Folks, the world is a whole different place than the one we were comfortable with before 9/11 and if you think we can continue doing whatever we want with what the average citizen sees as a potential terrorist weapon (R/C models) then you need to understand what kinds of forces we're up against.

Has everyone already forgotten the mass hysteria that gripped this country for several days following 9/11? The only full scale planes flying for the first week after 9/11 were military. Despite the fact that little Cessnas and Piper Cubs are incapable of destroying much of anything, every one of them were grounded along with the airliners! The skies were cleared! And if the government had a way to enforce grounding our models during that time, you can bet the order would've gone out to stop Little Timmy from flying his threatening Aero Hog foamie as well!

Pat Roy, I think you have a good grasp on the future changes to our modelling freedoms (i.e. expect tighter regs soon) but I think you are mistaken about our FAA controlling our airspace. The FAA may be in charge of it but the Transportation Security Administration and Office of Homeland Security (the new Gestapo) are over the FAA so guess who has ultimate control of our airspace??? And for the rest of you who insist that common sense will prevail and all will be okay, think about the huge bins of life-threatening fingernail clippers that the TSA confiscated from airline passengers!

Folks, I'm not a Chicken Little and I'm really not a negative person but I AM a realist and it makes my head spin whenever I hear someone say "They can't take that freedom away from me. I have rights!" Well guess what, keep flying your models over a powerplant or close to a King Air again and see what the TSA and OHS does to ALL of our rights to fly R/C! Bottom line, folks... Either stop doing stupid stunts or face the consequences!!! Yes, Virginia, our government CAN take rights away from us!

And rhklenke, you are correct (per post #11) in that the FAA is directed by law to allow the public to respond to an NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rule Making) but are you aware that there is NOTHING that says that the FAA is required to incorporate the public's opinion into the final desision on that NPRM? While the FAA has a reasonably good record of trying to work with the NAS users, the AOPA can tell you of many times when the FAA completely ignored the public's inputs to an NPRM and eventually did whatever it wanted to do in the first place. Also, don't forget that an Emergency Order skips the NPRM process (and public's participation) completely and allows them to do whatever it is they want to do immediately, all in the name of Public Safety or National Security.

Folks, it will be easier to lose our R/C freedoms than you think. All it takes are a few morons to do some dumb things and a whole bunch of other morons to defend their "right" to do so!

Harvey