Mark

Constantine

, Wintersville

, Ohio

, United States

Posted on
2020-02-15 22:09:06
“I attempted to fly model aircraft over twenty five years ago. For multiple reasons it didn’t work out at that time, so I put the airplane away until another time in life. Moving on with career goals and starting a family just kept the hobby out of reach. Then one day while looking for Disney’s Planes movie information online, I stumbled across FliteTest’s video on their spin of the “Plane’s” characters from that movie. I was hooked and thought right there, I can do this again. With my sons old enough to also enjoy the hobby, we jumped in with both feet. I had to look up that video just now to see the year. That was in 2014. Our first plane was x3 FT Tiny Trainers. Since then we have been flying every year, belong to an established club, fly both electric and glow engine planes. The best part is the family time that we spend together as a family and with the friends we have made along the way. I was also so pleased to find out that FliteTest is, well, local to us. Local enough anyway that when we have our tent camper at Flite Fest, we can go home for showers. My sons enjoy the field at the club we belong to; but, actually prefer to go the Edge Water to fly. We have often as we can. Flying model airplanes has satisfied that place in my life to be around airplanes since my career presently has drifted away from maintenance on full scale aircraft. I personally enjoy the hobby for the satisfaction of working on aircraft again, though they be little. I do try to take pride in our model aircraft flying, maintenance and up keep of them, and safety in their operations. But I find that the people at FliteTest have hit the “nail on the head”. This hobby is about making friends, being with family and making memories. Above my personal enjoyment, that is the most important part of flying model aircraft to me. I cannot put a value on the time I spend with my sons and the friends I have made doing this crazy thing. The back of my club shirt says, “It’s not a hobby, it’s an addiction. It’s not a club, it’s a support group.” This is my concern. I don’t mind the idea of remote ID on Autonomous UAS. I don’t mind remote ID on commercial operations. I don’t mind the idea of remote ID on FPV operations. I don’t mind the idea the complying with remote ID rules by flying LOS as an established FRIA site. That is the environment I fly in now. My concern is that the FAA, through this proposal, has no issue with phasing out the FRIA sites. I think that is because of their lack of awareness to what is really going on within the hobby and remote control aircraft being operated within our nation. As a mechanic on full scale aircraft, I am very aware of the norm that there are multiple categories of operations for full scale manned aircraft. This is beyond common knowledge in the industry, it is how the industry is set up. It seems very clear that the FAA has missed the fact that there are also multiple categories existing how UAS are operated in our nation. I believe that the rules should reflect the multiple categories and ways that UAS are operated. My fear (as with many of us) is losing our flying sites we have in our nation and not being able to establish new sites as time goes on. I leave you with this analogy. Tomorrow is the Daytona 500. I would bet my next pay check that every driver in that race owns a personal vehicle they drive on our highways and those have serial numbers are registered and have a license plate. I would wonder if any of the cars in that race they are driving have a serial number, are registered and I know do not have a license plate on it. I know those cars are not allowed to run on our highways. Yet they have a place to run. Thank you.”