“I have been flying model airplanes since the mid 1970’s. The skills I learned from building and flying these models eventually led to a career in home building. The skills i gained learning to put a model plane together and make it fly, I use on a regular basis to work on the electrical, plumbing, and finishing skills to assemble houses. Model planes to me have been a test bed for many ideas in my adult life. I have learned about aerodynamics, gas engines, and radio systems. I later went on to gain my Airframe and Powerplant license to work on full sized aircraft. I am currently about to finish my Private Pilot’s License. I owe much of these skills and growth in my life to model aircraft and my love of flying them. The new rules you are proposing will stifle the freedom of most of the hobbyist out there. I realize that you are doing it in the name of ‘safety’, but if that were a problem then why has Radio Controlled aircraft become such a concern to you? RC Model Plane Flyers have been safely flying our model planes since the late 1950’s. When I got in the hobby in the 1970’s there were thousands of modelers flying thousands of aircraft without a single incident. It was not until the automated drones arrived that safety and privacy have become a concern. We, RC Model Airplane Flyers, have NEVER been a problem nor will be one in the future. Your new rules lumps us (the rc airplane flyers) into the same pile as everyone else. We are DISTINCTLY different and should be granted an exemption. I understand that you are ‘allowing’ us to keep our fields but the problem is that you will not allow any new ones. Why not? We have been here from the beginning. We are not the problem. Your new rules will eliminate the RC Airplane Community by over regulating what has never needed regulation in the first place. Please consider this plea from a boy and his toy airplane and let us fly without government oversight. We are your ally in this push for safety in our skies. Please do not make us the enemy. Sincerely Mike Kopf”