Introduction
At the beginning of this year Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) announced that it would be mandatory for all Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) operators in India to register their RPAs (generally referred to as drones) by January 31. Apparently, the voluntary disclosure scheme did not elicit adequate response and, on June 8, MoCA notified a reintroduction of the scheme, this time with no deadline! In official Indian terminology, an RPA is an unmanned aircraft, which is piloted from a remote pilot station; a remotely piloted aircraft, its associated remote pilot station(s), command and control links and any other components forms a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS). Implicit to the MoCA announcement was the admission that a large number of RPAs were being operated without adherence to the prescribed guidelines in the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) issued by Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA). Depending on the source one accesses, the number of unregistered RPAs in Indian skies is at least a couple of lakhs, and may be more than 6 lakhs. Gloomy projections foresee a growth of around 10 lakhs per year for the next five years or so. The numbers do not matter so much as the fact that the proliferation appears to be unbridled with the regulatory mechanism not yet in convincing control of the growth.
Future Cultural Challenges for Airlines And Airports
Introduction Assuming we are all alike is one of the greatest mistakes we human beings are making all the time. Another mistake we constantly make is to assume that our way of doing things is the only right way. So when people do things differently e.g. how people queue up or what we ascribe status to we try to educate them to do or see it our way. This is usually not well received and a conflict starts.
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