John

Faust

, West Des Moines

, Iowa

, United States

Posted on
2020-02-23 22:20:36
“Flying models is one of three of my major life activities now, church and caring for my elderly mother are the others. I own somewhere between 120-200 flying models and am building more. I have always been fascinated by flying things. My childhood was spent flying models, rubber band powered and then control line models but even then I wanted to fly RC airplanes. Now that I am older and retired I am able to pursue may facets of this hobby and I love it. The hobby keeps my mind working learning new skills and applying them to my pursuit of the hobby. The new regulations threaten most of my flying, 35cc aerobatic airplanes, sailplanes pylon racers and hot liners routinely exceed 400 feet in altitude and foot radius required in the new regulations. I am an officer in the Des Moines Modelairs and most of my flying is done at one of that clubs AMA approved sites although I will fly my indoor foamys on calm evenings and mornings. None of my flying has ever created any safety concerns. Maybe a traffic jam as people passing by stop to watch me fly more than once these traffic jams were caused by a police officer stopping to watch. I operate within the AMA safety code can only remember one incident in the last ten years and that was at an airshow where AMA’s safety code was not followed. I know that the FAA has sited safety as the reason for the new regulations but the regulations and the FAA’s behavior say that other factors are in play. I believe that factor is commercial use of drones and the big money behind them. Regulation of model aircraft is intended to clear the airspace for commercial drones to operate without restriction. This tact is very short sighted and just plain wrong. When they eliminate model aviation they will eliminate the source of innovation that has made commercial drone aviation possible they will also eliminate the source of many of the those who make our military’s aviation possible. the list of those engineers, astronauts and pilots whose roots are in model aviation is proof of that. The solution is to require the commercial side to demonstrate that they can operate safely without restricting current activities that have operated safely for the past 80 years.”