John
Conley
, South Bend
, Indiana
, United States
Posted on
2020-02-24 4:44:18
“The RC airplane community is a diverse community, rich with people from all walks and stations in life that without having a common love for RC planes, would never meet up and become friends. Regulations are for the irresponsible people, many of whom were not part of RC aircraft community until the onset of sophisticated, self flying, multi-copters, otherwise known as “Drones.” These drones have allowed people who had little or no interest in learning the complexities involved in building and flying RC airplanes to suddenly become “pilots.” The problem is they didn’t come at it in a way that caused them to have respect for the hobby, or join club to reach out for help, or get a chance to be shown what is safe behavior and unsafe behavior. Drone pilots in isolated cases are those who have been caught taking pictures where they weren’t welcomed and flying their multi-copters in unsafe areas, like near active full scale runways. For decades, the RC airplane community has policed itself well with the establishment of RC airplane clubs that have rules for safety, instructor pilots to train newbies, and being represented by the Academy of Model Aeronautics for among other things, guidance and liability insurance. The guy like me, flying RC planes constructed mostly of balsa, within my own line of sight at an AMA sanctioned club field, I’m not the problem, I don’t make a nuisance of myself and neither do other RC airplane pilots living in this great country of ours. I have seen entire families come together around RC airplanes with wonderful results. I have made many friends because I’ve been able to up now, build and fly freely in a responsible way. Forcing me into the kind of compliance you seek with the new rules will serve only to destroy yet another American past time that makes helps make our country so diverse and great.”