ORIGINAL: JohnShe
Not ''approved'', that is not what I said.The operational guidelines must be ''accepted'' by the FAA or else the FAA is free to regulate the activity.
In fact, that is not the situation. It was the previous situation, but now the FAA has no authority to review or "accept" our guidelines for use. However, they do retain the authority to take enforcement action. This is the important phrase: " pursue enforcement action against persons operating model aircraft who endanger the safety of the national airspace system"
So it is not necessarily so that we have a blank check to do whatever we please. If it annoys the FAA they can still find a way to make our lives unpleasant. I have great confidence however that the AMA has gained considerable insight into what concerns the FAA may have had with model operations and will make certain that we address those to minimize the potential of the FAA of exercising their authority to "pursue enforcement action against persons operating model aircraft who endanger the safety of the national airspace system".
Kind of like knowing that you can do throw a ball however you want to, but if you break the neighbor's window playing ball then you will have consequences. So you take precautions to make sure you don't break the window.