Based on the document, Zeets feels the FAA is moving towards a common sense approach to regulations. “I figured that someone else had to have seen the document, so I started watching Twitter for any chatter and didn't see anything." He then began reading the document and realized the significance of what he held. Initially Zeets didn't realize the significance of the report, so he decided to share it with others through social media. I still had it open so I saved a copy to pdf." It seemed that the document was taken down almost immediately, and what Zeets didn't know was that he may have been the only person in the world to have been in the right place at the right time, able to download the inadvertently uploaded document before it was taken down by an unknown government official. He went to the website while we were still on the phone and couldn't find the document. "Once I opened the document, I called a colleague. Zeets was on the federal government website checking for an update to his petition for an exemption when he came across the economic analysis "The exemptions they have been approving were submitted around the same time mine was," Zeets said, "so I was figuring mine would be approved any day now." As he scrolled through the exemptions he came across the economic analysis and opened the 89 page report. Zeets works with EZAg, an agricultural company and Terraplane, LLC, a company that wants to use drones for GIS, surveying, engineering, and photogrammetry - his specialties. Steve Zeets a professional land surveyor who filed a petition for an exemption from FAA rules last year downloaded the document from. The analysis also indicates that ensuring that the potential of drones can be realized will be a key driver behind the final regulations. The economic analysis suggests that the forthcoming regulations may allow for many beneficial drone uses across a variety of industries. Less burdensome regulations and a recognition of the benefits of drones is a reversal from what many observers (including me) believed the FAA would do. ( UPDATE: AP and The Wall Street Journal credited this post with first reporting the story about the regulations, which are now out for public comment. In no uncertain terms, the purported FAA economic analysis assumes that drones provide great social and economic benefits, will save lives, and can be integrated into the national airspace with minimal risk while providing benefits that far outweigh their costs. Information about the forthcoming regulations is contained in an inadvertently published document that appears to be an FAA economic analysis of the long awaited regulations for small drones. The FAA appears poised to release regulations that will impose a minimal burden on businesses, paving the way for integration of drones into the national airspace.
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