American drone pilots have until Wednesday to tell the Federal Communications Commission what pulling thermal imaging, LiDAR and docking stations off the market would cost them. Greg Reverdiau told the Commercial UAV Expo keynote audience on Tuesday that about 2,600 comments had been filed when he last counted, and that the total was probably near 2,800 by the time he took the stage. There are close to half a million certificated remote pilots in the United States.

At 2,800 that is one comment for every 180 people holding a Part 107 certificate. Reverdiau said the number should be 100,000, and he is right that the gap is the whole problem.

The agency builds its record from what gets filed. Domestic manufacturers with a commercial interest in removing foreign competition are filing. If working operators do not, the FCC will reasonably conclude that its proposed definition of military-grade drew no serious objection from the people who fly this equipment for a living.

The Filing Window Closes Wednesday At Docket 26-189

Public Notice DA 26-758 opened PS Docket No. 26-189 on July 21 and was published in the Federal Register on August 3 at 91 FR 48870, which set the September 2 deadline. DroneXL walked through the seven capability categories in August. They reach any drone carrying a thermal sensor, any drone carrying LiDAR, docking stations, agricultural spray platforms, and aircraft at or above 55 pounds.

Filing takes minutes. Go to the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System at fcc.gov/ecfs, choose Express Filing, enter proceeding number 26-189, select the docket when it appears, and write. A standard filing accepts an attachment if you have cost figures, invoices or inventory records to put on the record.

One correction worth carrying into your comment: this proposal does not ground the aircraft you already own. The operators on the Covered List panel Tuesday morning spent their opening minutes killing that misconception. What it reaches is import and marketing clearance going forward, which is what turns a repair queue into a dead fleet over two or three years.

Personal Detail Is What Actually Moves A Regulator

Reverdiau’s advice on how to write the thing was the most practical guidance anyone gave at the show. Describe your own operation. How you use the drone, what the restriction costs you, who depends on the work, what happens to your employees and your bills. Not a policy argument. Your situation, with numbers.

That matches what the notice itself asks for. The Commission requested data on fleet counts, replacement costs, inventory already inside the country and shipments en route. It is asking a question that only operators can answer, and most of them are not answering it.

Two organizations will help you write one. The Drone Advocacy Alliance has a step-by-step filing page, and the Drone Service Providers Alliance, led by Vic Moss and Kenji Sugahara, has been pushing operators toward this deadline for weeks. DJI pointed its own customers at the docket on August 7. Disclosure: DroneXL has been a Drone Advocacy Alliance partner since June 2024, and the Alliance receives sponsorship from DJI.

There is a second deadline behind this one. ET Docket No. 21-232, covering changes to the FCC’s equipment authorization process, closes September 8, and the Academy of Model Aeronautics is asking members to file in both.

Pilot Institute Has Already Read The Filed Comments

Reverdiau said Pilot Institute analyzed the roughly 2,600 comments on file at the time and found the industry standing squarely against what the Commission has proposed. He plans to update that analysis once the window closes. His wider argument from the same keynote is that the damage from these restrictions lands on the next generation of pilots rather than this one.

DroneXL will do a deeper dive into that analysis when Pilot Institute shares the full data next week. A structured read of who filed, what they said and which arguments recur is exactly the kind of thing the record needs and nobody else is producing.

DroneXL’s Take

One in 180. That is the participation rate of an industry that spent all of Tuesday telling itself this is the most important fight it has.

I understand the fatalism. Nearly half of the operators surveyed for this week’s keynote are in wait-and-see mode, and a comment feels like shouting into a filing cabinet. “Not doing anything doesn’t do anything,” Reverdiau said, and that is the entire argument.

Here is the part people miss. The FCC is legally obliged to consider the record in front of it. Not the mood of the industry, not what got posted in a Facebook group, not how many people are annoyed. The record. Comments filed by the deadline are the only thing that exists in a legal sense, and everything filed after tomorrow night exists nowhere.

If a thermal camera finds missing people in your county, if a dock runs your department’s first-responder program, if LiDAR is how you pay for your truck, the agency has asked you in writing what losing it costs. You have one evening. Answer it, and then go tell three other pilots to do the same.

Sources: FCC Public Notice DA 26-758; Federal Register 91 FR 48870; Commercial UAV Expo opening keynote, Caesars Forum, Las Vegas, September 1, 2026; Academy of Model Aeronautics

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.