Originally Posted by
cj_rumley
Agreed. AMA created and lobbied for the rules, and Congress enacted them in 336. Truly very simple, yet many folks are demonizing the US government in general and particularly FAA for interpreting the rules, as they must by law do in order to apply them as Congress intended and as your post appears to confirm they correctly did ("...says the exact same thing"). FAA did not create these rules, nor any rules regulating model aircraft other than the advisory AC91-57. It is most unlikely that FAA would have made such rules. If FAA were to make any such rules, they would be well off in the future as model airplanes are far off the critical path to incorporating UAS in the NAS. We as a group seem to currently be in the weird predicament of urging AMA on to free us from onerous government regulation designed and hastened through the lawmaking process by AMA.
Agreed again, recreational modelers should not be affected......but we are and will be. The savior needed something to save us from.
With the NTSB ruling as it stands currently, how do you feel recreational modelers will be affected, cj_rumley? I am seeing posts by club flyers who believe they won't be touched, yet I am also reading about events being cancelled and engineering being transferred overseas.
Do you personally feel that all this will put a huge dent in the hobby, or will live go on as normal after the quad copters and cameras are effectively rounded up? Personally, I don't see an end to FPV, photography, and people using their drones to get a different vantage point to their surroundings.
If these people are flying outside a club field, yet in a manner that is safe and within legal guidelines (no goggles but with a video screen and downlink, within sight, below 400', 5 miles from an airport, no money involved), will they still be subject to regulation, or do you feel the FAA would look the other direction? I could have the hunch the FAA would pay no attention, but I can't say I'm entirely sure at this point. Keep in mind that the drone that was being used in the incident wasn't a quad or heli.
Well, so what do you think?