AMA club Charter renewal

[peabody]

I know many of us fly on or near airports.
The drone issue is very real.
The AMA sent an extra form for clubs that are near airports.
The FAA has proposed rules about flying (primarily RC, but remember that we're all painted with the same brush) within five miles of an airport. The FAA wants any model activity to "report to the nearby tower" when they are flying, beginning in 2016. There is currently no restriction on flying if the report/call is made.
The extra form will be analyzed by the AMA and results/suggestions submitted to the AMA. Some (smaller) airports will not require notification. Some may just need to be notified of the flying site and area that it encompasses. Our AMA is trying very hard to appease the FAA/DHS about this.
I hope that those of you that share flying sites with RC types or that fly CL close to an airport will complete the form this year. Next may ground us because charters are renewed 1 March, meaning a couple no-fly months in 2016 if the paperwork isn't complete.

Have fun

[Wayne J. Buran]

Lets see how this works. R/C rogue flyers invade our field constantly without permission currently,  even though the hospital nearby has a heliport. They don't call the tower or even get permission to fly on the grounds. We (our AMA sanctioned Control Line club) send in the form. Then we call the tower and tell them when we are flying control line airplanes at our address.  The tower doesn't know the difference between control line and R/C aircraft,  we throw away  twelve years of work. You got to be kidding me! We will lose our field and the bozo R/C flyers will go someplace else. I don't think so. Let me tell you that the last time I confronted an uninvited R/C helicopter pilot about flying over our heads because it's unsafe, his reply was that he "hadn't hit anyone yet'. That was a month after that copter flyer killed him self near the east cost. The  problem is not the AMA member, the problem is like the idiot that was flying a drone at three AM, drunk near the White House.
Wayne