade now.

If you’re in South Carolina, it’s time to start reaching out to your representative. The bill is sponsored by Mitchell, Cox, Smith, Wooten, Chapman, Newton, Weikert, Simmer, Guest, and McCravy.

All right, that’s it for this week. Be sure to check out the Pilot Institute YouTube channel for more drone news and educational content. You can also find more of Greg’s articles on DroneXL.