Originally Posted by
Top_Gunn
OK, but that page is complete nonsense. And it is not what this thread was originally about. Take the part about notifying an airport if you are flying within five miles. No law or regulation requires that, and they can't (yet) possibly penalize anyone for not doing it. The five-mile thing comes from the text of the 2012 law on FAA regulations, which purports to limit what they can regulate. It imposes no duties whatever on modelers. What we have to worry about is not this nonsense, but what the FAA will do when it writes the regulations, which will impose limits on us. So far, the only real clue about what those limits will be is their "interpretation," which is far from encouraging.
All correct. Let's not read into things. The page is what it is and it was put there by the FAA. All I did was point out that the FAA has this page, that they make recommendations, not regulations, and that they provide a link to the AMA. They even provide a poster that you can take to your club meeting or post at your field house.
http://www.faa.gov/uas/publications/...nfographic.png
What is the significance?
They have made a statement that if you do these thing, we won't bother you.
They have made the statement that the FAA recognized community based organization is the AMA. This is HUGE!
This is the first time I have seen them incorporate "line of sight" as part of the definition of recreational model aircraft flying. This is similar to what the British do.
It is my opinion, ( note that I called out that this is an opinion) that, if you follow the recommendations on the site you will be OK with the FAA. Of course it does not address pilots who are flying away from an "RC club Field". It doesn't say you can't or you shouldn't, it says that they recommend you fly at an RC club field.
Note that the model weight restriction they cite is the AMA's model weight restriction and they recognize that the AMA can provide waivers for models over this weight. They are giving a lot of credence to the AMA on this page.
On this page they ONLY ask you to notify the airport of your model flying operations. They don't say you have to get permission. That was the basis of my OPINION that a letter to the airport telling them where your flying field is would probably meet this requirement. Whether the airport has the power to tell you you can't fly is another matter.