The National Airspace System is busy. Being in Richmond, Virginia, we are just minutes away from the Washington DC Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) and a short hop into the Flight Resticted Zone. Clumped inbetween those are two Class B (Bravo) aerodomes over Regan-National and Washington Dulles. Within the SFRA there are also a few smaller airports such as College Park, Leesburg, and Hyde Field. If that's not enough throw in Andrews base and several other small fields in the viscinity. Fly over the Potomac a bit south and return back to Richmon's Class C (Charlie) and then there is Norfolk to the east. All of this within one hour's flight in our Cessna 172.

The global commercial drone market will take shape around applications in a handful of industries: agriculture, energy, utilities, mining, construction, real estate, news media, and film production. Most growth in the drone industry is on the commercial/civilian side, as the shift away from the military market gains momentum. The market for commercial/civilian drones will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% between 2015 and 2020, compared with 5% growth on the military side.

How do Section 333 excemptions benefit the public as a whole?

We believe that granting excemptions to operate small unmanned aerial systems commercially has major benefits to the public as a whole. Mainly, doing so furthers public interest by allowing small companies, such as ours, to develop programs for using UAS technologies safely and effectively. Congress has already proclaimed that it is in the public’s interest to integrate commercially flown UAS's into the national airspace system, hence the passing of the Reform Act. Granting exemptions and permission to operate drones furthers the public interest through business development of UAS based services throughout the country.