Unfortunately the guy suing the FAA in this case has a pretty bad rep in the hobby, he's the same guy that was flying a delta-wing (same Ritewing platform discussed in the article) in a super busy helicopter corridor in NYC a couple years ago, while claiming that he had "notified the authorities". However, the only agency he failed to notify was in fact the only one with jurisdiction, the FAA. He seems hell-bent on being allowed to do whatever he wants to do, however reckless, which is going to cause long term harm to this industry and hobby.<p>I have a commercial-grade (several $k) multirotor designed for large cameras as well as two couple gopro-scale helis and fixed wing platforms, and I have to admit that based on some hardware failures (not pilot error, I can admit those) that I've experienced, I've gotten pretty leery of flying in some of the situations that people seem to want to use these most: sporting events, parades, concerts, weddings, etc. They simply aren't that reliable yet, and beyond that pilot skill is highly variable. Just because you can scrape together $1k to buy or build a multirotor doesn't mean you're fit to fly one anywhere near another human.<p>I've also flown full-scale aircraft, and while I tend to be suspicious of regulation, I do believe that some degree of oversight is necessary to do this safely, and that has been demonstrated in commercial aviation. Some type of demonstrated proficiency and equipment standards would go a long way towards making sure that this can be done safely. If we don't do something like that, I'm afraid that a few bad incidents are going to make this something that could become entirely illegal at any kind of small scale (i.e. nothing smaller than a Predator fielded by a well-connected corporation), which would be a terrible loss.<p>Privacy is a whole different issue, and something that I think has been blown out of proportion in comparison to the safety aspects, which are my main concern...