Originally Posted by Retiredat38

Had an interesting chat yesterday with a gent who is very heavy into the home built world. His credentials are that of an engineer by both education and trade. He is part owner of a Piper Cherokee, full owner of one of the RV series of home builts. His wife ( a CFI) has her own plane and he is currently building his own design from foam and fiberglass. Basically what we might call a scratch built.

He's never been involved in RC and even asked questions as to how we move the control surfaces on a model. Yet he knows a surprising amount about the new FAA rules concerning RC and vehemently against BLOS in any form.

He mentioned to me two drone strikes with which he has personal knowledge of. One simply bounced off the nose of a private jet. But left a dent and minor damage. The second involved the tail rotor of a Bell Jet Ranger. Cost of those repairs started at $4,000.

I see a few conclusions that can be drawn from all this.
1. I suspect there are a lot more "drone strikes" which do not make it to the front pages.
2. Whether these are real strikes or not, the aviation world believes them to be and as such, RC is losing their support.
3. These full size GA owners/flyers are people too. And when some droner causes them thousands of dollars of damage to their aircraft, and then gets away scott free. People get pissed and eventually will act.

This is an area where the AMA could have taken the lead and made a difference. I know, I know they've mentioned safety all along. BUT THEY DON"T ENFORCE IT! And had they come out early and really pushed the safety aspect of all this instead of demonizing non-AMA members, to include getting on the case of clubs that routinely violated rules. Things now might be different. Programs that make sure people understand that flying their drones near full size simply is not cool. Encouraging the clubs to go out and try to identify some of these folks and either correct them or turn them in. Now someone is going to say "But that will hurt the hobby! We need to be PC about all this and make sure we don't hurt anyone's feelings." BULL! The hobby has already hurt the feelings of the owner of that Jet Ranger whether it was a real drone or not. How many more do you want to insult?

Fact is people, without full size aviation on our side this hobby has no hope. So we can act, collectively as a group AND individually. Or we can continue to bite one of the hands that feeds us.

As for those who would sit back and do nothing while expecting the other guy to do it? Go find another hobby. I for one don't want you here!