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Weight limit
Is there an absolute upper weight limit for RC planes and, if so, by whose rules?
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RE: Weight limit
Oh yes, the upper weight limit is when the weight exceeds the available lift and that is by the rules of gravity...;)
Bob |
RE: Weight limit
Just curious, why do you want that information?
Bob |
RE: Weight limit
Yes, the AMA set the limits, been a long time and I don't really recall them. I think it was up to 50 pounds wet then you had to get them inspected for up to 100 pounds then you needed a waver? I'm sure John or someone is more up on the rules. We had an AMA inspector that would come out to our IMAA event every year and re qualify the pilots and planes in the 100 pound range. Been a while sense I have been involved in IMAA and I have forgotten the rules but they are in place. You can also look them up on the AMA site.
Gene |
RE: Weight limit
Gene, to begin, we are not an AMA sanctioned field, so do they still have any authority over us? And even if they do, they have no policing power other than what we allow them to have, do they? My question really was who has policing powers over a bunch of guys who are not AMA? Anyone? What set of rules do we have to follow to avoid spending time in the lock-up? If we are doing something wrong, whose rules are we breaking?
We used to be AMA, until about four years ago, and then we weren't. It is an interesting story. |
RE: Weight limit
If it is not a sanctioned club then it is your own governing rules.
Bob |
RE: Weight limit
As long as you are ready to asume responsibilty and liability for you and your club have at it. The FAA would be the one you have to look out for:eek: This drone thing may come into play.
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RE: Weight limit
Oh hell, three years ago I sat on the AMA board in discussions of giant scale aircraft exceeding the 55 lb. rule and setting new rules for aircraft in the experimental category due to my heavy involvement with very large airplanes. So as I stated if you are not flying at a sanctioned club then it is your rules, your responsibility and your liability, so just use common sense.
Bob |
RE: Weight limit
The FAA has accepted the 55lbs as reasonable, 100 with inspection, by believing in the AMA rules. The problem comes in that the FAA owns all US airspace, period. It is their playground. There are generic laws in place that you are subject to. If you are on you own land and can crash only into your own stuff, who would know. If you are more public and something happens to the extreme like killing someone by accident, the FAA will make it true federal law of what they would like it to be if we dont self police. Think 2 1/2 lbs like the UAV people lobbied to FAA for a hobby model plane. The fight, that is going on, is trying to keep model airplanes out of the federal regulation code; right now we still are in grey area FAR wise. If things go wrong and we get full FAR regs like full size planes, it will kill model airplanes, but also we will be subject to the same penalties like $10,000 per infraction occurrence. Piss your neighbor off and he said he saw you do it 50 times; that would be quite a bill and probably jail. These are the same kinds of penalties that pilots, businesses, and mechanics are subject to everyday if they dont follow the law. The thing to do even if you are not an AMA member is at least keep the spirit of the rules in hand.
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RE: Weight limit
We are not even a club insofar as there are no dues, no meetings, no rules. Just a bunch of guys who have a really nice place to fly and we get together a couple times a week and do just that. The only guidelines, as set down by the owner of the property where we fly, are that when a full suze aircraft sets up to come in, we have to get out of the way. The other thing is that anyone who shows up and wants to fly is allowed to until he demonstrates that he is a danger to others. Then we are allowed to ask (pretty emphatically) that he not fly any more.
So the FAA would be our governing authority? What do they say constitutes a drone? When does a radio controlled aircraft become a drone? |
RE: Weight limit
TFF, that is what this is all about. We were wondering what the spirit, if not the letter, of the rules is. How big can we go without offending anyone? Or breaking any laws.
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RE: Weight limit
So if we were to build a plane over 55 lbs. and under 100 and wanted to have it inspected, who would we contact to do that?
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RE: Weight limit
There is no actual weight limit if it is a non AMA field. if it is then i think inspected its up to 125 now.
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RE: Weight limit
ORIGINAL: JollyPopper So if we were to build a plane over 55 lbs. and under 100 and wanted to have it inspected, who would we contact to do that? I'm sure a lawyer would be able to make it against some FAA law but we have never had any problems. |
RE: Weight limit
AMA rules only apply to AMA members and AMA Charter clubs. They only apply if you are a member, fly at an AMA field or at an AMA sanctioned event. They may be adopted by the FAA as an approved set of community based rules which when followed will be exempt from FAA regulations. This is still in progress and has not been finalized by the FAA. Even if RC models end up falling under FAA regulations, the enforcement will be reactionary, meaning that they would only come into question when some incident has been brought to the attention of the FAA. The AMA guidelines can be found at www.modelaircraft.org.
Scott |
RE: Weight limit
First off I applaud those pilots trying to adhere to the spirit if the law, all good stuff here. Second AMA member AMA field or not if something happens with a model airplane outside of the self regulating rules the FAA will see it as a model airplane community thing, not just an organization incident and all of model aviation will suffer. We have to remember we are all in this together if we want to continue to fly!
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RE: Weight limit
ORIGINAL: wkdbuell There is no actual weight limit if it is a non AMA field. if it is then i think inspected its up to 125 now. Bob |
RE: Weight limit
ORIGINAL: JollyPopper So if we were to build a plane over 55 lbs. and under 100 and wanted to have it inspected, who would we contact to do that? Bob |
RE: Weight limit
In the UK there is no upper limit but there is an inspection scheme which is operated by the Large Model Association on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)and is a legal requirement that applies to all model aircraft exceeding 20Kg and their pilots who operate them within the confines of the United Kingdom.
I do not know of the current heaviest model in use in the UK but suspect it will be in the region of 250 to 300 lbs. |
RE: Weight limit
There's some misinformation in this thread, so let me put the answer to the OP's question simply:
1. There is no law limiting the weight of model airplanes. This is true whether you are an AMA member or not, and no matter where you are flying. 2. The AMA weight restrictions apply in determining whether your AMA insurance will cover you and whether you can fly at an AMA club field. Since you don't have the insurance and aren't going to fly at an AMA club field, this doesn't affect you. 3. If something goes wrong and somebody gets hurt or there's property damage, you could be found liable for damages and, in an extreme case, you might be convicted of a crime like manslaughter, reckless endangerment, etc. The fact that you were flying an unusually heavy model could be used as evidence against you in cases like this. There is no magic number, though. |
RE: Weight limit
I am so sick of hearing this "I don't belong to the AMA so I can do what I damn well please" crap! [:@] Stop thinking about yourself and think about the eniter hobby in general. As stated in the US the FAA owns the airspace get over yourself!
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RE: Weight limit
ORIGINAL: rgburrill I am so sick of hearing this ''I don't belong to the AMA so I can do what I damn well please'' crap! [:@] Stop thinking about yourself and think about the eniter hobby in general. As stated in the US the FAA owns the airspace get over yourself! |
RE: Weight limit
Thanks, guys. I believe I understand what we need to do to stay within the rules well enough to contact the right people if the need arises. The project is a C130 with four new Saito 180s for power. We had the engines mounted on a board last week, each with its own tank, and we got them all running in synch. What an amazing experience. I was still vibrating when I got home and still say "huh?" a lot when someone talks.
I'm going to take a short time out now so I can think about myself and not the eniter hobby in general so that I can do what I damn well please. Top_Gunn, I believe that missile was aimed at me because I had the audacity to say that I was not AMA. Automatically makes me a bad person. |
RE: Weight limit
ORIGINAL: j.duncker In the UK there is no upper limit but there is an inspection scheme which is operated by the Large Model Association on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)and is a legal requirement that applies to all model aircraft exceeding 20Kg and their pilots who operate them within the confines of the United Kingdom. I do not know of the current heaviest model in use in the UK but suspect it will be in the region of 250 to 300 lbs. RG, there are a lot of people that don't belong to the AMA and a lot of non sanctioned fields around the country. Get over it. I'm betting only about 1/4 of the people I fly with are AMA members. Only a handful of these people ever fly at an AMA sanctioned field. It's been 6 years sense I have flown on one. I no longer fly events, competitions or shows. I fly on private fields or on open lake beds. If the dues were cheaper I'm sure most of the guys I fly with would join just to help support the AMA but the dues are a lot for just getting a magazine each month. I tend to let my membership run out each year, the dues are due over the holiday season when my bank account is at it's lowest. They don't pro rate my fees just because I only belong for 9 months a year either. Guys I fly with on the lake bed may only take up a plane a few times a year too. No reason for them to join. |
RE: Weight limit
I don't trust or ever feel safe around any model flyer who isn't an AMA member either .
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RE: Weight limit
Five years ago I did all my flying on open pasture. One day something went wrong and I had lost all control of my airplane. The last I had seen of it it was flying east, straight and level. About two week's later I got a visit from a (two mile away) neighbor. He had some photo's of my plane in his house with photo's of the window it went thru.I got very lucky in the fact we here where I live are not sue happy and he only asked that I pay for the damage's. Which I gladly did. Knowing how society is these day's I know that incident could have cost me many thousand's of dollar's in legal fee's and damages. I promptly joined the AMA and a club. I have too many assets and finance's to risk with assuming the risk of liability myself.
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RE: Weight limit
I don't intend to defend myself over this AMA non mermership thing. As I stated earlier, we were AMA until one day when the self proclaimed AMA cop at our field threw the owner's brother off the field. He did not know it was Jim's brother, but I doubt that would have made any difference to him. This self important AMA member's name is Carl. None of us really liked Carl and his shennanigans was tearing the group apart. He really thought he was the boss even though he had no official status in the club. So when he really belligerently insisted Jim's brother leave the field, Jim's brother went directly to Jim whose business is also on the property. Jim came down and did everything but physically attack Carl. I wasn't aware that Jim even knew some of those words because I had never heard him use them and to this day have not heard him use them again. To make a long story short, Carl has never set foot on the property again and we became non AMA affiliated that day. I have also observed that since that day there has not been any kind of politics or dissension in the group. We are not now AMA and we will never be AMA again as long as we fly on Jim's private property.
I realize that having the AMA insurance backing us up would be a good thing, but it ain't gonna happen as long as we fly at Jim's field. So we have two choices. We can continue to fly at Jim's with everyone getting along very well or we can find another field, join the AMA, and hope nobody comes along who wants to assert himself and use AMA rules to back him up. The politics in that situation got really nasty. We have all heard the horror stories of how difficult it is to find a decent place to fly. I choose to stay at Jim's. |
RE: Weight limit
ORIGINAL: JollyPopper I don't intend to defend myself over this AMA non mermership thing. As I stated earlier, we were AMA until one day when the self proclaimed AMA cop at our field threw the owner's brother off the field. He did not know it was Jim's brother, but I doubt that would have made any difference to him. This self important AMA member's name is Carl. None of us really liked Carl and his shennanigans was tearing the group apart. He really thought he was the boss even though he had no official status in the club. So when he really belligerently insisted Jim's brother leave the field, Jim's brother went directly to Jim whose business is also on the property. Jim came down and did everything but physically attack Carl. I wasn't aware that Jim even knew some of those words because I had never heard him use them and to this day have not heard him use them again. To make a long story short, Carl has never set foot on the property again and we became non AMA affiliated that day. I have also observed that since that day there has not been any kind of politics or dissension in the group. We are not now AMA and we will never be AMA again as long as we fly on Jim's private property. I realize that having the AMA insurance backing us up would be a good thing, but it ain't gonna happen as long as we fly at Jim's field. So we have two choices. We can continue to fly at Jim's with everyone getting along very well or we can find another field, join the AMA, and hope nobody comes along who wants to assert himself and use AMA rules to back him up. The politics in that situation got really nasty. We have all heard the horror stories of how difficult it is to find a decent place to fly. I choose to stay at Jim's. Bob |
RE: Weight limit
Something like that happened to us at the crop duster field one of my clubs used for our runway. From then on it was flying by invitation only. The club itself was AMA but we owned no land or flying site of our own. I never bothered to real all the rules for the AMA but as members we all belonged to the AMA. Joining is a good idea and in my case I flew all over the state at IMAA events so I had no choice.
As to the question of weight limits there wouldn't be any at a non AMA field. I fly at one private place and you could fly anything you like but it isn't the best giant scale field. The freeway is too close and Las Vegas Blvd. is also too close. It's almost a sq. mile of open though but there could be a safety problem is a plane got away like acerc mentioned. I had it happen once but that was at my old home field in the mountains. Here in the city it could get ugly. The field doesn't have to be AMA but it's not a bad idea to be a member. It could save you a lot of money in the long run. I do let mine laps for a few months each year. Why anyone would want there dues during the holidays is beyond me. Maybe next year I will be flying a few IMAA events and will have to have the membership even if I didn't want it. I'm going to be building a couple more giant scale planes next year and would like to show them off. IMAA is a great place to do the show and brag. These people understand what they are seeing and what it takes to build one. No one really cares out at the lake bed, they all fly ARFs, giants but ARFs and have no understanding of building. I need my ego stroked once in a while. Max, you have no weight limits, build them as big and heavy as your runway and area can handle. |
RE: Weight limit
Please don't judge all AMA members or the organization by the actions of one.
Hell, I have a couple of friends that are lawyers. |
RE: Weight limit
I certainly undertstand that. I've had friends who were lawyers also, and , worse than that, I've had some that were doctors. :D
Hey, I'm not judging anyone except Carl He was (is) a total jerk. And I would rejoin AMA if I ever flew anywhere but where I do. But having AMA would do me no good flying at a non AMA sanctioned field. |
RE: Weight limit
But having AMA would do me no good flying at a non AMA sanctioned field. |
RE: Weight limit
My understanding is that you must be flying at an AMA sanctioned field for the insurance to be good. Correct me if that is wrong,[:o]
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RE: Weight limit
ORIGINAL: JollyPopper My understanding is that you must be flying at an AMA sanctioned field for the insurance to be good. Correct me if that is wrong,[:o] |
RE: Weight limit
So I have a question; what do you think the all up weight of the C130 is? Can't be too bad or 4 180s would not get the job done.
Bob |
RE: Weight limit
We don't really know yet. The fellow who is building the plane is still making moulds for it. It will be an all figerglass plane. What weight range do you guys think 4 180s would lift? One 180 would fly a 15 pound plane, would it not?
Top_Gunn, can you be in compliance with AMA code and not be at an AMA field? I thought that was the first stimpulation. |
RE: Weight limit
If you want a sweet wing and power loading I would do everything in my power to keep it under 50 lbs. You will be very happy you did in the end.
Bob |
RE: Weight limit
ORIGINAL: JollyPopper One 180 would fly a 15 pound plane, would it not? Top_Gunn, can you be in compliance with AMA code and not be at an AMA field? I thought that was the first stimpulation. |
RE: Weight limit
So if I can fly anywhere I want, what do I need to do to be in compliance with AMA code?
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RE: Weight limit
Most all AMA sanctioned fields I have been at have the AMA rules and regulations posted at the field, just go check them out.
Bob |
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