Originally Posted by
FUTABA-RC
It is interesting that the FAA has shown so little interest in enforcing either Section 349 or Part 107. As far as model airplanes posing a danger, I fall back on the decades of safe operation on our part. What has changed that suddenly they are so much more unsafe. In your 19 years of flying, when the FAA had no actual altitude rules, were model airplanes a major concern for you? Personally I was always more concerned about other manned traffic and weather. I don't get the sudden pearl clutching that somehow now, almost magically, it is unsafe for model airplanes to operate as they have for decades.
Not arguing what the law says, just curious about the apparent change in perceived risk model airplane pose in the minds of some people.
So let's look at what's changed:
- Technology When you look at how easy drones(in this case, I'm referring to a camera mounted on a multirotor) are to fly, many people that normally wouldn't fly anything now are. This has more than quadrupled the amount of R/C aircraft, thus making the air much more dangerous to all
- Ease of getting information online With You Tube and other video players, you get a membership, a user name and post away. Not much online is easier and, with the proliferation of drones, many times you will see videos that required the operator to do things with said drone that they wouldn't do to get that shot without it.
- Attitudes of those posting the information More and more, we are seeing videos that show airborne full sized aircraft at close range or things taken from above from where the drone shouldn't be. The attitude of many operators is "I'm not doing anything wrong so what's the big deal?", either not realizing or not caring that they are in violation of the law. It comes down to the "If they don't know where I am, they can't catch me" deal.
- Attitudes of those seeing the information This is where the biggest change is. With the ease of putting video on line, more people are seeing what the operators are doing and calling for local law enforcement and lawmakers to take action. That is where Congress and the FAA are now, reacting to the complaints of those that see a video over a wild fire in California that forced fire fighting aircraft to be grounded, finding drone parts in the engine intake of a Blackhawk helicopter over New York or, as shown in the latest video, flying almost directly in the path of the Blue Angels over a city AND IN CONTROLLED AIRSPACE!!!!!!!! Let's also not forget the big B-29 that veered to the left, over a crowd of people and crashed behind them because the pilot didn't abort a take off as he should have due to engine issues. That one incident kind of shoots down the 80 years of safe flying in one video.
Boil all of that down, it becomes an issue of the pilot, his knowledge of the laws and local airspace and his ability to operate within these laws