Originally Posted by
porcia83
More talk of "blame", and segregating "us" from "them". No doubt the warm type of greeting MR folks are getting at some clubs.
I think the virulently anti MR folks are the only ones looking to blame, and wagging their fingers at something that's different. The indisputable fact is that Trappy and his aircraft were the ones who got the ball rolling. Years and years before than, fixed wing aircraft were already flying well beyond LOS, nobody can dispute that. The popularity and ubiquitous presence of the MR coincided with the FAAs interest in safety and the NAS. It's not a question of blame either, just facts and reality. The FAA would have been involved with our hobby regardless of what a MR or fixed wing pilot did, or could do. Technology is the culprit, if we are forced to asses "blame", or at least a partial explanation.
Do you really think the FAA would have left us alone except for a few drone pilots?
Yes. You FINALLY get it, although you continue to use different terminology for models, drones, MR where it fits your agenda for that day. Once again, I will clarify what I call a drone vs. what I call a model. It's very simple, really:
DRONE=any craft (fixed-wing, rotary wing, MR) that has BLOS and/or autonomous flight capabilities.
"TRADITIONAL" model=RC or free-flight aircraft (fixed-wing, rotary-wing, turbine powered, MR, etc) that does NOT have the inherent capability to sustain BLOS and/or autonomous flight capabilitrs.
Yes, Before you start splitting hairs and bring up control line and RC "flyaways", I am fully aware that I may not have covered every scenario, but I am not submitting to Websters Dictionary.
With that being said, I believe it was the drones and their BLOS, autonomous flight capabilities that caused the FAA to take notice and start to regulate our activities.
Astro