Originally Posted by
vertical grimmace
Well, even if that were to come to pass (a concession I may or may not support) It really would not matter, as if an IMAC event were to be planned, scheduled in a given area, those flying sites within this restriction would be avoided. The same with the soaring community. The reason why the safety record with full scale vs, models, is that the modelers stay away from the full scales. This seems to be something the idiots in the news do not care about.
I am going to assert that the model aircraft community is by and large an educated and responsible group, many closely tied to full scale aircraft. I am of the opinion that those that are flying FPV, the ones creating the close calls and flying near airports, are not. We did not have this problem before FPV showed up. So who is the problem?
I would be inclined to agree with you were it not for events I've personally observed by AMA members and AMA clubs. While I would agree that it's likely the MAJORITY of these media events are non-AMA members, I would not agree that there are not a handful of AMA members who think the rules don't apply to them or that they know better than FAA.
The problem is, we as a hobby community and the AMA as our advocacy group have not created a clear, bright, easy to understand (i.e. media friendly) distinction between "us" and "them". Unfortunately, the media train is rolling and we (collectively) are playing catch up. I'm of the opinion that it's almost too late - too many FPV and self Nav easy to fly quads are out there to stop now. The easiest to enforce from a policy standpoint - keeping in mind those operating outside of or despite the AMA code - is clear unambiguous limits like I've outlined above.