Drone pilots may soon have to register aircraft

Kevin Cook is somewhat of an expert on recreational drones, or what he calls quads or quadcopters.

His Palm Desert hobby store Uncle Don’s sells thousands of them each year.

“About 1,700 between October and April the first year they came out,” Cook said.

And with each one he sells, Cook tells drone buyers, like 15-year-old Juan Ruiz of Rancho Mirage, the rules of the sky.

“First of all safety. Don’t fly it where you’re not supposed to,” Cook said. “That includes over airports, freeways and near children.”

“It’s kind of dangerous,” Ruiz said of flying the unmanned aircraft. “Like let’s say you go out of control I wouldn’t want to hurt anybody.”

In a few months, drone owners like Ruiz may be required to register their aircraft with the federal government in a national database.

This move comes after several high-profile incidents, including drones interfering with firefighting efforts in California.

“I think it would be good because the people who are doing that kind of stuff would get busted,” Ruiz said.

But Cook isn’t sure how effective the registry will be.

“What the government should do is take a little extra step and say ‘register your serial number.’ Let’s put a serial number on these they don’t have any right now by the way.”

Cook says without a way to connect a person on the registry with a particular drone, regulation won’t be smooth sailing.

“Put a serial number on there then you register that serial number with your name and when that crashes at a fire sight you say hey, that belongs to you, hey big dummy you deserve to be prosecuted at that point,” Cook said.