Drone Right of WAY

[hotairballoonist]

Balloon Federation of America

1601 N.Jefferson Way - Suite B

Indianola, Iowa 50125

 

June 14, 2025

 

 

The BFA will soon be issuing a call to action asking all balloonists, BFA members or not, to reply urgently to an expected forthcoming NPRM giving some drones aerial right-of-way over other aircraft, including balloons.

 On May 8, at approximately 6:16 am Mountain Standard Time a hot air balloon in Glendale, AZ experienced a “near miss” with an Amazon delivery drone. The near miss happened while the balloon was on an approach to landing and the drone missed the balloon at basket height by approximately 15 feet according to the pilot. The drone, a new model weighing over 75 lbs and traveling at 58 knots, never varied its path. Amazon officials later contacted the balloon pilot to say that the drone operator observed the balloon via an on-board camera and maneuvered the drone to miss the balloon. This close call was entirely avoidable and speaks loudly to the disregard for a reasonable margin of safety by the drone operator.

Many of you may be aware that the drone industry has been attempting for well over a year to convince the FAA to change the right of way rules in FAR 91.113 as was proposed by the Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) final report. In April of 2022, the BFA as well as its partners in the National Aeronautics Association Aero Sport Group, made public comments opposing this effort, and were successful in that all request for BVLOS operations waivers were met with approvals only if the drone operator could guarantee that they would be able to detect and avoid all manned aircraft.

It now appears that with a push put on by these large drone companies, their attorneys and lobbyists, that FAR part 108 may contain provisions that will give some right of way to drones over all other types of aircraft that do not have electronic conspicuity (ease of visibility).

This notice is to advise you that the BFA has been working behind the scenes, not only our NAA Aero Sport partners, but with the larger nationally recognized general aviation organizations, namely AOPA, NBAA, EAA, VAI and others, joining with them in opposition to any loss of airspace right-of-way. The BFA will be attending meetings with these groups over the next few days in a work session to generate letters of disagreement with any proposed airspace right-of-way changes.

With the current enthusiasm being displayed by the White House in allowing the drone industry to flourish and grow, administrators in the Department of Transportation and the FAA are hurriedly working through the process of issuing an NPRM, reportedly with a 30 day response time for the eventual implementation of FAR 108. As soon as the NPRM is issued, we will distribute the document to the membership along with bullet points that are important to consider in writing a response.

The BFA and its partners are monitoring FAA notifications daily to intercept this NPRM immediately upon issuance so as to provide our membership with sufficient time to write a response. This will be a call to action for all balloonists, whether BFA members or not, to resist any pending regulation attempting to provide the drone industry with right of way over balloons below 500 ft AGL We will provide you with a list of talking points as a guide in writing your NPRM response. A massive response to this NPRM will be critical. Watch all BFA communications for further details.

 

 

Pat Cannon, BFA Government Liasion                                                 

 

Jason Jones, BFA President