While AMA works closely with the FAA, and we continue to consider the agency a partner in promoting model aircraft and consumer drone safety, our report concludes that the FAA could have done a better job of presenting their data in a more factually accurate manner. By using misleading language in its press release, releasing only preliminary reports and not critically analyzing those reports, the FAA’s report only served, at best, to paint a cloudy and less than accurate picture and raises concerns that simply may not be realistic.
Today, AMA distributed a press release to the media with its findings. Additionally, AMA sent a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and the FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. AMA also sent a letter to members of Congress.
As you read through the report, please feel free to contact us should you have any questions. Also, please make sure to share this report on Twitter, Facebook and any other social channels.
This press release in response to the publicity and concern engendered by the FAA’s release of preliminary drone data last month is really well done and a balanced, calm, clear-eyed assessment of the true situation based on the actual facts available. Outstanding work! Congratulations!
I just renewed my membership for another year!
Thank you!
The worst part about this is any Tom, Dick or Harry can fly one of these aircraft. Why can we not control who is buying these “drones” ?? Require AMA # at the time of purchase or you don’t get one.
Idiots playing with a new “toy” will be the death of the RC hobby and people onboard the airlines if there is a collision.
Seriously? You want your government to require you to pay dues exclusivly to a private organization that has no competition to purchase a model aircraft?
Mandeem did a first rate reporting job and the AMS’s response is thoughtful and insightful, more than can be said of the traditional media’s hysterical and loaded reporting on close calls.
I’m a 73 year old retired photojournalist and fly a DJI Inspire as an extension of my ground photography. I recently joined AMA and I am very appreciative of someone who has the resources and willingness to bring some objectivity to the attempt by some to make drones a threatening and frightening public menace.
Thank you.
I also fly a yunec q500 typhoon drone, and an ama pilot, I fly mine all around, if theres a
commercial plane gonna hit mine, their already in the tall pine trees. I do not fly mine out of sight and always keep a visual. be respectful of all around and we will get to keep flying them, because you can bet on it the government wants to control everything. But yes I did find them boring, I like flying my jets at the ama field.
HAVE FUN FLYING PIOTS
Why am I not surprised that my own government is willing to lie to get what it wants? I am not (or perhaps used not to be) a conspiracy theorist. But this one, I saw coming a long time ago. It doesn’t take a genius to see that many of the ‘sightings’ reported by commercial aircraft, simply couldn’t have happened, since the pilot could not have seen something that small at the reported distances and airspeeds.
The takeaway here has nothing to do with whether or not any incidences are real, but rather, a cautionary lesson about what the FAA is willing to say to get it’s own way. That is a seriously troubling trend by government in service only to itself, that must not be tolerated by you and I.
Kudos to the AMA for being our watchdog. Please keep up the good work and remember to always get in their face about the facts. Nothing works like a little sunshine.
The AMA press release painted a picture that does indeed suggest the FAA’s summary was a bit reactive. Having done the homework, the AMA should identify exactly by number or percentage, the incidents where there were operations that violate hobby or commercial use requirements. Additionally, an accounting of those violations that were also near misses, close calls etc., would complete the case that the AMA is making. There are some numbers in the press release but a bottom line accounting would be illuminating I think.
Hey my bad. The news stories did indeed have the numbers. I had only read the press release which had the overview.
I am EXTREMELY skeptical of claims that the gov makes when it suddenly wants to restrict our freedoms. I have many full scale pilots who are my friends and none of these gentleman has ever even seen a model plane from the cockpit, so the amount of near miss reports “soaring” so to speak is highly suspect. One more thing that irks me, I don’t fly a “drone” nor is it a UAV, or a UAS, I fly MODEL AIRPLANES and I will vigorously refute all attempts to make my hobby into some thing it isn’t just to satisfy a federal agency who puts it’s own interests ahead of mine
The AMA refutes FAA/commercial pilot claims of RPV near miss citings??? Please! The AMA leadership needs to get a grip on your emotions and increasingly mindless defense of the hobby “business.” That is your real mission, isn’t it…….protecting the manufactures and the advertising money it brings into the AMA. The members are basically your source of income. When you “attempt” to tell the FAA commercial pilots don’t know what the see when they report a NEAR MISS with an RPV — you are making yourselves look like fools. Stop it and start to concern your selves with the human lives on those full scale aircraft! The European Union is experiencing the same issues and is taking action also……..I suppose they also do not know what they are talking about.
I am both an RC pilot and a career professional military pilot – the AMA is full of beans.
I forgot to mention I know you will not post this criticism so I will be putting this out on social media.
Hey it’s a free country, you are allowed to be wrong sometimes.
You should try flying in a plane and see if you can see a model from it. I talked to some pilots who fly over our field all the time and they say you can’t see the models even though they know they are there.
Except an unmanned aerial vehicle is easily seen from the ground if you even notice it, because it is so slow.
Drones/quadcopters are not the problem; some of the people who operate them are. I wouldn’t be surprised if these are the same folks who speed and drive recklessly on our highways; or flaunt laws meant to protect us. I live near an airport and watch commercial jets on final approach and wonder what will happen the day a drone is sucked into an engine. I really don’t see this as part of our hobby. Most RC pilots I know have their drones collecting dust after only a few flights. For me, these drones are more of a photographers tool. With their gyros and stabile flight characteristics, they couldn’t be more boring. I recognize that AMA is trying to serve all participans, including manufacturers, but I grimace every time I see quadcopter coverage in the AMA journal, Model Airplane News, etc.
Excellent work keeping them honest.
Its a continuous uphill battle. Media has painted drones as bad-bad-bad. Rouge drone operators don’t help; a guy in the UK is currently being prosecuted for flying over UK landmarks. Just like the media treats every firearm painted black as an ‘assault rifle’; every drone is ‘evil’.
The AMA refutes FAA/commercial pilot claims of RPV near miss citings??? Please! The AMA leadership needs to get a grip on your emotions and increasingly mindless defense of the hobby “business.” That is your real mission, isn’t it…….protecting the manufactures and the advertising money it brings into the AMA. The members are basically your source of income. When you “attempt” to tell the FAA commercial pilots don’t know what the see when they report a NEAR MISS with an RPV — you are making yourselves look like fools. Stop it and start to concern your selves with the human lives on those full scale aircraft! The European Union is experiencing the same issues and is taking action also……..I suppose they also do not know what they are talking about.
To my brother RC pilots: I am both an RC pilot and a career professional military pilot who loves the hobby. If you are an RC pilot flying in a safe manner at your flying field you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Remember, your family probably flys on commercial airplanes from time to time – do you want some yahoo to place them in harms way?
Mr Westergrom, RC pilots indeed have MUCH! to worry about. The fascination with these aerial sightseeing platforms has a limited shelf life, but, the regulations that the FAA is salivating in anticipation of enacting and enforcing on my activity of building and flying model airplanes that previously was largely ignored and rightly so, by our ever growing mammoth and out of control government will be here long after the new has worn off the quadcopter and the FPV ballyhoo.
It should be obvious that there are FAA officials who wish to strongly control or, maybe even, outlaw Model Aviation. IE. The fight we had in forcing them to honor the new law. I feel that they are just using a back door method of accomplishing their goal. If they can make the country fearful of these ‘so-called’ Drones and then tie them together with ” Standard RC Airplanes “, they will gain much traction towards achieving their desired ends. It is my belief that the AMA needs to evaluate our stand on Drones in general. Commercial users should not be defended by us any more than we defend airlines. They are both commercial aviation. We are not!.
Good report to counter what I believe is Commercial News hype very similar to the UFO reports after Kenneth Arnolds first encounter. As a long time modeler,Commercial Pilot, and Flight Instructor; I must admit that that some of my first thoughts of small low flying traffic of late go to the possibility of a model aircraft or quad copter. Usually what I have seen is simply a large gull or a Birthday balloon.
I have seen model aircraft from the air at a local club field well below my flight path on approach to a local private airport. Those sightings have been fixed-wing models of the five foot wingspan range and again well below my flight path to an airport only 2.5 miles away.
To the issue of quad copter sightings; I am not about to risk my quad with its limited battery range on a flight that could result its damage, much less than the idea that in my area, at least, damage to over flying aircraft is a real possibility. The idiots on YouTube flying into the clouds should be fined on the video evidence alone. The quad pilot in Washington,crashing into the White House lawn; likewise. Downtown DC is a No Fly Zone!
I remember the good old days when you could put your name on a free-flight model, fire up the .049 on its eye-dropper tank at the local school yard catch a thermal and still not panic the neighbors. I also remember when kids had adult mentors to guide them to develop safe judgment.
I remember 27mHz R/C equipment and escapements that would malfunction and not return home. These were not toys purchase at the discount store, but model aircraft lovingly built from scratch or from a kit and launched into the air among friends and fellow modelers with as much thought to the safety of the aircraft as to the property in the area. We were careful. We searched for safe places to fly and not over the heads of people trying to enjoy their lives.
Thanks, AMA, for your outstanding work on this issue. There’s a lot more to protect than the FPV and quad copter crowd that post their videos on YouTube. I fear, that without rebuttal of what I believe to be as trumped up as UFO reports, our hobby is doomed to the fear mongering of the media and the aviation industry that this hobby has helped to sustain.
All, very good comments. I too am long time AMA supporter. It’s very political though. Register your Quadcopter ? All 40 ? How much ? You nothing about drones – Illegal to fly at night ? You’ve obviosly never flown a drone. It should be a requirement that everyone on commity must fly drone at least once.
I suspect the FAA’s increasingly strident view of model aircraft (e.g., drones) has its basis in their mandate to regulate the “lower airspace” for commercial drone use. They are tasked with integrating commercial interests in drones (e.g., Amazon and commercial drone manufacturers) into the regulations allowing those companies to profit from drone activity. Stripping the model aircraft hobbyist’s longtime rights to use this airspace seems to be a natural first step in this regulatory process.
That’s an agreeable statement. FAA does state in their 333 exemption that it’s designed to give commercial interest a “competitive advantage”.
Thank you AMA. I am now a member.