Originally Posted by
jester_s1
Separating multi rotors and RC airplanes and helicopters simply wasn't going to happen.
Nobody, not even once, ever suggested separating multirotors, RC fixed-wing and helicopters. It has always been about separating drones from traditional RC craft. The concern from the public as well as the other users of the NAS has ONLY been about drones, not traditional RC craft. For 80 years, traditional RC craft have shared the NAS with virtually zero issues. It wasn't until the advent of the drone that concerns were raised. That is precisely why the AMA should have clearly, definitively and decisively created clear separation and make it clear to the FAA that it was the drones that caused the concern, not traditional models. At that juncture, it would have been a simple concept to convey, but they chose instead to embrace the drones. It was a critical and fatal mistake.
Others here continue to say that the FAA always considered them one in the same and I say it was the AMA's job (at that time, a decade ago) to kindly show them the facts of why they are not the same and how they affect the NAS in distinctly different ways. I also happen to disagree with those who say the FAA sees and always has seen them as one in the same because I have read a couple of different quotes from FAA folks who say they do understand the differences...
Originally Posted by ester_s1
It would have been sensible to define the difference as having a camera or autonomous flight capability or not, but even then the public would have probably still been nervous.
Yes, I agree, it would not only have been sensible to define the differences, it was CRUCIAL. Once the differences were defined it would have been easy to calm the public, as traditional RC craft are traditionally flown at established flying fields, or in LOS at public areas, not hovering around where the pilot is nowhere to be found.
Originally Posted by jester_s1
I kinda figured when it all started that regulating model planes was probably something they'd been wanting to do for years but didn't have a good enough reason yet. Yes, that's pure conjecture on my part, but you've gotta figure the FAA would have been thinking about that as soon as RC tech became practical in the 70's. I know I would if I had that kind of responsibility on me.
I appreciate you defining that statement as pure conjecture because I believe that the FAA doesn't want to have anything to do with any of this, but they were forced into it due to the proliferation of commercial drone use and the future of autonomous drone delivery.
Regards,
Astro