Email from Tower

[Mike Griffin]

Did anyone else get this e mail from Tower about registering your model with the FAA?


Thanks
Mike

Evidently Tower Hobbies is very concerned about this if they are sending e mails to their customers.

[Tim Wescott]

Well, wouldn't you be?  Not only are the guys at Tower RC modelers, but their livelihood depends on selling the stuff.

I think we all need to:

• Fold up a paper airplane
• Write "do I need to register this"? on it in big letters
• Send it to the guy at the FAA who won't say what needs to be registered

[Larry Borden]

Yup

[Phillip Kenney]

I'm sure Tower is concerned that their sales could be compromised or at a minimum they would be required to participate in the registration process but also I think they may be concerned with future liability for selling a drone. Just as the gun control folks are trying to go after a gun store for selling a gun that was used in a crime, I would expect the same breed of people to go after the seller and manufacturer of the drone in case of an accident or intentional act.

[John Rist]

 Yes I got the email.  Look everybody we need to respond to this in a thoughtful and positive manner.   Weather we like it or not government can destroy our hobby.  I personally fly both RC and U-control.  I plan to suggest that broad band regulations will destroy a hobby that I have enjoyed since 1953. That I have many RC and Control Line aircraft.  To register them all would be cost prohibitive.  Also that they are fragile and expendable. I destroy old ones and build new one on a regular bases.  I will suggest that they need to set size and use limits before requiring registration.  That they need to look at AMA safety rules that have kept our hobby safe for years.  By all means avoid name calling.  We need to convey that the largest part of the hobby is conducted by responsible people.   There rules and regulations need to target only the bad element that has crept into the hobby.

[Eric Viglione]

For those that have been into Photography, maybe this will ring a bell and make some sense here.

When copywriting photo's in the old days we were allowed to do them in a batch so to speak, by taking a picture of a group of photographs, or use a contact print with multiples.

Perhaps a single document could be used to register your drone collection on a single page, with the ability to supplant it with updates as needed to add or subtract from the list?

The registration process, if they are true to the intent, should cost no more to register ten drones than one drone, unless they are lying and it really is a TAX.

Just a thought,
EricV

[Mike Griffin]

Well, wouldn't you be?  Not only are the guys at Tower RC modelers, but their livelihood depends on selling the stuff.

I think we all need to:

• Fold up a paper airplane
• Write "do I need to register this"? on it in big letters
• Send it to the guy at the FAA who won't say what needs to be registered

Of course I am concerned Tim.  Just as concerned as everyone else on here.   This has the potential to wipe out an entire industry because of stupid people in government...I am very worried...

Mike

[Steve Helmick]

I got it, and I posted a comment. I hope y'all enjoy reading it.  Steve

[Perry Rose]

I didn't get one. Maybe today. Then again I don't have one of those things.
As far as telling folks to register them, didn't the feds tell people in Chicago not to shoot each other? How's that working?

[Larry Borden]

Perry, they are probably using their customer list to send the email out.
We don't need the Feds poking their noses into our hobby. But then, because of a few idiots, they have jeopardized all of us. Just my opinion.

[john e. holliday]

Well if those college educated idiots/politicians in DC and FAA can't tell the difference between a quad copter and model it just shows what kind of shape this what was once a great country is in.   I got the E-Mail also and looked at it.  I blew it away because they probably wouldn't under stand what I would have wrote.  But when my plane is at max only about 70 feet away from me as long as the lines hold, I will tell them to go get a real education about models.   Some models don't last long enough to register. 

[Target]

I got it, and I posted a comment. I hope y'all enjoy reading it.  Steve

I did as well.
I fly more RC sailplanes than C/L, so its very important to me.

My take is that the FIRST PERSON VIEW (FPV) gear and the GPS systems should be registered when sold.
Traditional LINE OF SIGHT (LOS) RC modeling hasn't posed a threat to the NATIONAL AIR SPACE (NAS) in the past, and it shouldn't in the future. There is no need to regulate this facet of the hobby, in my opinion.
There IS a need to regulate the folks that are causing the problems, and they alone should bear the burden.
The rest of us will pro-actively tighten our safety and security belts when this happens.
Also, many Quad and Multi-Copter guys are now building their air frames from scratch and that will circumvent the registration process completely, while this same group being most likely to cause problems in the NAS (I'm assuming).

Registering C/L planes is absurd, period, in my opinion.

I hope that my submitted suggestion is read, and found to be a good starting point for a sane solution to the "drone problem".

Today is the LAST day to comment, so if you are on the fence, say your piece. If I mostly flew control line, I would certainly state how ridiculous in needless it will be to register my craft, that is for sure.

Kind Regards to all.