“I’ve been flying FPV for a bit more than half a year now. I’ve learned to fly an aircraft via simulator first for months, then I started with tiny, light plastic quadrocopters (whoop) before I went to a larger size 3″, then 5″ which I now fly. This slow progression over many months happened because of material and safety concerns. People who get into FPV have to learn what they are doing and how everything works. It is a huge investment, many people drop out of the hobby within a couple of months, because it requires so much studying and slow progression initially. By design you can not jump into the hobby without doing some level of research, like you can with DJI ready and complete drone sets. There are RTF (Ready to fly) FPV bundles you can buy, however you still have to learn how to do some research and most of these sets only include tiny plastic quads. The performance of larger 3″ and 5″ quadrocopters is massively different to their lighter counterparts. Not necessarily in terms of speed, but weigh and aerodynamics too. A heavier copter has more inertia and flies very different just based on this factor alone. Freestyle pilots depend on this factor. During my 8 months, I’ve learned about electronics, micro motors, mechanics, radio transmissions, aerodynamics throughout this time to be able to build actual quadrocopters myself. I’ve learned to solder and safely fly unstabilized without ever being in the air. I was able to learn all this online, which is amazing. But I also had to! Where I lived at the time, there was no club, not a single person I found that was flying quadrocopters. And none the less, the online community taught me all of this including the existing legal framework around it. I have since moved to another area and found a flying buddy who I got started with the hobby. He’s now on the same learning trail as me and it’s amazing to see how many skills he acquired in such short time. The current proposal would fundamentally change the definition of this hobby and that of the whole community unnecessarily, unjustfully and without understanding it. Our hobby that we spend so much time, monney and effort on would be lost for many, while we are not the cause for any safety issues for the public. Restrictions and laws already exist and do provide a big barrier to the hobby.”