Justin Lloyd

My Feedback: (40)

Hello RC Community,

We need your help in writing letters to congress. Tell them not to enforce regulations for flying RC planes, which could destroy our beloved hobby. We only have barely over 40,000 letters sent in. That's nothing! We are going to lose this battle unless everyone pitches in. Don't think that your letter won't make a difference. If everyone has that attitude we won't get many letters sent. But if everyone sends a letter we might convince the FAA not to set regulations. There is power in numbers. It doesn't have to be really long. A short letter is better than nothing. Thank you for considering this. Visit AMA online and they'll make it easy for you to send your letter.

Justin

Nakajima

I didn't realize the FAA released this information yet. What regulations are they going to enforce?

Joystick TX

They have leaked that they plan to lump model planes in with the newUAV, full sized aircraft, etc. regulations, we don't want them to do that, and we are trying to convince them not to set regulations for model planes. The AMA safety code has been working great for many years and there is no problem for them to solve.

ira d

There are a lot of rumors about what the FAA intends to do andI supposed there is some truth to some of them, But there is a abudance of discussion here and
elsewhere on the subjectbut the fact is untill the FAA releases the proposed rules this summer we just dont know for sure what we are in for.

Silent-AV8R

There has been no such leak. There has been lots of educated guessing combined with uninformed conjecture which have given lots of people an incorrect understanding of the situation. Nobody outside the FAA knows what the actual rule says. Anyone that says they do is basically full of it.

Joystick TX

It is true thatno one knows what the actual rule says except the FAA until it gets posted for comments. There have been several discussions with the FAA and AMA over the years and the topics areknown. The material is not exactly Top Secret and even that gets compromised.

Also, based on what has already happened, for example,the 30 mile, model aircraftno fly zone around airports during VIP visits, it is not difficult to see thatour model aircraftare alreadylumped in with UAVsas a possiblethreat to the FAA controlled airspace. I'm sorry, but withknee-jerk decisions like that, I don't trust the FAA to make reasonable rules for model planes. I have not seen or heard of any evidence to justify the rulethat all model plane flying should be grounded for 30 miles around an airport.

My two cents: The fact that there is a VIP on board an aircraftshould have no bearing on the safe operation of our models, we need to be safe for everyone, not just a select few. My kids, grand kids, and great-grand kids alsofly in airliners, they are allmore valuable to me than any government official.If the 30 mile no flyrule made any sense at all, I would be screaming for it to be invoked for all airports.

Model planes, when flown in accordance with the current AMA safety rules are not a threat to full-sized aircraft.

Silent-AV8R

Something to keep in mind is that the group that grounds ALL aircraft, everything from balloons to full size, during VIP visits is entirely different from the group writing the new sUAS rules. In addition, the VIP grounding represents an overly heightened sense of concern driven by security rather than the safety driven motivation behind the sUAS. Basically I am saying that I do not think the two have much to do with each other.

Joystick TX

I know about the security threat. Model planes are not a viablethreat. Model cars would be a bigger threat, but not by much.

Until recently, I spent several years working as a weapons engineer; so I knowalittleabout whatit takesto bring down afighterplane, oran airliner. As a taxpayer, I would have loved to come up with a $400 air-to-air, or ground-to-air weapon. If you know of a way todo it, let the government know,we can save billions of dollars on air defense. Maybe thenI can get a tax cutso I can have more money for my toy planes.

I also know that using a model aircraft to try to bring down an airliner, or killa particular individualon board, is so far down on the "weapon of choice" listthat itis only a little higher than a soda straw pea-shooter or a cork gun. Anyway, there are already a hundred or so laws that makeit illegal to kill people, attack aircraftetc., we don't need to regulate every possible weapon. How about food items such as Oreo cookies, marshmallows, etc? They are also "possible"threats, if you used a giant slingshot, you couldFOD and engine or cover the cockpit windshield. Anyway, the last time I checked, badand/orcrazy people tend to ignore most laws and pretty much do what they want anyway.

Today, too many people don't understand the difference between "possible" and "probable." I blame it on Hollywoodstuff such asMcGyver and Mission Impossible.

Silent-AV8R

My point was not to confuse what the two different parts of the FAA are doing. The VIP grounding is a purely (misguided) concern about security. The other is a concern with commercial sUAS which we are getting caught up in. FWIW, the AMA is talking with the FAA about the VIP groundings but so far that group in the FAA has not been very receptive. The AOPA has similar concerns about general aviation planes. They are having no better luck with the FAA.

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

Our models have been exempted from the UAV crowds. The resolution is posted elsewhere on RCU. Good Luck, Dave

sunnysunny2012

yup, that's true.

Silent-AV8R

Sort of. The Senate version of the FAA Reauthorization contains an Amendment barring the FAA from regulating models. The House version is still in the works and contains no such wording. It remains to be seen if the Senate Amendment survives the merging of the 2 bills. And then it needs to be signed into law. So there is still a long ways to go and it is far from a done deal

Senate Bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:s.223:

House Bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.00658: