Washington Nationals agree to quit flying their photo drone

Today’s version of Our Changing World of Sports Media comes to you from spring training, where the Washington Nationals, unlike certain fellow citizens of our nation’s capital, have agreed to stop using drones.

What?

Poynter’s Andrew Beaujon reports that the club had used a quadcopter to take aerial photos at its complex in Florida. NBC Sports used similar vehicles at the Sochi Olympics, after obtaining permission from Russian officials. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration bans the commercial use of unmanned aircraft, and the Nationals didn’t get or even seek any kind of exception.

“No, we didn’t get it cleared,” an unnamed team official told the Associated Press. “But we don’t get our pop flies cleared either and those go higher than this thing did.”

I would think that the quadcopter would have to go higher than pop flies if it’s going to be used regularly. Otherwise, it might get hit by a pop fly. What’s the ground rule on a batted ball hitting a quadcopter? Betcha Henry Chadwick never thought about that one.

MLB can contemplate it while we on the media side think about how quadcopters and whatever’s next fit into our coverage. You may be off the hook for never figuring out how to edit photos with your phone.

Meanwhile, a federal judge has ruled that the FAA has no jurisdiction to ban the use of commercial drones. The agency is appealing that ruling, Beaujon writes. According to the AP, the FAA argues that there are safety issues that need to be addressed for unmanned vehicles before they can fly alongside manned aircraft.