New FAA Model Aircraft Guidance - June 2014

? Has anyone else been forced to join the AMA just to fly at your local model air field ?


In Ohio, the Scioto County Commissioners requires anyone flying at the model local air field to be an AMA member for the liability insurance coverage. (it is county owned land however.)

Most Home Owners Insurance policy's would cover the liability. Up until now, I felt my annual dues were funding AMA activity chumming up to the FAA.
 
Please leave your official comment here:
http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDeta ... -2014-0396

We need everyone to pitch in and let them know how wrong their purposed rules are. Not only is it highly restrictive and will severely harm the hobby, it will dramatically slow development in technology and deprive the inspiration that the next generation of American needs to be the leader in engineering and aerospace technology.
 
In addition to public safety and privacy, I think the government's biggest concern about drones* is terrorism. Imagine hundreds of Phantom-sized drones on autopilot, each carrying C4 explosive, heading into a SuperBowl stadium. It's like a miniature 911. Maybe not a lot of damage, but easy to pull off and definitely a lot of terror.

Even one terrorist drone event, anywhere, would put an end to our peaceful hobby. Maybe if we had gun mounts rather than camera mounts we could ride in on the NRA's coattails. Sorry for the sarcasm but I see more walls going up every day. I live in Santa Cruz, CA and just this week Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (actually NOAA) issued "no fly" zones along certain parts of the coast. http://montereybay.noaa.gov/materials/maps/overflight1_lg.jpg

This technology has advanced so rapidly that I think (hope) there has been a lot of over-reaction. Time will tell.


*the term Drone has military connotations, which is not helping. We need to start calling out toys Multi-Rotors, or Quads
 
The FAA has stated numerous times that terrorism/national security is not within their area of authority. Notice that nothing they have published has ever mentioned terrorism, or privacy for that matter.

DHS has the terrorism ball, and so far they have been sort of hands off.
 
There is no reasonable restrictions that will prevent someone with intent to cause harm from doing it, as anyone is planning to cause mayhem will just ignore those rules. Rules should reduce the likelihood of accidents, not to prevent intentional crime.
 
macheung said:
There is no reasonable restrictions that will prevent someone with intent to cause harm from doing it, as anyone is planning to cause mayhem will just ignore those rules. Rules should reduce the likelihood of accidents, not to prevent intentional crime.

As I noted, none of the FAA regulations are meant to prevent or mitigate criminal actions intended to cause great harm. They are there solely for air safety. It is the one and only thing FAA is chartered to do. As absurd as it may sound, they are not in the business of stopping somebody from flying into a building or something on purpose. But they are in the business of minimizing it from happening accidentally.
 
EliasD said:
I'm asking the real life lawyers here.. who holds higher sway in the govt, the FAA or the NTSB? Or are they about equal? I was under the impression the FAA was over the NTSB.
I used to be a govt. lawyer, but I've never dealt with either agency. The NTSB is an independent agency, whereas the FAA is an agency within the Dept. of Transportation. That makes them approximately equal in authority - neither can govern the other, but as to "holding sway", that's more about politics. The FAA is the agency that makes the rules. The NTSB investigates incidents.
 
jaywils said:
*the term Drone has military connotations, which is not helping. We need to start calling out toys Multi-Rotors, or Quads

It's the media doing this as it sells more copy, lets not help them by using the same description.
 

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