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BEFORE THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

PETITION FOR RULEMAKING

MODOVOLATE AVIATION, LLC

Petitioner

1131 Carol Lane

Glencoe, IL 20022

9 July 2014 

1. The FAA has authority to promulgate aircraft certification 

requirements, flight rules, and airmen certification 

requirements for small unmanned aircraft systems (“sUAS” or 

"microdrones"), under 49 U.S.C. §§ 40109(b, 44701(a),

44701(f), and 44704.

2. In section 332 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 

2012, Pub. L. 112-95, 126 Stat. 11 (Feb. 14, 2012), the 

United States Congress mandated that the FAA issue a final 

rule for operation of such systems and a further notice of 

proposal making for regulation of unmanned aircraft systems

systems by 31 August 2013, with integration to be complete 

by 30 September 2015.

3. No such final rule or NPRM has issued to date.
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4. In the absence of any regulatory framework, microdrones are 

being sold on the open market through e-commerce and 

otherwise and are being bought in large numbers and 

operated by persons without airmen certificates.

5. These microdrones weigh from less than one pound to close 

to fifty pounds and have flight characteristics that make 

them a hazard to other aircraft in flight and to persons 

and property on the ground.

6. A regulatory framework for these flight vehicles is 

urgently needed to reduce the risks.

7. These vehicles, with their low prices and ready 

availability, have the obvious potential to extend the 

reach of air commerce, with many economic and social 

benefits, including those to domestic law enforcement and 

antiterrorism activities, journalism, agriculture, public 

utility infrastructure protection, real estate sales, and

aerial surveying.

8. The FAA is mandated by 47 U.S.C. § 40104(a) to encourage 

the development of civil aeronautics as well as to promote 

the safety of air commerce.

9. The low cost of acquisition and operation of these flight 

vehicles make it certain that they will proliferate far 

beyond any conceivable level of FAA resources necessary to 

enforce traditional airmen certification and flight rule 

requirements against their operators.

10. The failure of the FAA to provide for the operation of 

microdrones is leading to an increasing threat to aviation 

safety, because non-airmen are buying them by the hundreds 

and flying them, ignorant or indifferent to the FAA 

prohibition.

11. Many of those buying these vehicles have no prior 

connection to the aviation community and therefore lack the 

cultural commitment of the traditional aviation community 

to follow safe practices and to be mindful of FAA rules

12. The artificial distinction between model aircraft 

flown for hobbyist and recreational purposes and the same 
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aircraft flown for commercial purposes endangers aviation 

safety because many model aircraft operators fly their 

vehicles at high altitudes and outside the line of sight 

13. The FAA’s simple classification that distinguishes 

drones weighing more than 55 pounds and those weighing less 

is inadequate. A further distinction should be drawn 

between rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft and aircraft at 

the smaller end and those at the higher end of the “small 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems” category.

14. The FAA’s apparent preoccupation with operations of 

larger fixed wing drones distracts its attention and 

diverts its energies from the activities posing the 

greatest threat to safety.

15. Accordingly, the FAA should regulate microdrones as 

consumer products, using models proven by other federal 

agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, the 

Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the national 

Highway Traffic Safety Administration for other consumer 

products. These models impose requirements for autonomous 

vehicle behavior as a prerequisite for marketing them.

16. Such an approach greatly reduces the burden on the FAA 

that would otherwise result from detailed development, 

promulgation, and enforcement of specific flight rules and 

airmen certification requirements.

17. Promulgating the proposal quickly would have the 

effect of shifting the burden of detailed engineering 

design to manufacturers and vendors.

WHEREFORE 

18. Petitioner asks that the FAA act immediately to 

release an NPRM proposing to regulate small unmanned 

aircraft systems as consumer products by requiring, as a 

precondition for sale, that they automatically limit height 

above ground, automatically limit range from the operator, 

and provide reliable capabilities automatically to land 

safely or to return to the launching point if the control 

link is interrupted, the flight vehicle approaches Class B, 

C, or D airspace, or the operator is incapacitated.
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19. Petitioner requests that the text of the proposed rule 

be as follows:

14 C.F.R. Aeronautics and Space

Subchapter C

Part 50

§ 50.101 Marketing of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

(a) Except as provided elsewhere in this section, no person 

shall sell or lease, or offer for sale or lease (including 

advertising for sale or lease), or import, ship, or 

distribute for the purpose of selling or leasing or 

offering for sale or lease, any small Unmanned Aircraft 

System unless the System complies with the technical 

standards of subsection (b) and also complies with all 

applicable administrative (including verification of the 

equipment or authorization under a Declaration of 

Conformity, where required), technical, labelling and 

identification requirements specified in this chapter.

(b) Performance requirements

Each small Unmanned Aircraft System must have these 

limitations programmmed into it, beyond the control of the 

operator to override the limitations:

(1) Restricting flight to heights no greater than 400 feet 

above the surface;

(2) Restricting flight to horizontal distances no greater 

than 1,500 feet from the ground control station;

(3) Excluding flight in Class B, C, or D airspace; and

(4) Ensuring that the flight vehicle autonomously returns 

to its launching point if the control link is lost

20. If the FAA issues an NPRM within 45 days of the 

submission of this petition, petitioner withdraws this 

petition and submits it and its supporting documentation as 
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a comment on the NPRM to be made part of its rulemaking 

docket. 

Submitted 9 July 2014

MODOVOLATE AVIATION, LLC

BY

(s) Henry H. Perritt, Jr.

Henry H. Perritt, Jr.

its General Counsel