Adeeb
Missaghi
, Minneapolis
, Minnesota
, United States
Posted on
2020-02-21 13:39:46
“Flying FPV is a challenging and exciting hobby that gives back so much more than it takes. Since starting the hobby I have become skilled in a variety of soft and technical skills that have improved my career greatly. As part of the hobby is definitely sharing your flights its so important to practice video editing skills and your building skills to be an inspiration to other pilots. Before I flew FPV I knew very few people in my city and since I started joining clubs and racing with locals I have met 100’s of people in my community and made dozens of life long friends, as well as traveling the country and even internationally meeting new people along the way who all share the love that I have for FPV. I am a mentor to a talented group of students all learning how to fly and build FPV quadcopters, they are racing competitively now and are the top-ranked school in the state of Minnesota amongst 20-30 other schools who have also started programs to train students in the skills required to compete as FPV pilots. With the current NPRM many of these middle-school to high-school aged students would be considered as breaking the law by continuing to do what they can do now, to say this makes me deeply saddened is putting it lightly. Flying FPV is not a completely safe hobby, I won’t deny that. Having injured myself and learned from it I know the risks. Learning to evaluate those risks and understanding the traffic in the local airspace as well as on the ground is an important skill that all FPV pilots should learn. It’s important as well that the FAA needs to learn and understand what goes into flying FPV and that not all “Drones” at the same. For instance, the 400ft ceiling has never been a problem for FPV pilots because flying that high is not the goal, where we fly there is ZERO air traffic, even Amazon drones (which is the real reason for this mess lets be honest) wouldn’t fly where we fly. We fly under and sometimes through the trees, in abandoned buildings, or around geological landmarks like cliffs, rivers, mountains, beaches or forests. Delivery drones and the new world of autonomous drones should be regulated to dedicated air-space “highways” in the 400-500ft altitude. Recreational pilots should have access to data on their locations to be better able to avoid accidents, not the other way around. In this NPRM more rights are given to corporations than the people and we can’t let that continue.
Thats all I have to say, for now, thank you, everyone, in the FliteTest family for advocating for our rights.
Best,
-A-“