Vince Stoops, of Selinsgrove, talks about his helicopter drone in Selinsgrove on Monday afternoon. His drone is smaller than the size required by the FAA for registration.

SELINSGROVE  — A federal regulation that went into effect Monday will require most drone owners to register their device under threat of a fine that could be as high as $250,000.

The Federal Aviation Agency said the rule is aimed at controlling the increase of unmanned aircraft in U.S. skies that officials fear threaten public safety.

The regulation applies to drones heavier than a half-pound—which covers virtually all consumer devices other than palm-size toy; it requires drone owners to register on a government website and receive a unique user number that they then must attach or write on any drones they own.

This doesn’t sit well with hobbyist Vincent Stoops, of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

Stoops said he first learned about drones while in the Marines.

“This is big technology in the military, with the combat forces,” he said Monday. “These guys are being trained in drone technology, and they are bringing that knowledge back to the civilian world when they are getting out. That’s why the popularity is growing. The technology is better. The drones are cooler, and more efficient,” he said.

Stoops owns a small drone that weighs about a quarter-of-a-pound, a Turbo Hawk Protocol, that can fly at a height of about 40 feet.

He flies it in his back yard and his dog loves to chase it.  Perhaps, someday, he’ll get a quad copter, something that sells these days at Big Box stores for thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, “the average hobbyist has 15 to 20 minutes of flying time and they are not impacting anybody’s air traffic,” he said.

“What really gets to me is the government is trapping all of these hobbyists, these every-day Saturday afternoon hobbyists, and making them register under threat of serious fines,” Stoops said.

The FAA is raking $5 apiece from the hundreds of thousands of drone-owners. If you owned one before this Monday, you have 60 days to register. But everyone is bound to register the drones they are about to buy this Christmas.

If the drone is over .55 pounds, you have to register.

The average person won’t weigh their small drone, Stoops said, “They’ll just send $5 into the federal government, not even knowing that some of them didn’t have to. The money will go to the FAA, to this DMV of unmanned aerial aircraft. It’s a scam. It’s unnecessary.”

Stoops points out that there are already ways to punish those who use drones illegally.

“If you use a drone improperly,” he said, “you face the legal consequences. If you fly too close to an airport, or even fly too close to the White House, to use that as an example, you are held criminally liable. Do we need to punish all of the drone operators because someone goes to Washington D.C. and flies a drone over a government building? That makes no sense to me.”

About the only good thing he can say about the regulation is that owners have to only register once, no matter how many drones you have. And the registration is good for three years.

Still some questions linger and are not made clear by the regulation: What if a registered owner sells a drone to someone. Does the registration number go with it? Or does the new owner have to register it under his own name.

“I think some liberty groups will challenge this regulation,” Stoops said. “I have seen on social media people saying that the FAA has exceeded its authority on this.”

Registration is a statutory requirement that applies to all unmanned aircraft.

Under this rule, any owner of a small drone (over 55 pounds) who has previously operated an unmanned aircraft exclusively as a model aircraft prior to December 21, 2015, must register no later than Feb. 19, 2016. Owners of any other drone purchased for use as a model aircraft after December 21, 2015 must register before the first flight outdoors. Owners may use either the paper-based process or the new streamlined, web-based system. Owners using the new streamlined web-based system must be at least 13 years old to register.

Owners may register at www.faa.gov/uas/registration

Registrants will need to provide their name, home address and e-mail address. The fee is $5, which will be waived until Jan 20.

Dandes writes for The Sunbury Daily Item.