{"id":339,"date":"2012-04-19T19:44:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T19:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/?p=339"},"modified":"2012-04-20T14:58:22","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T14:58:22","slug":"model-aircraft-are-not-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/2012\/04\/19\/model-aircraft-are-not-drones\/","title":{"rendered":"Model Aircraft are not Drones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, the AMA posted a blog post featuring comments from AMA President Bob Brown, in response to an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. The editorial proposed that drone proliferation by amateurs in the National Airspace System (NAS) raises an issue that has received too little attention: the threat that they could be used to carry out terrorist attacks.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

President Brown\u2019s comments were not ignored by author of the op-ed piece, John Villasenor, electrical engineer, UCLA professor and senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution. Dr. Villasenor was immediately in contact with the AMA, including Rich Hanson, leader of the AMA government relations team. Dr. Villasenor was very interested in learning more about the hobby of aeromodeling and was open to educating himself of the successful safety record of the AMA.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He met with the AMA Executive Council at the Toledo Weak Signals Show in Toledo, Ohio and thanked the AMA for the chance to learn more about the hobby. With his experience, he has modified some of the comments made regarding the hobby, and believes it is important to differentiate model airplanes from other unmanned systems.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As a respected professional in his field, the AMA is eager to work with such influential policy analysts like Dr. Villasenor, and would like to thank him for taking the time to learn more about the hobby, and to voice his opinions regarding the necessity of differentiation.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Early this week, Dr. Villasenor was interviewed by Neal Conan of National Public Radio, regarding drones, safety and usage. The interview gave great insight to how drones might be used in the future, and allowed him to draw distinction between model aircraft, drones and other unmanned systems.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the interview, he pointed out that when discussing drones, model aircraft should not be included in the discussion. He stated, \u201cI think it’s very important to emphasize that model aircrafts are not drones. Model aircraft are flown within the line of sight of, and under the control of a pilot at all times. And so whatever definition someone might adopt of drones, that definition should not include model aircraft.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thankful to our membership for continuing to support AMA\u2019s ongoing efforts to protect aeromodeling from unnecessary and over-reaching regulation. And we appreciate that experts, \u00a0like Professor Villasenor, recognize the differences between what we do as recreational model aviation enthusiasts and the more commercial, public-use aircraft that have been the focus of much of the media\u2019s recent attention. \u201c states AMA executive director, Dave Mathewson.<\/p>\n

AMA has experienced many victories, including the passing a bill that included a provision<\/span><\/span><\/a> for model aircraft protecting it from FAA regulations.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To listen to the April 17 NPR interview with John Villasenor, please visit NPR\u2019s <\/span>website<\/span><\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Click <\/span>here<\/span><\/span><\/a> to read Bob Brown\u2019s response to the op-ed piece to the Los Angeles Time\u2019s \u00a0<\/span><\/span>article<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To learn more about the current status of the NPRM and FAA regulation please visit the AMA <\/span>Government Relations section<\/span><\/span><\/a> of the Academy of Model Aeronautic\u2019s <\/span>website<\/span><\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, the AMA posted a blog post featuring comments from AMA President Bob Brown, in response to an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. The editorial proposed that drone proliferation by amateurs in the National Airspace System (NAS) raises an issue that has received too little attention: the threat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002422,"featured_media":3955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,7,32,3,35],"tags":[36,14,132,127,39,133],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-definition","category-faa","category-nprm","category-suas","category-uav","tag-airspace-2","tag-faa-reauthorization-and-reform-act","tag-nprm","tag-suas","tag-uas","tag-uav"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}