The National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) Board\nof Directors recently voted to establish an Uncrewed Aerial Application System\n(UAAS) Committee to advise the Association on uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) \u2013\nor drone \u2013 issues. The decision to establish the committee is to ensure the\nlow-altitude airspace is safe for crewed and uncrewed aircraft as the number of\nUAS in low-altitude airspace grows. The Committee will also advise the NAAA on\nways to ensure aerial application regulatory compliance, efficacy and\nenvironmental professionalism is achieved throughout crewed and uncrewed aerial\napplication mediums. These goals are shared by both manned\/uncrewed aerial\napplication operations and established, licensed drone operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the FAA, drones are the fastest-growing segment\nof aviation in the United States. There are nearly 864,000 drones registered\nwith the FAA and over 330,000 certified Remote Pilots and the numbers are\nprojected to continue growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe purpose of the UAAS Committee is to reach the crewed or\nlegacy ag aircraft operations and operators of the new UAS technology on the\nimperative issues of airspace safety, environmental professionalism, regulatory\ncompliance and aerial application efficacy\u2014issues of mutual interest to both\nforms of aerial application,\u201d said Andrew Moore, chief executive officer of\nNAAA. The formation of the UAAS Committee will be balanced between crewed and\nuncrewed NAAA members and all policies proposed will go to the board for final\napproval. Committee members are required to be NAAA members, and the committee\nmembers will be selected by the NAAA President each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UAAS Committee members will recommend to the NAAA Board\npublic policy proposals to enhance the safety of the airspace shared by crewed\nand uncrewed application aircraft, and also provide input facilitating the\ndevelopment and regulatory use of atmospheric models forecasting the movement\nof applied materials from both crewed and uncrewed aircraft application\nsystems. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined the necessity\nof such models to analyze the atmospheric movement of registered pesticides\napplied by UAS, just as it currently does for crewed aerial applications and\nground and airblast applications via the AgDRIFT atmospheric model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UAAS Committee members will also recommend to the NAAA Board\nand its related foundation\u2014the National Agricultural Aviation Research and\nEducation Foundation (NAAREF)\u2014educational curriculum focused on\nprofessionalism, regulatory compliance, aviation safety, application efficacy,\nand environmental stewardship for the uncrewed aerial application systems\ncommunity. This curriculum will be considered by NAAA and NAAREF at educational\nevents, the annual NAAA Ag Aviation Expo, and within NAAA and NAAREF publications\nand virtual mediums, ensuring the highest standards in the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) Board of Directors recently voted to establish an Uncrewed Aerial Application System (UAAS) Committee to advise the Association on uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) \u2013 or drone \u2013 issues. The decision to establish the committee is to ensure the low-altitude airspace is safe for crewed and uncrewed aircraft as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unmanned-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28756,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28753\/revisions\/28756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}