Drone Crashes at the White House.

[Andre Ming]

Excellent summation, Rusty.

Fact: Once the government gets involved, it gets more and more involved (and controlling) until it can choke the life out of the endeavor (and/or subjects) being regulated.

How many more basic freedoms do we want infringed upon?  Haven't we lost enough already?

[John Fitzgerald]

I suspect most quadcopters crash after a few flights and are subsequently trashed.  I think it is an expensive fad that will pass.

[Sean McEntee]

I'll answer this one for you, Doc!

The term "drone" goes back to the early days of pilotless aircraft which were, for all intents and purposes, big FF models--uncontrolled once launched.  The term is still used today, inappropriately, to described UAS used in the military and will soon be used in the civilian and commercial industry.  The term "drone" is poorly used today because it implies that the operator just pushes a button and leaves to get a cup of coffee while the aircraft takes off and does its thing.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Preparation for takeoff can take hours because all pieces of equipment e.g. the ground control station, software, antennaes and everthing else must undergo a preflight inspection in addition to the aircraft itself.  Allot of the subsystems are automated, but no UAS out there can operate on its own.

And quad-copters are 4 bladed helicopter-like toys.

I personally would like to find a reasonably priced quad-copter with an FPV camera.  I think it would be very useful for finding wayward free flight models.

[EddyR]

Lohn
  I did not know that myself so I put "drone " in Google and the first link that came up was a list of many companies that make the ones we are talking about. All of the companies call them Drones.
 https://www.google.com/search?q=drone&oq=drone&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60j69i61l2.2526j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8#q=drone&tbm=shop
 There are 48 adds on this one page alone all called DRONES,QUADCOPTER
Ed

[Randy Ryan]

Okay guys, I asked this on another forum,  what is the difference between a drone and a quad coptor?  When I think of drone I think of what our military personal uses to spy on our enemies.   A quad coptor is a toy to me unless you get into the big stuff that uses GPS and compoutors.

It doesn't make any difference now, EVERYTHING flown via R/C is a "drone" in the eyes of the public. Just like a Piper Cub was the public moniker for ANY light single engine monoplane. There can no longer be differentiation, all R/C aircraft are now, rightly or wrongly publically termed "drone"

[Randy Ryan]

Excellent summation, Rusty.

Fact: Once the government gets involved, it gets more and more involved (and controlling) until it can choke the life out of the endeavor (and/or subjects) being regulated.

How many more basic freedoms do we want infringed upon?  Haven't we lost enough already?

I didn't say anything about the government, I said AMA which keeps all records. Used to be we had to have our AMA number on our models, now there's a GOOD reason as well as identification on the model. It could be as simple as having to prove AMA membership to buy. If a license goes unrenewed, then there is a breach where AMA would flag it to say the FAA or local police to insure the aircraft are inoperable or properly decommissioned. It doesn't have to be complex unless the Dems get involved.

[Andre Ming]

I didn't say anything about the government,

I didn't say you did. In fact, I was replying to Rusty's post, not yours.

[Randy Ryan]

I didn't say you did. In fact, I was replying to Rusty's post, not yours.

Sorry, I was actually remarking on them both.

[Andre Ming]

Randy:

No problem!

[Garf]

Try this one.

[Scott Richlen]

Finally!  RC Combat with pizzazz!