Welcome to week 30 of the weekly drone news updates – and this week I ‘ Ve, got some important topics. The first one is the fa that is making some changes to the way that they’re, going to administer the fa written exam.

The next one is the proliferation of anti drone technology out there. Somebody shared a link – and I want to talk about this. Then we’ll talk about the remote ID. There is a standard that’s supposed to come out next week.

So that’s, a good good step forward and then we’ll talk about drones, being used to look out for survivors in New Zealand on the volcano, and I’ll. Give you a quick update on pilot Institute and something that we just did, that was pretty cool, so let’s get started first thing this week is the FA that said that, as of January 13 of 2020, they will require all the applicants to Have an F T n number before they go for the written exam now the f TM number is nothing new.

It’s, something that you already have. If you have an account with AI Accra, but in the past, what you did is you created the account after after passing your written exam? Now you’re, going to have to create the account before you pass your written exam now.

This is really all there is to it there’s, not a whole big deal right here, like some people are making it sell it’s, really, not all that difficult. So that’s, really the main change. Now I did make a video to talk about this, because there are some more changes that are coming up: that again, not really that big of a deal, but it’s, something that you need to be comfortable with and familiar with, so that when You take either do your you retake exam or when you do your initial part 107.

You know how to do it. Okay, this only applies to part 107 or remote pilots. This does not apply to hobbyists. Okay, if you’re hobbyist skip that section. You don’t have to worry about it. Now, one of the things that yes, the FAA, has said that I think has created.

Some chatter is the fact that they are using a new system and using that new system, they actually will have the ability to do different types of questions. Now they didn’t really go into a whole lot of details, but what they said is that there could be scenario based training questions in the future, because they didn’t mention the fact that they will have the ability to do Scenario-Based stuff, that’s really all this said.

So it’s kind of dark. But I’m. Seeing that there’s, going to be some changes to the way the written exam is done, but not for right now, okay for right now, all they’ve said. Is that, as of January 2020, you need to have that number before you schedule your exam and that’s it.

So if you want more information about this, I recommend that you take a look right here at this video that I’ve made earlier, and you can see all the detail. It’s about ten minutes long, and it explains everything in detail that you need to know.

Okay, let’s. Talk about the next topic – and this is something that somebody one of you Rob actually shared with me in the comments of last week’s. Video, and this is an article talking about the growth of anti drone technology.

It looks like number of anti drone technology out. There is growing like moss on the tree in the Pacific Northwest okay. This is just. They said that there was 537 counter drone system out there and in that a lot of them were using what we call fragrance frequency jamming and some of them were using Nets.

There’s, a whole lot of different types of of Technology. Now, the purpose of these systems is to take down the drones that are rogue the drones that are going to be a danger to society, to someone to an event or whatever it is now the way that they’re going to do.

This is, some of them are using jamming technology. Now the downside with jamming technology is the fact that in the u.s. it’s still very illegal because of FCC regulation. Another thing to consider with jamming technology is the fact that these things are not targeting just one drum: they’re targeting in the area.

Some of them were advertising 15 kilometers. Now 15 kilometers is about eight, almost nine miles or actually over nine miles, and if you’re going to be jamming signals for that long. You’re, going to be affecting also man aircraft and then anything else in the path.

So not really that great of an idea and also remember that frequency jamming is really doing nothing for drones that are going to be on path. Now, if you think about somebody who wants to do something stupid with a drone or somebody that wants to create damage with they’re likely not going to be flying the drone manually, they’re, likely gonna put it on autopilot And then let it crash into whatever it is that they want to hurt okay, so these technologies, I think it’s, just a business where people are seeing a big opportunity.

There hasn’t been anything bad happened with drone yet, and we know it’s only a matter of time, and what this really makes me think about is what are these companies willing to go through in order to make their system A necessity, rather than just something sitting on a shelf at the moment, so that’s, just something to pounder for, for you guys stuck about something a little bit more joyful, which is remote ID now remote ID.

You have talked about this over and over again and last couple of weeks, I said that the FAA is working on an NPRM, a notice of proposed rulemaking and that supposed to come out in actually in December this month, I haven’t, seen it Yet, but when that does then you’ll have the opportunity to submit a command a comment on remote ID in the system.

Now, in the meantime, ASTM, which is a company that creates standards for a lot of different things, ASTM s said that they’re coming up with the standards next week. So I wonder if that’s, actually a hint that when these standards come out, the FAA will also come out with the NPRM.

So we’ll find out. We’ll, find out next week. If I hear more, I’ll. Let you know the fact that ASTM is coming with standards is great. Astm came up with standards for the parachutes. For example, parachutes for drones are all governed by ASTM.

The FAA says that if you follow the standards that ASTM created, then we’ll, give you a waiver to fly over people; okay, so that’s an example of what ASTM is going to do out there now in terms of the Standards a little preview is they said that the one of the standard was going to be that the drone is going to transmit the ID their location, their speed in the direction over a wireless network, and then you’ll.

Have the signal is going to be able to be picked up by someone with the right software and be able to find out where the drone is located? What had a lot of you talking and me included was the fact that we don’t want really people to know where the drone operator is going to be located, and not everyone should have access to that information.

This creates a major danger for major danger: major danger for the people on the ground, and – and this is not something that we should have to deal with, so this is very much in line that’s standard.

So far with what DJI had presented a couple weeks ago, that get a lot of people talking – and this is something that we’ll, see we’ll, see how it works. Remote ID is advertised to be the next step in making what we call more complex operation become more routine, and if that happens, then we ‘

Re gonna have a lot more freedom to fly. Our drones out there, hopefully um. I’m, always kind of an optimist, so I’m, hoping that this is where we’re, going towards something a little grim. But I want to talk about it because I think it’s.

A it’s, a good use of the technology. You probably heard about the eruption of the volcano on white island in New Zealand and how I think it was 2,000 people were stranded on the island after the volcano erupted.

Unfortunately, eight people died and the the rescue search and rescue people were actually using drones to find out where the bodies were located. So they can minimize the amount of time that the personnel was going to be out there to go recover the bodies.

Now this is not necessarily something I would qualify as drones for good, even though it is doing a lot of good things for the search-and-rescue people on the ground that are putting their lives at risk to go rescue these bodies.

So, just something that I wanted to mention out there: okay, let’s end this with the positive notes. You can now gift the courses on pilot Institute to anyone that you like, and this is actually great news, because we’re right around Christmas.

If you want, like you’re, somebody who just got a drone in your family, and you wanted to be educated on how to fly their drones safely, guess what we’ve got a course for that. It’s called drone flying 101 and they ‘

Ll, learn everything about the regulation, the airspace and what they can do and what they can do and make them a much safer pilot. If you ask me, there should be a course of a kind of course that is required for everyone to take before they get up in the air, and we’re, offering this for only 25 bucks right now.

So if you want to make this stocking put that in somebody’s stocking, then you can actually buy the course as a gift and then give them a little gift card, and then they’ll have access to that course.

You can also gift our drones maneuvers course, and then obviously, the part 107, if you are part 107 and you like the course then give it to someone that you want to get educated and become a better pilot.

So the second piece of good news is, I’m working currently on the course I’ve been recording this whole entire week and we have a new course that’s, going to be coming up in the next couple Weeks and I have we have to go through the editing process, which takes a little bit of time, and then we’ll, be releasing a new course very soon.

It’s, a pretty big course, and it’s. A pretty important course lots of people have been asking about it for a while. So I’m excited that this is right around the corner. That’s. All I’m going to say I’m, not going to say what it’s about just yet so this is it like the video, if you liked it subscribe to the channel.

As always, we’re growing and growing very fast love to see all the comments from people every week, and this is all I have for now have a great weekend and I’ll, see you guys next week, [ Music, ]