NAAA Meets with FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford and Additional FAA Leadership to Discuss FAA UAS BVLOS Proposed Rule
On January 6, 2026, the NAAA participated in a roundtable event with FAA Administrator Bryan Beford, FAA Deputy Administrator Chris Rocheleau, other key FAA officials and general aviation, airline pilot, aviation first responders, air traffic control, and unmanned aircraft organization leaders to discuss challenges, concerns, and recommendations related to the FAA’s UAS beyond visual line of site (BVLOS) proposed rule. Representing NAAA at the meeting was Andrew Moore, CEO. A significant portion of the meeting’s focus was on detect and avoid devices, such as ADS-B and electronic conspicuity (EC) and if they are reliable and effective in creating a safe separation between manned and unmanned aircraft. At the meeting drone interests advocated their support of equipping with ADS-B/EC devices and stated that they have collected well over a decade of drone flight data, also stating there have been minimal accidents. Manned aviation interests did raise the issue of ADS-B not being a fail-safe for traffic deconfliction due to signal loss in certain circumstances. Moore stated to the roundtable that ag pilots have had issues with ADS-B signals at low altitudes when operating around rolling hills and dense tree cover. He also stated, along with a number of other manned aircraft leaders, that EC aircraft detection devices were the preferred technologies due to their anonymity and would result in more manned aircraft users equipping with them to keep public tax and user fee authorities and litigious entities at bay.
Moore stated to the roundtable that aerial applicators are flying in the same airspace as drones, under 400 feet when they are making turns and applications, and that they have additional obstacles to avoid, such as utility poles, wires, towers, etc. As such, he raised serious concerns to the roundtable, and, separately, to the administrator after the meeting, the proposed rule’s shielded area language that allows drones operating within 50 feet vertically or horizontally of wires, rights-of-way, obstacles, etc. to do so without equipping with ADS-B/EC or to give right of way to a manned aircraft. Moore stated that since these shielded area drone interests would be operating commercially and in the vicinity of needed manned applications to cropland, they should be required to equip with ADS-B. Similar safety concerns from other individuals about the shielded area language were echoed, including from unmanned interests.
A separate roundtable meeting with unmanned companies was held earlier in the day, January 6th, with the FAA administrator and others in FAA leadership. Attending that meeting were NAAA drone operator members Joel Jones of Drone Crop Services in Arkansas, and Jeramy Williams of American Drone in Wisconsin where they emphasized greater involvement of drone regulatory compliance through local FAA FSDO inspectors in overseeing Part 108 operators.
The release of the FAA’s UAS BVLOS final rule is still uncertain, however, President Trump’s executive order June 2025 directing release of the rule set a final deadline for early 2026. The Transportation Security Administration must also sign off on the rule. Comments made by NAAA and others at the January 6th roundtable meeting will be included in the docket of the FAA UAS BVLOS rule.