Originally Posted by
NorfolkSouthern
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?
The NTSB ruling boils down to a (re)confirmation that FAA does have authority to control the airspace in the US, which was contested by Pirker's legal defense, an argument that the administrative judge bought. NTSB overruled, which was far from surprising to me, as I see it as simply a restatement of what most of us modelers have believed and accepted up until UAS emerged on the scene and FAA recognized the need to regulate them.
The near-term effect of this ruling is that Pirker is screwed. To that I say "tough noogies." His grandstanding has done harm to the public perception of our model aircraft sport and hobby, particularly those involved with FPV. Some of the FPV enthusiasts saw him as a hero of sorts, establishing a precedent that buys them time in the near-term to pursue some aspects (e.g., BLOS) of their flying interests before sUAS rules are established and that activity is authorized. I understand their frustration at the tempo of sUAS regulatory material development, but have never considered the admin judges ruling in Pirker a sustainable fix to accommodate that activity.
I don't foresee any significant dent in the hobby by the NTSB ruling..........it just returns modeldom to the same state it was in re FAA oversight before the now-overruled Pirker determination. Folks flying FPV with goggles may see it differently.
Based on about 4 decades of demonstrated hands-off policy toward modelers, I do feel they will look the other direction from model aircraft being operated responsibly, whether at a club with AMA rules or outside that venue guided by common sense and sans rules.
Keep in mind that FAA has said and demonstrated they do not need/want to regulate model aircraft, and that extends to rules spelled out in Sect 336. Those rules only apply to modelers that claim exception from rules FAA may make, because they are 'programmed' by a CBO. Sec 336 does not require FAA to make any such rules that the the CBO exception would apply to, and I fully expect they will not. I do expect an update to AC 91-57 that will provide guidance but not mandatory rules. That will put 336 where it belongs, down the toilet.
cj