franklin_m

This is interesting...only a few days old. We now have research institutions getting into the act of quantifying danger. Pretty compelling video.

http://phys.org/news/2016-04-catapul...rs-drones.html

mr_matt

My Feedback: (10)

Pollyannas must be catching the vapors about now

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

In other news, water is wet, fire is hot, and what comes up will come down. Someone needed to put a test together showing a carbon fiber blade could damage human flesh? Imagine that. Next we'll have someone proposing a safety program and a way to track injuries from drones.

Not nearly as bad as the "traditional modelers" and builders of $10,000 turbines do when talking about drones.

init4fun

Ok , so , , , Now that the 400 foot horse has been thoroughly beaten to death across 10 different AMA forum threads with neither side changing their views in the slightest , , ,

Exactly HOW many of you HAVE written your Senators about your concerns for the future of the LOS flying RC hobby as is the title theme of THIS thread ?

rcmiket

I've written everyone but the Pope. Don't really think it matters anymore or will carry any weight.

MIke

Granpooba

My Feedback: (5)

May or may not pertain to this forum. But below you will find the reply to a question that I asked the AMA in regards to Pilot Testing.
Their is another forum that I started and it is also posted there, but thought no harm in also posting it here. Just trying to keep everybody informed.



Q. With all of the above stated, why should it be necessary for me to pass a test to fly a " Radio Controlled Airplane " ?

A: We are probably a year away from the test becoming public - assuming the Senate version does not get amended, passes the second committee, and passes the second round of voting. Most likely you will have to take the test, but again we have many more steps from even knowing if the test will be required.

Finally, I would like to know why the AMA has not launched a NATIONAL program to explain to the general public that it is not the Model Aircraft Hobbyist, but the rogue DRONE operators that are causing all of the air space problems ?

A: That question best may be best answered by your Executive Council person or through a marketing ticket. I can confirm we make this argument in all of our media inquiries.

Granpooba

My Feedback: (5)

P.S. Don't shoot the messenger ! Seems like a lot of folks are going around half cocked ! LOL

init4fun

poster below must be talking to himself , hope he has fun with that ........

TimJ

And decade after decade the FCC reduces it's knowledge requirements to obtain a FCC Amateur Radio license. The numbers have also thinned to a very small number.

rcmiket

http://www.radioqth.net/ziplookup

There's more of them than there are us out there. In my area first 3 digits of my zip showed me 715 here. I thought they just dropped the Morse Code requirement as part of the test. Also with all the "preppers" out there ham is still really popular.

Mike

init4fun

Of course there are .

However , I refuse to recognize Tim's existence here till he answers our question over in the "Secret Squirrel Solution" thread !

For all intents and purposes , he can post up the solution to world peace for all I care , till he explains himself .


The not rude thing to have done , if he really DID have some "guarded secret" would of course have been to PM the guy so none of the

"PSST , we gotta take it off line , the plebes here can't know of my brilliant plan !!!"

BS was in print to insult the rest of the board with . This is a PUBLIC discussion forum , and if things are going to be private , why come into a thread at all and dangle a hint of them in front of the rest of the members ? Pure rude forum behavior , no matter HOW he may attempt to ignore the insult he posted to the board by deeming everyone not worthy of hearing his great plan !

Just downright rude , no two ways about it , and I ain't letting it go ...........

TimJ

That's great insight rcmiket. Thanks for that link. It would seem the population has grown some. I wonder how may are actually active still.

The Code requirement was eliminated and the classes of license were simplified. Radio theory and electronic theory seems to be about the same, but the Code requirement was the biggest change. You really had to be disciplined in order to advance to other classes. Anyhow, there's no doubt that there's less in that hobby today than 25 years ago.

CESSNA 421

My Feedback: (17)

Interesting about the number of hams in a particular zip code. I looked up my zip code and there are only 123. I have never owned a real ham rig, I only use my license for flying model planes.

init4fun

Me too , and who knows , Maybe Pope Francis IS the one to put a fair an equitable solution in place for the integration of UAS into the national airspace . With how well he has handled the duties of being Pope , I'd trust him FAR futher than anyone presently working on it !

RichardGee

My Feedback: (156)

Agree 100%. In hind-sight, the AMA NEVER should have included camera-carrying drones as just another facet of RC model aircraft! And it is now PAST TIME the AMA do what needs to be done and SEPARATE these new types of flying things from the fixed and rotary wing aircraft we hobbyist have been building and flying SAFELY for DECADES! The AMA MUST delineate between WE who fly our aircraft strictly as hobbyists, at SANCTIONED AMA Club sites, adhering to the rules and regulations that have kept this hobby SAFE for decades / and those who fly aircraft that are NOT subject to the same controls, such as park flyers and multi-rotor drones, especially those that carry cameras! Further, FPV (first person view) flying must be separated from what the bulk of RC hobbyists do, and have been doing safely for decades. IF the AMA fails to do this, I am afraid we will all be caught in the same massive FAA regulations NET that came to life thanks to camera-carrying drones and a few malcontents who flew their RC aircraft WAY outside the boundaries of the AMA Safety Code!

ALL OF US must write our Senators immediately or risk losing our hobby forever (not to mention everything in your shop being worth about 10% what you paid for it): http://www.modelaircraft.org/aboutama/gov.aspx

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

You do realize that the planes that have been build the "traditional" way for decades and decades were the first aircraft to carry cameras on them right? It's not as if MR or Drones were the first to do so. It doesn't matter what the AMA does now, nor for that matter what they might have done differently in the past, the feds are the ones who labled everything that goes up into the airspace a uAS, and nowhere in that classification does the word "camera" appear.

Sport_Pilot

There may have been a time when that would have been smart, but it would have been before 2009. Now recreational quads are model airplanes and married by law. In fact we are in the same boat so it may be better to procreate than to separate.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

Agree for the most part, for the life of me I don't get why anyone would think anything would change for the better if the AMA suddenly did a complete change and said they won't accept MR/Drones into the hobby. Makes absolutely no sense.

M_Callahan

Pretty cool Mike. I just checked the first 3 of my zip code and came up with 1789 hams, counting club call signs
SW Ohio.

Mike

TimJ

Don't forget to subtract the amount of expired license

Silent-AV8R

Oops, so much for the "Ham radio is dying" myth:

http://www.arrl.org/news/us-amateur-...-all-time-high

TimJ

Ooops.....So much for the myth that model aviation is dying.

http://www.popsci.com/big-fight-over-little-airplanes

"For the AMA, education is the way forward to the safe, drone-filled skies of tomorrow.
Logistically, that's a bit of a challenge. While the AMA’s membership is growing, with a reported increase from around 145,000 members in 2008 to 188,000 members in 2015, the ranks of drone pilots are growing much faster. The FAA announced that 300,000 drone owners registered in the first month the registry was open, which is already more people than there are AMA members. "

init4fun

Thank You Bill .


And , that increase was with no 1/4 Million Dollar expendature on the ARRL's part .... Gee , I can't wait to see the huge , dare I say gargantuan , rise in our AMA member numbers once all the Drone flyers sign up , attracted by our organization's irresistable marketing campaign !!!!

"What's that ? something about Hell freezing over first ? Naaa , the droners are gonna ride in and rescue our sagging membership numbers any minute now !"

Or Not ..... I can't wait till the 2016 figures are released and some computer savvy guy like Franklin compiles the last 10 years or so into a nice easy to read spreadsheet for even dinosaurs like me to be able to get the gist of . That's where the rubber will really meet the road , if we haven't seen a damned near Meteoric rise in 2016 numbers our point will be proven of the AMA EC abandoning us who've supported it for the past however many years just to court a group of people who would never have joined anyway !


PS , when the peanut gallery posts up some polyanna BS of how much our AMA has grown , let's not forget to factor in all of the FREE memberships due to the "sign up all your children for free to pad the numbers" campaign ! Gee , In SIX MONTHS the FAA got 300 K signups , and our membership stagnates at less than 200K for a decades old organization . Eight YEARS and we rise by 40 K , and the peanut gallery posts that up as some kind of accomplishment ? Yep , great numbers indeed

Sprucedeuce

If this bill passes the AMA will be gone in two to three years as there wont be a need for it because no one can fly anymore, so by trying to make the flying cameras just a "normal" part of the RC scene they have effectively cut their own throats.

radfordc

My Feedback: (14)

Of course traditional model aviation is near death! Look around you at the flying field....a bunch of teetering old men on their last breath. Of course their are a few youngsters flying 3D, helicopters, and now "drones", but traditional "airplanes" are passe. The AMA can pass quietly into the night or change to accommodate the world as it is.