Originally Posted by NorfolkSouthern

I can relate this to you, franklin_m: I remember a time when a guy at a club flew a Stick. It had a 4-stroke OS Max, and no muffler. He would fly that plan all day. Bring it in, refuel, and take off. All day Saturday, and all day Sunday, when the field was busiest. Plus, any other day of the week he could come. There he would be, flying that stick with the LOUD 4-stroke. Anybody else who wanted to fly, would simply have to put up with the noise and his antics. He was not the most considerate club member on the planet, but he paid his club dues I guess. Luckily for the club, the place was a good 5 miles from the nearest house. None the less, the noise was deafening!

And then we had these big gassers, which didn't muffle that engine noise any better. And they would fly fast, and low. All I know is this: If I go out to a flying field to watch, and someone brings in a nice scale model with a 4-cylinder engine, I want to HEAR that engine and prop. NOT some LOUD warbird with a two-stroke gas engine and NO muffler. I know of at least one field that had to shut down due to noise complaints, and that had nothing to do with the FAA.

All of this makes me wonder if the testing and licensing requirements would serve to reduce some of this behavior. It may not, but at least it would put a little more value into the hobby. Because right now, anything with a radio can be purchased at Wal-Mart, and there is NO accountability. You buy the toy, and do what you want with it. And it has been that way with RC for the last several decades. Needless to say, I was a little shocked when I learned that all I needed was an AMA card and club membership to get into the hobby. Well, not even a club membership for some fields. Yes, I had some instruction because it was highly encouraged. But after that, there were essentially no rules because the models I had really weren't capable of breaking them anyway.