Thanks for the extra notes Graham.

I think it's a complaint driven system. If you somehow generate a complaint then the police will respond. They will not tell you if they have a complaint or the source.

I suppose some municipalities might have rules about model planes. But then we have to decide what a model plane is as well. And clearly they would have a definition that would not exclude frisbees, paper airplanes, balls, baseballs and such.

If a 4 year old child has a plastic fisher price air plane (with multi colored propellers -vroom vroom), I suppose the police could stop him.

A rubber-power plane such as a Squirrel weighs a few grams and there is not external apparatus for control or power.

I fly at all sorts of places indoor and out and I'm always being careful to not generate a complaint. Here's my "pub version": http://www.rubber-power.com/Gallery14.htm

But I always do all the PR and use a lot of caution before actually deploying a model plane.

Actually, about 15 years ago, I remember flying a Gentle Lady glider at Lebreton Flats using a 500 foot high start. A police approached me (obviously with concerns for the danger of model planes). I was very nice to him and casually handed him a Gentle Lady explaining that it weighs about a pound and it moves very slow (as he already observed). He said to take it easy and moved on his way.

I suspect that he had not received a complaint but had just spotted the GL on his patrol and came to investigate to make sure that there were no dangerous models.

I can imagine that if you go to a soccer field these days or a skool, there will always be some prude that things your going to frighten their children. So I guess it's important to always do the PR.