Originally Posted by
Chris Smith
The police responded to a call about being too close to an airport.
Holding an FAA registration should have no bearing on the cop's decision to resolve the complaint. As a matter of fact, instead of properly asking you to leave if you are too close to an airport, they could have not only asked you to leave but then used the registration to take action against you. If in fact you have violated the FAA interpretation of the airspace, the FAA card is the tool they intend to use to persue any action the cop is willing to do paperwork for.
This incident implies that since we have FAA cards we are legal to own and fly a model aircraft. So that's a good thing now? Sounds like that was how the police interpreted it. What about the original complaint that sent the cops there in the first place?
Not sure if we got all the information in that story. Did the responding officer(s) determine that it wasn't too close to the airport per the policy they read? It would make sense that if the police were called by someone who is saying that r/c is being done too close to the airport, when the officer(s) show up and determine that the facts of the matter is that the flying isn't too close per FAA regs, they would just let the person(s) go.
During Super Bowl, I was out on a four hour walk around the city. since I couldn't do any flying at the club I belong to since it's within 32 miles from Levi's stadium. I was walking through densely populated residential areas in the city of San Mateo CA. I look up and I see a quad drone buzzing all over back and fourth maybe 300 feet over the houses. I watched it land on the back deck of a house which is on a hill. Deal with that is, no one was supposed to be flying r/c within something like 32 miles of Levi's stadium. This drone was flying well within the 32 miles (as the crow flies) from the stadium. So basically two things were going on here. 1) A drone was being flown over a densely populated residential area. And 2) In a location that was deemed a no-fly zone because of the Super Bowl. Guess someone doesn't mind dicking with the system. But there's also the saying: "mess with the bull and you're going to get the horns".
These are the individuals who have caused what we have now with the FAA. These are the individuals who continue to do stupid things with r/c. And these are going to be the same individuals who if/when caught are going to be hammered by authorities for doing the things they are not supposed to be doing.