"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
hlink.net...

"Tony Cox" wrote in message
nk.net...

And in case of mechanical failure when the plane has to descend
into the VFR altitudes? Don't you think the rest of us are entitled to
be "seen-and-avoided"?


A mechanical failure would make it an aircraft in distress. An aircraft
in
distress has the right-of-way over all other air traffic.


A lot of good that will do you when the military doesn't inform civilian
authorities and thus you have no idea an unmanned drone is rapidly
descending on you.

There is no way unmanned aircraft can mix with all others and not have some
reduction in safety. The questions are just how much of a reduction, what
can be done to mitigate the danger, and regulations which do not penalize GA
pilots for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I imagine these UAVs will be common in the future, maybe even extending to
pilot-less GA and commercial aircraft. How much this industry grows will in
some part be determined by it's safety record. A few bad incidents will
slow or stop progress in this direction so I would hope the companies
involved have the foresight and intelligence to do the proper engineering
and risk analysis to keep incidents from happening. I also hope their
solution to assuring safety is not a legislative one where they manage to
convince Washington to prohibit GA aircraft from operating anywhere near one
of these things.