New FAA drone rule is a giant middle finger to aviation hobbyists

I'm opposed to the proposed rules. The traditional aviation hobbyist isn't ignorant, incompetent or malicious. And the problem we've seen from some drone hobbyists, resulting in the problems that this rule stems from, are ignorant, incompetent, or malicious. And this rule isn't going to fix that. It might make it very slightly easier to identify the rule breakers, but I think that's specious.

But now, there are all kinds of private for-profit forces at play to become the rent-seeking gate keepers for internet connected, and thus approved, operations. Commercial operators will have no problem with this, whether $50 or $500 a month, it's just a cost of doing business. And getting hobbyists out of the way is A-OK with them.

It's terrible, but also an entirely predictable consequence of decades of FAA defunding, and the neurotic application of politics in aviation causing decades of delays in modernizing the ATC system. Politicians and bean counters have the political capital to make the new system, not FAA enforcement experts, pilots, and user experts (including hobbyists) of that system. It's yet another example of special interests with the money winning.

(inactive CFII)