Airmap is ready to help the government tax drone pilots for takeoff and landing.
For veteran pilots, this news from Airmap is nothing new. Airmap has a history of using pilot data to gain financially. While monetizing data is one thing, using the data to hurt drone pilots…is another.
Years ago, Drone U leaked emails showcasing how Airmap was lobbying against the drone industry for personal gain. Airmap was paying astronomical amounts of money to segregate the airspace below a particular altitude. It was always assumed the Airmap strategy was to charge governments for pilot data, so governments could capitalize off of pilot data. Well, that assumed strategy proved true.
Pilots should remember, if a product is free… you are the product. Yet Airmap just doubled down on twitter outright proving us correct. (We’re not happy about being right here)
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Well Airmap just tweeted that “Governments can create new revenue streams….like taxation of take off’s and landings.”
We have been warning about using Airmap for years now. As they have foreshadowed what their goals…truly are. Monetize pilot data at the expensive of pilots. Many drone pilots have stopped using Airmap, once they learned what was happening. Yet, countless new expert Youtube drone pilots teach others to use Airmap… Be careful where your information comes from, often times users
Airmap Taxing Drone Pilots
As a drone pilot, would you want to pay for every takeoff and landing? As a drone pilot can you imagine the difficulty in navigating a patchwork of rules from county to county?
Is it even legal to have local governments tax drone pilots for take off and landing? The commerce clause provides the innate authority over airspace to the FAA. Would higher transactional costs hinder the drone industry and related industries?
It might be time for the FAA to clarify, once again, national sovereignty over airspace to ensure transactional costs do not rise and hinder the evolution of drones in America.
Airmap even states they’re the “most trusted drone management platform. How can anyone expect that to be true when Airmap is finding ways for pilots to shell out more money?
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