Hang Gliding and Paragliding Volume 44 / Issue 2: February 2014 | Seite 12

part of the NextGen plan 18 months
ago, and (possibly under pressure from
the well funded drone industry who are
leaning on their congressmen) so far
they haven’t even opened their public
consultation on the subject.
Currently the public consultation,
where everyone can offer their opinions
on this matter, is scheduled for January
2014 (although it’s likely to be pushed
back again), at which point free-flight
pilots will be going head to head with
the lobbyists from the drone industry.

Healthy alternative
The under-55lbs. class of drone is the
size that is most likely to be used for
applications in class E and class G
airspace, where we fly.
It’s thought that the FAA is leaning
towards a policy requiring that drones
under 55 pounds are only used in lineof-sight of the operator. This means

Liberty

that there is a person keeping a lookout
for possible aerial collisions, so that
other aircraft, like ours, wouldn’t be
required to have ADS-B transmitting
their position. This proposal limits the
potential for drone applications, so the
industry is fighting it, but the FAA’s
primary concern is safety, and the risk
of collisions with other aircraft is a
very strong argument for keeping small
drones in line-of-sight of their operators.

Voluntary instruments
Paraglider and hang glider pilots could
also opt to carry a device that receives
the ADS-B position signals emitted by
other aircraft and by drones, to warn
us when they are on a collision course.
This “ADS-B IN” device is much simpler than the “ADS-B OUT” transponder mentioned above, and it wouldn’t
require certified installation or main-

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tenance checks. It would use much less
battery power, and potentially it could
cost as little as a vario. It may even be
possible to integrate it into a vario or
with some hardware that works with a
smartphone app. This approach would
mean we free flyers would be aware of
drones and other aircraft in the vicinity,
but they would only be aware of us if
the pilot saw us. This puts the onus
on us to get out of the way when our
ADS-B IN device detects something.
Swiss sailplane and hang glider
pilots have voluntarily adopted a similar
system called FLARM which transmits and receives aircraft positions,
and warns of collisions with sailplanes,
which can be very hard to see when
they’re flying straight at you. FLARM
works on different frequencies from
ADS-B and sadly isn’t compatible with
the ADS-B system, which the FAA
has alre ady committed to for general

158

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