Separation of Drones from the AMA
 

Someone started a petition to have Drones removed from the AMA.

Take a moment to sign up..
https://www.change.org/p/ama-members...iation-and-ama

Vettster,

Are you even an AMA member up there in Canada?

There is no problem with mulitrotors as long as they are flown within the AMA safety code.

At our New Years Day flyin, there were half a dozen multirotors out there being flown by guys who are *long term* club and AMA members. In fact, there were more multirotor flights logged than fixed wing. One of the multirotor flyers is the new club President - and all of them are really nice, responsible, and valuable club members.

Should we throw them out of the club as well as taking away their multirotors?!?! Just asking...

Bob

I dont have to be an AMA member to help the cause.

Besides... what ever crap the US gets into, usually ends up sliding into Canada.. So YES I do have a vested interest.

Well, there are a certain number of people who ARE AMA members who think this type of thing doesn't help the cause...

You also didn't answer the question. What do we do with AMA members (or others) who DO like multirotors and fly them safely?

BTW, from what I've seen, the number of AMA members who like multirotors are about 10 times the number who like jets. Thankfully, the AMA's stance is "no modeler left behind" and I hope they stick to it...

Bob

What do we do with AMA members (or others) who DO like multirotors and fly them safely?

If there flying LOS on a Sanctioned field... Whats the problem? Problem is that they DO NOT follow AMA or FAA rules do they??

10 times? So when ever there is 3 jets at your field there is 30 Drones??? OMG that is so unbelievable because we all know that drones want nothing to do with the AMA except to have the AMA to flip the bill when it comes time to protect them from the FAA.

Sign the petition or do not. There are enough other threads to discuss this. This thread is here purely to point you to a place where you can help the cause.

Talked to my local fsdo guy that is in charge of UAV and he is saying if you are flying under am a rules at an ama feild we have nothing to worry about. People just need to calm down with all this stuff.

+! - and true even if you're flying a multirotor vs. fixed wing...

Bob

Bob, were the guys at your field flying line of sight? Then no problem. Dumbasses flying in urban areas are the problem and we can't be lumped in with those fools.

Not just dumbasses in urban areas. It's also dumbasses in rural areas. Sounds like the problem is really with dumbasses and not the technology. Funny how this is so similar to the gun debate. Regulate vs ban vs do nothing.

And just remember before registration the faa could do nothing about the dumbass people. Now they can.

First, the 2012 law (FAA Modernization Act) and section 332 specifically, prohibits the FAA from having any jurisdiction whatsoever over model aircraft. This is the LAW. So the FAA's registration proposal is illegal.

And even if it was legal, who knows what they even do with that information. If they use it as effectively as DHS and FBI do in identifying and apprehending terrorists, then the answer is ZIP. And as with guns, registration only harms those who abide by the law. The others go scot-free.

It is silly to think that the idiots who fly drones over people's houses, at parks, and in controlled airspace at airports, will register or follow any laws at all. And this presumes they are even aware of the FAA or AMA at all. Most are not, and treat the drone like an I-phone purchase.

Drone guys were never, are not, and never will be modelers, and the AMA should never have pandered to them in the first place. The AMA figured it could become an official sanctioning body, control them, and rake in millions more in member fees from forced sign-ups of drone operators. It was a pipe dream and won't happen, ever. I agree with Vettster - the AMA should have nothing to do with drones. But that too won't happen under current AMA leadership.

I personally don't see any cause to help in this case. I have absolutely no problem with anyone wanting to be an AMA member, no matter what they fly as long as they are willing to abide by the AMA safety code. As a matter of fact, if ALL multi rotor operators were willing to follow the AMA safety code, whether they were members or not, we wouldn't have any of the problems that we have right now.

You're under some strange assumption that Congress has some teeth in Washington right now! Our un-elected Govt. departments are running the show!

Yes, with designated spotters.

Bob

The greater Richmond, VA area has a population of around 1 million people. There are 4 AMA clubs that I would call "local" with membership of each around 40-50. In that area, there are exact 3 turbine waiver holders - and they are all in our club. In our club, there are at least 8 guys, probably more, who are actively flying multirotors and we've had two new inquiries about membership from new multirotor flyers in the past few weeks.

Given the numbers of multirotor flyers that I'm sure are in the other local clubs, I'd say that the 10-1 ratio of multirotor flyers to jet flyers is probably on the conservative side. Its probably more like 20+ to 1.

Regardless, multirotors *can* be flown safely under the AMA safety code, and we should not abandon those who want to do so - they didn't abandon us when turbines came out and the minority said "ban jets" when they thought that they were too dangerous, too loud, etc.

Bob

BestBuy is giving out free AMA memberships with the purchase of a drone. Some may even send them in. I'm sure there are many drone pilots that started out affiliated with a model club, and stayed with it flying their drone at the club field. But, face it, most won't, AND flying a drone over open fields will bore them in a hurry. If you want to see what's really happening with drones, go to " phantompilots.com " and have a look. Drones flying over and into cars, houses, people, public places, public events, falling out of the sky. People flying them having no idea what their doing. The Flyaways are remarkable with one guy flying over the clouds, then then losing control, or "automated control", his drone tumbles 3000 feet to the ground somewhere. One guy puts one thru a windshield in a parking lot. Another guy is flying one down a NYC street 10 feet high, at night with his goggles, blocks away. I urge you to spend some time at that site, then come back here with some more informed comments on how it can "compliment" responsible model aviation. They are not going to join AMA and go fly at AMA fields. They are not going to learn skills both physical, and technical that we had to acquire to fly r/c. The drones are designed and marketed to fly themselves, IF everything works. These guys can't even calibrate the compass. We know how to assemble, build, calibrate, engines, electronics, cg's, trims ect.ect. They don't, and scratch their heads when the $1000 drone falls out of the sky. There is a full telemetry readout available after the fact, that tells what happened, and they don't know how to read it. In the end, it will probably come full circle and the FCC will require designated areas aka (model fields ) the only allowable drone areas , and hence the pilots will come under club rules, where they have to comply, or be banned from the club. Before you start the flaming, go check out the site, it's totally out of control, and only going to get worse.

Didnt see any of what you mentioned.. Seems more like a promotion site for Drones! But I agree with everything you said.

Sorry, the site is Phantompilots.com,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,hit new posts, and/ or general discussion and start reading. My post refers to alot of the info read there, and also, way more scary videos on u tube. Just type in drones and look around. Granted, there are tons of r/c crash videos there as well, but they are at model fields, not on the streets. And the Phantom is an upper level, premium drone.

I know there's been accusations of superiority complexes, but that's fairly uncalled for. I identify as both a "drone guy" and a "modeller", and I'm just as proud of my latest balsa build as I am my scratchbuilt tricopter.

There's no sense creating further divides in the R/C hobby. Regardless of if the AMA botched their arguments or if the FAA is seen as a saint or a villain, there's just as much to lose for the guy who's just built their first 250 race quad as the one flying a Sig Smith Miniplane.

,
There is a difference between a guy flying drones over people , houses and streets, and a AMA member flying at a model field. It's not about pride, it's about understanding safety concerns, and the consequences.

FYI.. Deffered Defect.. Is Max Perez. Head Moderator at RCCanada Forums. He is also the largest FPV offender in Canada. His actions are pure selfishness, and as a mod.. if theres evidence against FPV he moves the post to the Garbage.

Need an example... Look at the photo. On this day he decided to fly all over the neighbourhood. Read what his last FB post says.

Gee Max, it's nice to see you understand that I couldn't be talking about you . I'm sure your drone has identification and insurance info on it, in case it drops thru someone's windshield while your sitting on your nice warm couch.

I see now Dale.. That site is incredible!! http://www.phantompilots.com/ Every idiot imaginable posting every stupid law breaking thing they can think of.

What in the world does it mean, "have drones removed from the AMA?" What is the process for doing that? Who believes the FAA is going to say,"You AMA guys are OK, we'll leave you alone and only focus on the irresponsible flyers with our regulations." That was never going to be the case and anyone who believes that it would have is sadly mistaken.

How about removing irresponsible flyers from the world, I'll sign that petition. It will do as much good as the suggestion of this thread.

Lars

I agree that's pretty dangerous flying, and obviously lousy moderating, but there's bad eggs in any hobby. With the internet of course, it's far easier to find said bad-eggs, even if they are few and far between.

However, it wasn't that long ago when people would do stupid things with LOS flying as well.
I remember reading an older (maybe late 1980s?) R/C modelling magazine discussing the authors trials learning to fly a larger glow model in a parking lot. The story was obviously making light of how ignorant they were to the danger at the time, but this was an informal club flying and crashing .60 sized models in a built up area.

Dangerous, sure. But it was happening, and I'm sure occasionally still does.

What I'm saying is we don't have a perfect track record either, and I guarantee the hobby will be looking back on some of the reckless behaviour today as completely absurd once we establish a new safety culture.

Give it some time.