Debate Now Making something out of nothing....

[320 Years of History]

For my 12th birthday (early 1970s), my parents gave me a gas powered, radio controlled plane very much like the one pictured below. (The second pic is to give you a sense of how small it was.)

I had a blast flying the thing in all sorts of places -- in the park, at school, our D.C. neighborhood, on the Ellipse and National Mall, and so on, and a few times I got my dad to drive out to College Park so I could fly it from a real airport. By the summer, all my closest friends had one (or a helicopter) too. Eventually, like so many kids toys, we got over them and that was the end of that.

Now it seems the FAA calls them drones. Say what?!? In whose infinite wisdom is a kid's toy a drone?

According to the FAA, there are expected to be some million or so so-called drones purchased during the 2015 holiday season. Really? Drones? The FAA defines model aircraft as follows:

MODEL AIRCRAFT DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘model aircraft’’ means an unmanned aircraft that is—
(1) capable of sustained flight in the atmosphere;
(2) flown within visual line of sight of the person operating the aircraft; and
(3) flown for hobby or recreational purposes.​

So what distinguishes that from what the FAA and others of late seem to deem "drones," particularly the "millions" expected to be purchased this holiday season? The only thing that is apparently different is that UAVs (per the same FAA content linked above) expressly weigh more than 55 pounds and the purpose for which one operates it. Well, I don't recall exactly what my model plane weighed, but to my 12 year old arms, it felt more or less about the same weight as our pet Lab, and as you can see from the second photo in this post, it was somewhere between five and six feet in length.

The point is that it was just a toy as almost surely will be the vast majority of so-called drones the FAA is "on about" for this holiday season. In my opinion, the FAA are making a mountain out of a molehill.

So what do you think?

• How is one to reconcile what a drone is vs. what a model aircraft is?
• What do you see as the key discriminants between drones and model aircraft?
• What militates for one's needing certification to fly a remotely controlled aircraft?
• What are the pros and cons associated with the direction the FAA seems to be going re: UAV?

Discussion Rules:

• Zone 2 rules in effect.
• Required: Original remarks (i.e., no copy paste of someone else's opinions) that are supported with an argument for whatever opinion one offers.
• Required: Facts and quotes that aren't common knowledge must be referenced.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

Lucky dog. I would have loved to have one of those at twelve.