Whilst we jubilantly celebrate the 21-year anniversary of the ASTM International F38 committee, and the achievements, we need to consider the ROI for the domestic Unmanned Systems ecosystem.
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How many F38 standards published?
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How many adopted by the Federal Aviation Administration?
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Back of the envelope estimate on person hours volunteered over the F38 committee’s lifetime.
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Estimate of overhead dollars spent on same, for FAA and contractors, industry?
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How many domestic drone companies went out of business waiting?
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What percentage of the participants are small businesses?
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Who will stand to gain the most for a Part 108 scheme that is not file and fly?
My personal experience with F38 has been less than satisfactory. Well, I shouldn't single out ASTM because RTCA bore even less and had no choice but to sunset 203 after almost a decade of institutional sandbagging. They exited the pupa as the shiny and new sc-228. The other standards groups hardly deserve a mention as they busied themselves with the table scraps and crumbs. As for AMA using their safety code as the mandatory $ 75-a-year membership drive, they got nothing. Okay, not nothing, FRIA musical chairs
Standards were sold to all of us as the expedient and economical way to advance unmanned aviation and NAS integration. Earl Lawerance, with the EAA at the time, extolled the virtues of the F37 LSA standards, and folks were proclaiming it would save American GA. It did for the Chinese, as Cirrus is majority-owned by AVIC. From the internet: (The Aviation Industry Corporation of China, Ltd. (AVIC) is a massive, state-owned Chinese aerospace and defense conglomerate established in 1951). It produces nearly all of China's domestic military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and helicopters, employing over 386,000 people and managing dozens of subsidiaries and listed companies.)
It appears that F38 may have done the same for Chinese drones. Picking up the #1 Happy Good Luck Quadcopter company's RID leftovers, and parachutes for what was 80% of the market until recently. Am I the only person who thinks there may have been some drone dumping going on?
A big congratulations is in order, and encouragement, three cheers for another few decades of sitting around the gilded cracker-barrel.
@theDroneDealer on X