Today i received a call back from the local FAA flight standards office and they told
me quote Model air planes do not in anyway fall under FAA FAR regulations
and to receive compensation in connection with operating a model does not
cause you to be in a commerical catgory. I might add the OP in this thread said
nothing about the FAA anyway he was concearned about the AMA ins not covering
him for flying at a air show if he accepted money and that he had to go in his own pocket for exspenses. As it turns out you can accept money for exspenses and be covered but
you are not supposed to turn a profit, however if one was to receive a tip or something
along that line I doubt anyone would know or even care.
Well I can see you found an FAA rep that didn't know his head from a hole in the ground. But to say a model airplane never falls under FAA regs, is absurd. Why do you think they wrote the UAS 400 in the first place?
Stick an autonomous flight system on it and see how quickly your breaking regs, which are not found in the FAR. Even Kidepoxy above made a point about flying at FL180 or class A. I'm also pretty sure they won't like your model airplane flying in class B or class D for that matter. There are PLENTY of ways of making a model airplane fall under the FAA rules, regs and policies, including flying it for commercial operations.
And also I know it does not fall under the FAR. It falls under FAA Interim policy. The FAR is regulation, UAS policy sometimes becomes regulation, but is still recognized.
Shame you didn't take that bet, but tell you what, lets do it again and if you think you're sure about what your found out, then I'll do it again, but you'll give me 2:1 odds. Should a be no brainer for you, right? Next time your source will be coming from an office in Washington DC, not some local schlep.