Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 90% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Oostburg: FAA has 500,000 registered users despite 2.5M drones sold

Egbert Oostberg · EP 428: Super Creative Dad of 4 Buys Time By Minimizing Expenses, Launches Drone Info Company with Egbert Oostburg · Sep 25, 2016 · at 11:47

Egbert Oostburg, founder of OpenSky / Drone Aviator, discusses the market opportunity created by unregistered drone owners.

0:00 / 0:10exact quote · 10.7s

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“The big key is that they only have about half a million people registered, and there's two and a half million drones that have actually been sold, so there's still a pretty decent delta of people that have not registered, that have purchased a drone”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

The FAA has registered approximately 500,000 people despite 2.5 million drones having been sold.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Both components of Egbert Oostberg's statement made on September 25, 2016, are supported by official government and industry data from the period. Official FAA statements in August and September 2016 confirmed that over 500,000 hobbyist drone operators had registered through the FAA's online portal since its December 2015 launch. Furthermore, the FAA's Aerospace Forecast for Fiscal Years 2016-2036 published in March 2016 projected total U.S. small unmanned aircraft system sales of approximately 2.5 million units in 2016 (alongside comparable projections by the Consumer Technology Association of 2.4 to 2.8 million units). This 2.5 million sales benchmark was widely cited in media and industry discussions in mid-to-late 2016 to highlight the registration compliance gap.

In August 2016, the FAA confirmed at the Utah Drone Symposium and a White House workshop that over 500,000 hobbyists had registered their unmanned aircraft.
The FAA Aerospace Forecast Fiscal Years 2016-2036 estimated 2016 U.S. small UAS sales at approximately 2.5 million units (1.9 million hobbyist and 600,000 commercial).
Consumer Technology Association forecasts and retrospective 2016 data corroborated annual U.S. consumer drone sales between 2.4 million and 2.8 million units.

Checked against

[1] faa.gov [2] faa.gov [3] i-hls.com [4] i-hls.com [5] ainonline.com [6] dji.com [7] businessinsider.com [8] nationalaglawcenter.org

"FAA Aerospace Forecast" "2016" "2.5 million" drones OR UAS FAA drone registration numbers "500,000" September 2016 OR August 2016 OR October 2016 "FAA" "500,000" drone registration OR registered 2016 "2.5 million" drones sold "Consumer Technology Association" OR FAA 2016 "Consumer Technology Association" drone sales 2016 "2.5 million" OR "2.4 million" OR "2.8 million"

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

Federal Aviation Administration OpenSky

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Prediction Not checkable as stated

Oostburg: Drone Aviator projects 50,000 members will join

“Beyond that, we see that we're going to about 50,000 people joining the organization just based on our PNLs and looking at the projections of numbers sold and the amount of people getting registered with the FAA.”

Egbert Oostberg Sep 25, 2016 ▶ 11:22 EP 428: Super Creative Dad of 4 Buys Time By Minimizing Expenses, Launches Drone Info Company with Egbert Oostburg

Disclosure

Oostberg: Drone Aviator Raised Under $100K Seed Funding

“Just under a hundred grand.”

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Disclosure

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“My revenue last year, if you want to go, go forward, it was less than 30,000 for the year.”

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Disclosure

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“The way we're making money right now is we're looking to provide them with not only discovery and safety, but also insurance.”

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Prediction Not checkable as stated

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Egbert Oostberg Sep 25, 2016 ▶ 3:26 EP 428: Super Creative Dad of 4 Buys Time By Minimizing Expenses, Launches Drone Info Company with Egbert Oostburg

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Oostberg: Drone Aviator Is Currently Pre-Revenue

“Well, drone aviator right now is, is pre-revenue.”

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Oostburg: FAA has 500,000 registered users despite 2.5M drones sold

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