NAAA Board Overwhelming Votes in Support of Establishing Drone Committee to Better Ensure Overall Aerial Application Safety and Efficacy

Earlier this week voting closed on an NAAA Board election to establish an Uncrewed Aerial Application System (UAAS) Committee to advise the Board on drone issues. A majority of the board supported the measure—an overwhelming 93% of those voting. The decision to establish such a committee stems from concern over airspace safety as the number of drones grows and concern about drone application licensing and efficacy is growing. These concerns are shared by both manned aerial application operations and also more established drone operations that want to ensure a professional image of all aerial application services. The purpose of the UAAS Committee is to reach both manned and unmanned aircraft operations on these issues of safety and environmental professionalism and to develop educational programs and public policy initiatives of mutual interest to both forms of aerial application. The formation of the UAAS Committee will be balanced between crewed and uncrewed NAAA members and all policies proposed will go to the board for final approval. The specific language of the establishment of the UAAS Committee is as follows:

Uncrewed Aerial Application Systems Committee

• MEMBERSHIP – Members of the Uncrewed Aerial Application Systems (UAAS) Committee shall be appointed by the NAAA President for a term of one year consisting of an equal number of members in the uncrewed or hybrid-crewed aerial application space and the crewed aerial application operations space. The NAAA President shall appoint the Chairman.
• COMMITTEE AUTHORITY – The UAAS Committee operates under the jurisdiction of the Board of Directors and all recommendations, program directives and actions shall be submitted to the Board of Directors for ratification before becoming official NAAA policy.
• COMMITTEE RESPONSIBILITIES – The UAAS Committee shall have responsibility of developing public policy proposals that include enhancing the safety of the airspace shared by crewed and uncrewed application aircraft. It will also have input facilitating the development and regulatory use of atmospheric models forecasting the movement of applied materials from both crewed and uncrewed aircraft application systems.
• The UAAS Committee will have the responsibility of developing educational curriculum direction focused on professionalism, proper licensing, aviation safety, application efficacy, and environmental stewardship for the uncrewed aerial application systems community for NAAA and NAAREF consideration at educational events, virtual and live; the NAAA convention; and within NAAA and NAAREF publications and virtual mediums.