We've been following the 400' limit set forth by AMA for years and years. Since our club is only about 5 miles from a full scale airport, we try and regulate ourselves to 400' above ground level anyway.

See paragraph 2 - sub section (C)

http://www.modelaircraft.org/files/105.PDF

I don't know what all the fuss is about. 400 feet above ground level is pretty darn high for normal, every day flying. Why would you need to fly higher than 400' above the ground?

I can see an IMAC contest where large planes will exceed that during uplines, and I could see a pattern plane exceeding 400' on an upline. But those instances are rare when compared to the number of RC flights being flown on a daily basis.

We've put monitoring devices in a UAV that I work on part-time. It's a long ways up to 1200 feet above ground level. A 44lb UAV starts looking pretty darn small up there. I can't imagine flying a glow or gasoline powered RC model up to 1000 feet above ground level. I've flown thermal gliders up over 1500 feet above ground level. Gliders with 150" wingspans look like a DOT at that altitude.

So why all the fuss over a 400' limit?