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Well, the vernal equinox has sprung, so I'm trying to figure out my activities for the coming season. I've been enjoying my new hobby of cigar smoking and am looking forward to spending more evenings doing that outside and far fewer in my makeshift smoking lounge.
Normally, at this time of the year I would be preparing my planes for 7 months of RC thermal soaring, but I can't get excited about it. It is a fun hobby, but staring up at the sky for many hours at a time with sunglasses on makes it harder for me to see the plane, and staring without sunglasses accelerates cataract growth. I'll probably pass on this, but I hope to find a place to fly FPV quads without the FAA getting hot and bothered. I failed at this last year.
I'll continue day hiking and photography, of course, but am considering a return to kayaking. This is a no-go for me once summer arrives, because, here, the mosquito is the apex predator during summer and you don't want to be trapped in a kayak on a summer's eve when they are around. Spring and fall might be doable, though.
An AMA club near me had an FAA guy stop by recently. A lot of people are quite bothered by the bullying. Apparently someone tipped off the FAA that people didn't have their FAA numbers on their planes or their TRUST certificates.
Yeah, it's nuts. The most responsible people are the long-time recreational flyers almost all of whom are AMA members. It is much worse for FPV because that's no fun flying patterns around a field, so most FPV flyers fly guerilla style, but safely in empty lots or vacant parks. The FAA is very concerned about "drones". The people who pose a danger are those who go to Walmart, buy a DJI, and have no idea how to fly it properly. Yet the FAA comes down hard on all of us; especially here near Washington D.C.; the most restricted air space in the world.
Yeah it's frustrating. I see people flying safely, with insurance, with lots of club safety rules, instructors, a safety officer, etc., and that's where the FAA decides to go rear their head?
Meanwhile you can go to any 4th of July fireworks show and there will be multiple quad-copters flying over crowds of people with no enforcement.
quad-copters flying over crowds of people with no enforcement
I actually walked up to someone doing this at a park and asked him if he was flying under CFR Part 107. As you might expect, he said, "What's that?".