Anyone that wants to catch up on this program, it’s now available on iPlayer …
Live Drone Use Committee
Select Committees
Live coverage of the joint session of the Science and Technology committee and the Defence committee on the commercial and recreational use of drones in the UK following the disruption to major airports.
Edit: Unfortunately the last minutes of the session are not in this either …. but I got the feeling it was about to conclude, and all points had been covered in any case.
Julian got right on my nerves. Citing his earler career working at National Archives at Kew. Aircraft passing overhead what damage could be caused by an RPG. Jeez chap a lot. However, his obsession with how many thousands had to die before this technology was removed from public hands, was IMHO, the sort of statement that would come from someone on the payroll of BALPA. I think I would ask him to revert his question inside the government and ask for those similar figures that have been applied to the actions of the DWP.
I think his infatuation of ‘drone swarms’ bringing down an airliner over a populated area and what some little miscreant might be building in terms of a drone, in their garage to me was someone who has spent a night on Google researching how bad drone tech in bad hands can be. Anything can be put to questionable use with a warped mindset.
With regards business, there was particular interest in Amazon’s activities that they may be the main benefactor, while costing them the least. This was of particular concern to one of the committee, I don’t have his name to hand.
So, the outcome, unless I can get an aftermarket ADS-B transmitter for my drones, then they are likely to be obsolete. This then suggests to me that there will be a legislation-obsolesence cycle that will likely kill the drone hobby in the UK in due course as it will simply be out of range for all but the hobbyist with the deepest pockets. I guess the mandate is, fly while we can.
regards all.
G.
The old ditty that “If you torture data for long enough, it will confess to anything.” comes to mind. Thanks Ronald Coase for that great quote way back in 1981. 
I guess that’s how you get ‘lies, damn lies and government statistics’ 
Given the level of public paranoia, I feel that whole Select Committee was chaired well, asked good questions and appear to have read the briefings. Not bad for government work…
Very impressed by Richard Parker. I’d vote for him!
Caught the second half of this today.
My thoughts…
ARPAS intro - not a single mention of hobbyists 
The police are responsible for the enforcement of the registration process - As they’ve not got enough to do already eh?
Everyone kept banging on about model aircraft being included in this - BMFA clearly don’t care about drones - which we all kinda knew already.
Part 2
DJI claimed a 70% hobbyists market share. Probably not much of a surprise, but I don’t recall hearing that number anywhere before.
The DJI guy (Brendan) said the UK registration cost is more than 12x that of USA - and he can’t understand why. Nope, neither can we 
- This guy was good though, I liked him.
As for the bloke with a hard on for “The peoples republic of China” and wouldn’t drop the issue of Chinese state law. This guy was just out for an argument, he didn’t care who it was with.
Winner of the day?
Richard Parker, Altitude Angel 
Yeah he definitely had an issue with China, where everything is made!
What really wound me up though was his story about seeing a drone flying near a nuclear power station. Based on his level of concern why did he not do anything at the time, like take a video or photo, why leave a bullshit story till now. The fact he had to say “you think I’m lying” is exactly the sort of thing a liar would say.
As for the DJI market share, you need only look at the poll on this forum to get an idea just how many people own DJI products. The hobbyists that build their own quads are a minute percentage. Probably less than 1% overall.
God,i really wanted to stamp on that bald headed wanker,who kept on about china !!!
What a dingo…
I kind of see what that guy was getting at as he explained he was also of a Defence Select Committee. But he did labour the point well after Brendan had explained.
Thing is goods.like drone attract a nice import tariff, the government cant have it all ways despite how it tries to.
G.
OK so the “Drone enquiry” on Parliament TV a few days back… I finally watched the last 1.25 hours (I was a bit late on the record button)
What I seemed to pick up from the enquiry was that the people running the enquiry were completely clueless and had no idea what drones are really capable of…
Given the gravity of drones, the chairman / panel could have done with spending:
Then he/they may have been better equipped to ask questions.
The panel seemed blinkered to DJI drones and seemed to think that all the DJI measures or safety like geo-fencing etc could be in every drone!
Of course then there were the questions of DJI security as they manufacture while under Chinese law. This gives the Chinese government the right to access any information held by DJI in China (flight logs etc). So the use of DJI drones for government, forces and national security use was in question.
There was no advanced hobbyist there. If the BMFA were there then I missed that part.
Sadly the panel were like the guys at Chernobyl who had no idea how a nuclear power station actually worked. Our government who are making law and policy on the back of unsubstantiated and possible manufactured incidents (Gatwick) are clueless.
The only good thing that I could see during the enquiry was that some of the experts representing the drone community were questioning the CAA’s drone registration fee and advising to make it free or very low cost.
@GTMonster I’ve moved your post over to the existing thread on this subject. We’ve kinda got two parallel threads on the subject, but this one is specifically on the committee meeting itself 
I can live with that
Reading the previous posts in this thread, it would appear that we all seemed to have picked up on the same overall uselessness of the enquiry. It would not surprise me if all policy has already been written and this enquiry just being a front in an attempt to making this whole procedure appear democratic.
Power to the people… yea right!!
To be honest, yes the CAA registration scheme is a little wet. But It’s not really for them to counter act terrorism.
The tools and technology are around to build a flying drone bomb. No amount of bans or rules will stop someone.
Hell, if someone wanted to, they could build a laser guided missile in their garden shed if so inclined.
More effort should be placed into MI5 for that sort of thing.
With regards to someone causing havoc by playing a prank by flying over an airport, this is the tricky in between problem that needs addressing.
And Amazon aren’t helping with ideas…
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Top-Race-Control-Launcher-Delivery/dp/B07521DGVD
Perfect for dropping water-bombs on MPs. 
(…. as in Members of …. )
Hmmm - could be an headline in that …
"MP waterbombs MP"
Headline update …
"MP herbs HMP"
Or milkshakes
