Thank you Secretary Foxx.

Safety is at the core of everything we do, and safely integrating unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System is one of our top priorities.

For decades, the only people who had access to our airspace were highly trained pilots who came from a culture where safety was deeply embedded. But as the Secretary mentioned, thousands upon thousands of brand new users are starting to fly. While we’re confident that the vast majority of these people care about safety and want to operate safely, the reality is that most have little to no aviation experience.

So our challenge is to educate these new operators that as soon as they start flying, they’re pilots. They have the responsibility to fly safely. And there are rules and regulations that apply to them.

We’re working aggressively to spread our safety message to as many people as possible. This requires us to constantly evolve and be flexible in our approach, and ceaselessly search for new opportunities to educate this new generation of airspace users. The unmanned aircraft registry is a key step in this process.

Tomorrow marks a key milestone as we will publish the interim final registration rule in the Federal Register. The rule tracks closely with the recommendations of the task force. 

The rule will require registration of drones weighing between 250 grams – that’s a little more than half a pound – and 55 pounds. Registration will be simple: it will be done through a website that will go live next Monday, December 21st. After the initial 30-day free period, registration will cost $5 and it will be valid for three years.

Once the owner enters the required information, they will receive a registration certificate that they can print out. The certificate will include a registration number that must be marked on the aircraft. For model aircraft operators, there will be no limit to the number of aircraft that can be registered under that number. So they will only pay $5 once to register all of their model aircraft.

I want to take a moment here to thank the registration task force again for its work. The group provided us with thoughtful and comprehensive recommendations, and we incorporated the vast majority of them into the rule. We accepted the recommendations on minimum registration age and information that owners should be required to provide; we excluded unmanned aircraft weighing less than half a pound from the registration requirement; and we are allowing people to register multiple aircraft under one registration number.

As Secretary Foxx noted, education is a paramount goal here.  Registration provides us with an opportunity to educate unmanned aircraft users about how to operate safely. This means:

• Fly below 400 feet altitude.
• Keep your unmanned aircraft in sight at all times.
• Stay away from manned aircraft.
• Never fly over groups of people, stadiums or sporting events.
• And, when you want to fly within five miles of an airport, contact the airport or control tower beforehand.

We’re going to be pushing out information about the registry regularly through faa.gov and through Facebook and Twitter. We also are committed to working with our government, industry and model aircraft community partners to identify new opportunities to ensure that all new users are aware of the registration requirement and fly safely. We’re confident that, working together, we will succeed.