With 2.5 million drones sold in the U.S. in 2016 and annual drone sales expected to reach 7 million by 2020, the laws and rules that govern unmanned aerial systems (UASs) could one day be as important to know as your local tax code. In the July issue of EARTH, University of Kansas Professor William C. Johnson and graduate student Dakota J. Burt write an introduction to drone regulations, highlighting the ever-shifting legal landscape, which has implications for hobbyists, commercial drone pilots, and geoscientists.
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists published an interview Lyndon Nance, a land surveyor who uses fixed-wing drones for data collection on the LEARN! Blog. Nance shares his experience using drones as the industry as developed in recent years, and details some of his projects.
