Right On, Frank. The old joke goes like this: Airplane makes its take-off, and all stuff (gear, flaps, climb speed, etc.) gets cleaned up. The Speaker comes on. "Congratulations, Folks. We are happy to have you on board. You are the first group of air-travelers to fly without any pilots on board. Do not worry as absolutely nothing can go wrong, ...go wrong ...go wrong...go wrong...go wrong...go wrong>>>>>>>>>"

Why John every single RC model aircraft flown before the year 2000 WAS A DRONE. Need I mention how many times you have stated that all RC model aircraft are drones? The only incident I know concerning a collision between a DRONE and full scale was a large 3D model and a full scale biplane a few years ago. Here is a link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoZD9pczEVs#t=165

A typical liberal feel good solution solves nothing. And considering the level of reading comprehension taught in today's schools it would need to be a comic book.

Good point, but you fly your drone by AMA guidelines, just like I do, and the rest of us on this forum (I hope). And because of us and many more like us, the AMA has a fantastic safety record. But, recently it seems that these drones have hit the toy stores and just about every idiot and jerk you can think of has bought one and used it to create a safety hazard, are they on the chart?

H C S, there are women that show up at my fields fairly often. Most are definitely providing NO DOUBT that they are women. BTW, I seldom go to the field on cold days!

Seen the video many times, a lot of stupid things were done that day.




LOL! I don't know how some people even get by. And you are right, gun safety training doesen't help either, look at how many people shoot themselves just cleaning their weapon.

How about drivers licenses? There is a required written test, and a driving test............................................ and guess what the idiots still have accidents.

Maybe a warning label on drones like we have on cigarettes, or the warning labels on beer and alcohol................. ????????????????? Yeah that would make some feel good.

As for the morons that shoot themselves while cleaning their gun, well Darwin had it right and the gene pool is improved.

Actually it was several years before I even knew about the AMA.

It's clowns like this that are the problem they have no idea that the AMA even exists http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/13/7...e-with-a-drone

http://www.wral.com/green-hope-high-...ning/14160759/

How does protecting the national airspace extend to banning a drone flown by a highschool group with the support of the teaching staff. This is educational. Protecting the people is the responsibility of the local authority. I did not see the event but it is unlikely that they flew above the stadium lights. This high school field is no where near the 30,000 seats mentioned in the FAA's latest rule. It would be reasonable to restrict the craft to areas that were not over people. Such as the end zone away from the bleachers. Looks like too much government.

I can't see how she will be truly effective in controlling who has access to RC drones. From that statement, would she want to regulate recreational flyers at clubs, too? We will have to wait and see, of course. The AMA may not be that big, but it has proven its self to be capable of forming a strong lobby, and for this reason I seriously doubt she'll succeed.

So, what is the minimum number of people that you can fly a drone over? BTW: my minimum is one.

It would not have been so bad if the school wasn't teaching them to do stupid things.

I didn't think she said anything about controlling access to drones. She seemed to be expressing a concern that is on the minds of far to many people. Something has to be done, but what?

HMMM...need at least one???

Hard to understand anyone that would defend that bit...Oh...witch...

HMMM...I think I solved it!!!

Since mankind has been enjoying the pursuits of manned aviation for well over a century now, only a blink of the eye in the grand scheme things in regards to our existence on this planet and since we have plenty of aircraft to model now, we should just ban most manned flight...all except absolutely essential flight...just not sure what that is though, since we lived a long time on this planet without such...

Wall Street Journal ... a couple of days ago.... the story of the Chinese company that makes the DJI Phantom.... worth a read. Given the tens of thousands of these flying, a few incidents are bound to happen, are they not? Just the sheer weight of numbers....

I was flying a large quad in my local park this morning, I fly there several times a week, always mid week when nobody else is around.

The local council were trimming trees in the car park and when I landed one of them walked over to me. He was friendly and made general chit chat about the quad, then he told me they have been instructed to request people to stop flying if there are other people in the park.

I told him I agree 100% with that for safety reasons and that I only fly when the park is unused. He smiled and everybody was happy, I kept flying and he went about his business.

I could have been confrontational and quoted him the CASA advisory but that would have created a negative attitude in him when it was totally unnecessary.

I don't believe the school nor the students felt they were doing anything wrong. They were just recording a high school event. Its not like they were on a field trip at an airport and buzzing the incoming flight traffic.
A little education here could go a long way where as an all out ban does nothing and nobody learns anything. If schools were taught how to do this type of activity correctly and safely the do's and don't may trickle down into society as well as the media.
This would be a great way for local AMA clubs to get some visability to get involved and help schools with these types of programs except for the fact that there is an apparent dismissal of acceptance of drones and an us and them attitude.
Just a thought.

Yep. I've flown countless hours of RC and have never flown a purpose built drone. I've also witnessed countless other RC planes being flown and have never witnessed drone style flying.

Flying over a crowd is a stupid thing. And yes, I strongly agree, AMA involvement would be a great thing. By teaching the principles of safe operation, everyone would benefit.

Do we know that they flew over the crowd? An aerial view shows one end of he field to be open, the back side is mostly trees with a short section of bleachers on the 50 yard line. The point that I was trying to make has to do with the FAA's limits. This is a model being used for educational purposes. Isn't that what congress told them to leave alone?

Good point YBB, it is not at all clear what was really happening. But, going anywhere near a populated stadium with a toy like that is very risky.

number of injuries per year from fights in the stands?
number of injuries per year from muggings in the parking lot of the stadium?
number of injuries per year on the playing field?
number of injuries from fpv drones?

some here just need to hide in their bedroom under the covers

Here's something cool to try , cause I did this and was rather surprised at the results .

I asked 10 random aquaintances who don't know I'm into model planes , people like the guy I see at the deli each week and so forth , this one question ;

"Gee , ya sure see a lot of drone talk in the news lately , what do you think the difference is between a drone and a model plane ?"

and SEVEN out of ten came back with some form of "a drone has a job to do and a model plane is for fun" ..... 7 out of 10 !!!!! .... Now , I did not "coach" anyone nor ask the question in a "leading" way , I asked it simply as stated above . And so the general consensus of the small group of "civilians" asked agreed with CP and I that , despite some of the nonsense being posted earlier here , there really IS a clear cut difference between what a drone VS model plane is . This public perception of our model planes NOT being drones is well to our benefit and needs no blurring by folks who should know better than to be forcefully trying to associate the RC hobby with drone activity !

init,

Don't go on shattering the foundation and the basis that the better than thou super righteous quad haters have built their cases on... They really think they are the only ones intelligent enough to differentiate model airplanes from task driven drones. Heck, even some the self professed forum experts and prolific posting idiots think model airplanes and drones are one in the same... With those types of goof-ball advocates on our side, we really do have problem...