Howard D.

Keney

, Valley

, Alabama

, United States

Posted on
2020-02-14 13:58:01
“I am 80 years old and have been involved in aviation since the age of 5. I taught instrument flight and radio navigation in the USAF in military jets, flown many times in private civilian aircraft, and built and flew my own Ultralight aircraft. I have been involved in building and flying model aircraft from Free Flight to Gliders, to U-Control and Radio Controlled model aircraft throughout the course of my entire life. I created a RC Model Database for my model aircraft and equipment that contains over 350 aircraft with a dollar value of over $100,000.00 from all of my years of flight experience. I am a member of the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) and a member of The Valley R/C Flyers, a local AMA sponsored R/C flying club. I fly every Sunday that the weather will permit. Obviously I am a very dedicated R/C Model and aviation enthusiast. My local club has had many fly-ins, as well as building and hands-on flight training sessions for the general public in our local community. We have taught Boy Scout’s groups how to build and fly R/C model aircraft. We offer free flight training for any one who wants to learn to fly R/C models. I am a retired teacher and professor of Mathematics and Computer Science. I can’t list the number of times I was able to invoke real life aviation examples in my teaching of the subject matter. Now, there is an official curriculum for such activity called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). If our country wants to continue as a technological leader in the world, then a STEM curriculum must become a common curriculum, and model aviation is a very logical and interesting path to reach that goal. I, and all of the club members I know of, only fly aircraft that require visual line-of-sight control at an authorized and AMA sanctioned flying field. We have never posed any threat to the control of the National Air Space, and as such, I think the Radio Identification (RID) requirement as announced in the NPRM is going to be a major and costly infringement into an area where it is not needed at all. If RID, as planned, were to be implemented, it could very well kill the entire model aviation hobby and industry, all of which would financially costly as well as a significant determent to the country’s desire to being a technological leader in the world. I am not an expert of any kind, but if you would like to talk with me concerning this issue, I would be more than glad to assist in whatever way possible.”