Drones or multirotors or whatever you want to call them have become very popular and at the same time created problems for those who do not obey the rules or just don’t care about rules. Some may hate them due to the trouble they have caused with the FAA. Also I know maybe there is some conflicts at clubs. At our recent club meeting it was discussed the merger of drones and planes at the field. A lot of our members have multi rotors now and sometimes they take up field area which is stationary and many want to race or just FPV. A lot of conflicts in a small airspace. Racing takes up the runway with gates. Trying to keep track of where the FPV dones are since they are smaller than normal airplanes. How are other clubs handling the merger? It needs to be done as I see the younger pilots are getting into this area and clubs are needed for safety and education.
Your Thoughts please.
Drones don’t need a model airplane flying field. Huge amounts of time, money, and public relations have been spent by most RC clubs to develop their fields. It is very disconcerting to have a drone suddenly appear in a planes flight path or flitting by in your line of sight. Very similar to a helicopter, but worse.
Our club as well as 13 other clubs are within a 30 mile radius of DC which has special flight rules There is no FPV flying permitted at all. Also no flying of anything within a 15 mile radius. Some drone fliers can’t seem to grasp that. The problem is if any club is in violation of these special rules the FAA could shut down all 14 clubs which contain 1800 AMA members. The FAA shut all our clubs down last year for 5 months because of misuse of drones. So drones are not our favorite topic around here. Personally I think they could be the demise of us all.