The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expected to announce rules governing commerical drone use in the near future, but it’s unlikely enthusiasts are going to welcome them.

That’s because the FAA’s rules are going to be incredibly strict, if a report in the Wall Street Journal is accurate. For starters, you’ll need to know how to fly an actual airplane because the FAA will require all commercial drone flyers to have a full pilot’s license. As if that wasn’t harsh enough, those who do have pilot’s licenses will only be allowed to fly their drones at an altitude of less than 400 feet, in daylight hours only, and must keep their drone within eyesight range at all times.

The FAA is justifying its tough stance due to safety concerns. An agency source told the WSJ it has to “integrate unmanned aircraft into the busiest, most complex airspace system in the world—and to do so while we maintain our mission—protecting the safety of the American people in the air and on the ground. That is why we are taking a staged approach to the integration of these new airspace users.”

With the cost of drones steadily decreasing, businesses have displayed growing interest in their commercial potential. The best known example is Amazon.com Inc. and its proposed Prime Air delivery drone service, which wants to use drones to fly goods to your door in double-fast time. It’s a fantastic idea and Amazon is pushing forward with its development, but the FAA’s proposed rules would throw a major spanner in its works.

Amazon isn’t the only company to explore drone technology. Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. also want to use drones as a means of delivering Wi-Fi to remote parts of the world, while there are many other use cases – for example surveying land, infrastructure, oil pipelines and so on. But the requirement of a pilot’s license, and only being able to operate a UAV in your line of sight would hamper these activities.

Given the potential of drones, FAA’s rules seem incredibly restrictive. Flying a drone is quite a different thing from piloting an aircraft, and the availability of air traffic control systems and first-person viewing technology means operators can fly them quite safely – there’s no real need to keep the drone within eyeshot.

Forbes contributor Ian Morris argues that more logical rules need to be introduced, such as testing people in the same way we test car drivers. Drones could also be manufactured with certain restrictions built into them – for example the DJI Phantom has firmware installed that prevents in from being flown into restricted airspace.

The only good news is the FAA’s rules are a long way from being set in stone. It’s expected to make its proposals public by the end of the year, after which the public will be allowed to provide its own input. Hopefully some more logic can be applied and less restrictive regulations agreed upon before the final rules are hammered out.

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