FAA Drone Testing Concerns-Poor Simulation, Self-Certifying, No Prop Guards and 3DR leadership?

It appears the FAA is looking to Chris Anderson from 3DR as a SME for drone testing and certification. A company that had significant drone quality issues and who to this day does not use prop guards. He has been pushing for relaxed standards and self-certification. Seems like this is exactly the opposite of what the FAA should be doing — again.

In addition, Chris is pushing for simulation to be utilized for these activities. While that is a fine idea overall it depends on what simulation is used. While gaming systems can be helpful, they lack the model fidelity, especially regard to the craft and sensors, needed in many scenarios. (XPlane would be part of this list.) This is especially concerning given the aircraft simulation side of the FAA is well aware of this and has been for decades. A look into the Part 60 would demonstrate that.

More info in my articles here

Urban Air Mobility — Four Paths to Disaster

· https://imispgh.medium.com/urban-air-mobility-four-paths-to-disaster-9dd3966f85e2

Silicon Valley and Agile are Ruining Engineering

· https://imispgh.medium.com/silicon-valley-and-agile-are-ruining-engineering-196099378028

FAA making a grave error in granting autonomous drone waivers to develop in the public domain

· https://medium.com/@imispgh/faa-making-a-grave-error-in-granting-autonomous-drone-waivers-to-develop-in-the-public-domain-9e4292fbbcba

The Autonomous Vehicle Industry can be Saved by doing the Opposite of what is being done now

· https://medium.com/@imispgh/the-autonomous-vehicle-industry-can-be-saved-by-doing-the-opposite-of-what-is-being-done-now-b4e5c6ae9237

SAE Autonomous Vehicle Engineering Magazine — Simulation’s Next Generation (featuring Dactle)

· https://www.sae.org/news/2020/08/new-gen-av-simulation

Common Misconceptions about Aerospace/DoD/FAA Simulation for Autonomous Vehicles

· https://medium.com/@imispgh/common-misconceptions-about-aerospace-dod-faa-simulation-for-autonomous-vehicles-2b3ad84b0aa1

My name is Michael DeKort — I am a former system engineer, engineering and program manager for Lockheed Martin. I worked in aircraft simulation, the software engineering manager for all of NORAD, the Aegis Weapon System, and on C4ISR for DHS.

Key Autonomous Vehicle Industry Participation

- Founder SAE On-Road Autonomous Driving Simulation Task Force

- Member SAE ORAD Verification and Validation Task Force

- Member SAE G-34 / EUROCAE WG-114 Artificial Intelligence in Aviation

- Stakeholder for UL4600 — Creating AV Safety Guidelines

- Member of the IEEE Artificial Intelligence & Autonomous Systems Policy Committee

- Presented the IEEE Barus Ethics Award for Post 9/11 DoD/DHS Whistleblowing Efforts