Originally Posted by
Chris Smith
The police responded to a call about being too close to an airport.
No. The police responded to a call from a resident whose house borders this park, and who is irritated by RC flying and calls the cops every time. When they asked him why he objected to the rc plane being flown in the park and informed him the city has no prohibition on flying rc in parks, he said he thought it was too close to the local airport (Cable Airport). In fact, Cable is 5 miles away from that park, and I keep my private full-scale A/C over there. In fact, I personally know Bob Cable, the owner of the airport.
The guy who called in is either mis-informed or intentionally made up some story, and the cops don't know about the FAA's NAS rules, and so had no idea whether the complaint was legitimate or not.
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?
That day at the park, it was a very good thing, which is why I posted my experience. The FAA card quickly resolved any issues the cops might have had. It went a lot faster than trying to explain who the AMA is, what they do, their safety guidelines, and so on, and likely getting nowhere with cops. Not only did I get to go on flying that day, but I probably made it much easier from now on for other fliers who are subject to complaints in our city. As with everywhere else, there have been a lot of complaints by residents concerning drones.