Updated: Congressman Uses Drone to Take Wedding Pictures, Breaks FAA Rules

Updated – 7/17/14, 18

I’m going to take a leaf out of Chris Berman’s Monday Night Countdown (play)book and start a series called “C’mon Man!” where we look at all the bonehead moves made by someone related to the commercial drone industry. My only reservation is I might not be able to keep up. We will see how this goes.

Strap in ladies and gentleman, you are about to make this face:

 

On June 21, New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney married his long time partner Randy Florke in Cold Spring, N.Y.

Maloney, a Hudson Valley Democrat, sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee which oversees, among other things, the Federal Aviation Administration.

The very same Federal Aviation Administration that has prohibited the operation of unmanned aircraft systems for any kind of monetary compensation.

In fact, on June 23, the Monday after Rep. Maloney’s wedding, the FAA published its Guidelines for Model Aircraft Operators, reiterating that flying a drone as a hobbyist is legal but if any money changes hands, you are subject to the FAA’s (completely unenforceable) wrath.

The drone community condemned the document as another overly-restrictive and unhelpful pit stop on the road to federal regulation of unmanned aircraft.

Due to all the controversy surrounding the FAA and the fact that, you know, it’s his job, one would think Rep. Maloney is well versed in the rules governing drone use and would exercise extreme caution if faced with a drone in his personal life. He wouldn’t want to fan the flames by, say, paying a drone videographer to shoot aerial video of his wedding…right?

Wrong. This used to be that exact video but for some reason, it has been taken down.

According to NY Daily News, Parker Gyokeres, owner of Propellerheads Aerial Photography, operated the drone during Rep. Maloney’s wedding. He said he was aware of the rules saying both “the FAA has straight banned everyone from flying” and “there are no laws that prohibit the use of multicopters for photography.”

While these statements might not be entirely true, they do perfectly sum up the average drone pilot’s understanding of the FAA’s current rules.

A NY Daily News source says Gyokeres and Maloney “briefly discussed the murky legality of drone use and lack of clear federal policy” before the wedding but the Congressman “didn’t want to discuss policy on his wedding day.”

I understand not wanting to work on you wedding day but C’MON MAN.

Irrespective of your political leanings, flagrantly disregarding the rules of a the FAA, a federal administration of which you have oversight, isn’t just bad governance, its disrespectful to your constituents and drone pilots across the country.

Update – Apparently, Maloney has admitted that the video *may* violate the FAA’s rules: