This IS one of the largest issues we face. It is a few bad apples that are really instigating all the legislation. The ONLY thing you must do when flying any RC vehicle is to avoid manned aircraft.
I have several friends with the FAA and these incidents are far more common than the public is aware of... sad. All these incidents are driving the aviation industry crazy and they are taking a huge stance against drones. The moment that asshat crashed his heli into the WhiteHouse lawn, is when I started hearing the term geo-fencing.
There are a number of different groups involved that are driving this, FAA, airports, governments, but also any citizen can add their property to the registry, and entire neighborhoods can be shut down, along with any RC flying location within 5 miles of an airport (even if it is an AMA insured field).
DJI/Naza is on-board with this as are a few other large companies, though it will be a while before full implementation. They see the geofencing protecting the hobby from people that can do the industry harm. Drones can easily be a billion dollar business in the US alone, if we can avoid having civilian use entirely outlawed.
The reality is going to be VERY difficult to enforce the more advanced pilots- those that can fly without satellite GPS and stabilization. I don't use GPS on any of my aircraft right now, so it is impossible to "fence" me. The only thing that would take me out would be to jam radio signals in and around major cities.... That would not hold me back but for a moment though, as I have the equipment to transmit radio or video on numerous frequencies including UHF.
The reality is that it will come in time, and school fields that were used after hours to fly will be made illegal, all state and national parks it is already illegal to fly, and all sorts of places will be made illegal to be in that airspace. The city of Chicago has taken a huge stance against drones and it is going to be very interesting to see how this plays out.
Another HUGE problem can be seen out west in Cali, where they are actively hunting for drone operators that interfere with fire containment efforts. ey will ground all water tank aircraft if a drone is seen and more asshats keep putting drones in the air to film the fires and the tanker aircrafts. There is now a real bounty offered in Cali of $25,000 for turning in these drone operators interfering with firefighters' efforts.
Just fyi, historically these cases have been treated as destroying others property. You would have to prove malicious intent, that is not impossible but not easily accomplished.
