William (Rick)

Lingenfelter

, Bellevue

, Nebraska

, United States

Posted on
2020-02-17 19:48:37
“I love to fly all forms of model aircraft, from racing multi-rotors using FPV, to sailplanes, from helicopters to aerobatic fixed wing, from scale to experimental, from ready-made store-bought models to scratch built. My club also loves teaching new young members to fly, build and design their own aircraft. Radio-controlled model aviation provides a huge stimulation of technological and aeronautical innovation. The very autonomous aircraft for which these proposed rules seek to create an airspace were born of the ingenuity of the hobbyist world. These new rules propose to completely snuff out the innovators that drove the technology to these new levels of sophistication. Most hobbyists in the model aviation community are safety conscious and abide by rules to protect the national airspace. The AMA has developed and followed FAA recognized safety rules for eight decades. FAA should formally recognize AMA again as a CBO and recognize new CBOs that apply for recognition. Rule based community organizations represent a much less intrusive path to safe operations of radio-controlled model aircraft than Remote ID. This approach will also be far less costly for both the hobbyists and for US taxpayers. Imposing remote ID at the hobbyist level will be complex, expensive and difficult to enforce. Those of us that abide by the law will comply. Those that are more than likely the cause of the FAA’s concern probably won’t comply. Remote ID at the hobbyist level solves nothing. Restricting flight operations to established flying fields is also problematic. It’s easy to see where this goes. No new flying sites after 3 years? This rule spells out the death of viable sites over time. Many sites eventually fall to urban sprawl or other factors like real estate development. Without the ability to establish new sites the model aviation hobby in this country is finished. Companies in the US that cater to our hobby will also suffer. This includes businesses at all levels, from one person shops to employers of hundreds. I urge the FAA to reconsider this position that threatens to cripple innovation at the grassroots level, pull STEM activities away from aviation and will serve to end the domestic model aviation hobby and our supporting industry.”