New guy here, impressive discussion so far. I am torn, I owned/piloted a 40 foot cruiser for a bunch of years and was always amazed that there is no Captain's license required to take any 'pleasure' vessel on the water. There is nothing worse then trying to pilot a large boat on a narrow waterway and having some jerk on a jetski zooming in and out and not yielding the right of way.
I see this in much the same light, you can kill a lot of people with a 40 foot boat, particularly if you are on a crowded river ( I live near Chicago and boated on Lake Michigan and related rivers ). Yet rather then put a crap load of restrictions on pleasure boats the Coast Guard just rigidly enforces those laws on the books and makes those laws easily searchable and simple to understand.
Seems to me the thing the hobby needs is a way of enforcing the laws on the books. I have seen some really STUPID stunts on youtube already, those folks should be fined, in some cases heavily.
On a boat, even a kayak, you must have it registered and display the registration number right on the hull. The first thing I did when I got my Phantom was register myself with the FAA, put my number on the hull of the Phantom as well as my phone number, just in case of a fly away. I would be all for an affordable beacon to retrofit on my bird.
I have a lot to learn, I've not been above the tree line yet, but really hope I can use this for what I bought it for, a hobbyist flying photo/video platform.
I really appreciate how civil this discussion has been and look forward to contributing. Now it's off to the AMA site to sign up there.