Originally Posted by
ZRX631
Safer possibly, but proximity to neighbors is a big issue as well. People outside the hobby don't want to see a large flying insect with a camera mounted underneath flying over their house. It might be safe but it might get your club shut down also.
Flying any type of RC model, FPV or not FPV, close enough to a neighbors house for them to see if it has a camera or not could get your club shut down. Not really a valid argument against FPV.
The pilot flying FPV only has a view to the front with limited side to side and up and down. The demos we have seen demonstrated that the primary pilot was not fully aware of his proximity to obstacles. I feel you are correct that a good spotter would help keep things clear, but remember that the spotter with LOS must be able to fly the aircraft also. This is a limiting factor at some clubs where multi-copters are not the norm. Also, if you are moving to FPV after a long time in the hobby, do you really want to have to rely on a spotter every time you go up?
Spotters cover the limited field of view issue. If you want to fly FPV in an AMA club environment, you are going to need qualifed spotters as the AMA prescribes. Seems reasonable to me at this stage of development. Again, not a valid argument against allowing FPV ops at an AMA club field.
Some of the autonomous features of the multi-rotors are great in that they return to take-off point when losing a signal or on command from the pilot, so if we could get them to stay in the normal pattern and 3D maneuver area I think we could make it work much like we have with heli's. A lot depends on the actions of those pursuing FPV flight at excisting clubs.
Simply a matter of selecting a suitable pre programmed RTB spot to use that does not park the model in the way of normal RC activity. Perhaps outside the pattern bring flown. I have yet to see an RC field where the occasional excursion across the flight pattern does not occur and a rare LOS on a model with autonomous RTB capability is not going to cause any more of an issue than we already have with human error or exuberance at the RC fiield....
No need to invent problems that are actually less of a problem than situations we already peacefully co-exist with in the RC hobby.