This will make things interesting.................

[Tom Geiger]

So Tom, have you learned how to fly your drone yet, or no?

No, I never win the raffles.   Funny thing is that one of the guys I was there with won an Apple TV... but you had to be present to win and he skipped the session.  We busted his chops all evening!

[DaveM]

I have been flying model planes since 1975, when I was 10.  This new law is really interesting. As far as we can tell, even the control line planes that fly circles around the pilot on  50 foot cables are required to be registered.  It's not just the "Drones", but any model airplane over 8.8 oz.  My little stick and tissue biplanes that I fly indoors will have to have registered if I take them outside.   It also includes "Tethered drones"  That means any kites over 250g.  A credit card number is required to use the registration  system.  Registering by paper means paying for every plane.  It was announced the 13th of December, and people who are buying planes for Christmas will have to have them registered on Dec. 21.  That's eight days notice, which means this whole mess is pretty rushed.  I'm also pretty sure that registration is only the beginning.  I am guessing that the restrictions will become totally draconian in the very near future.  

A big part of this is the push to prepare to clear all of the model aircraft out of the skies so that companies like Amazon, Google and Walmart can start planning their autonomous drones for deliveries.  They are also wanting to clear the way for more police and government drones.  As long as citizens can fly model aircraft,  the lower 400 feet of airspace won't be totally safe for the commercial and government drones. RC planes don't have collision avoidance features and human pilots can't react fast enough to get out of the way of a computerized  flying robot doing 90mph at 25 feet off the ground.   It turns out that the big companies have a lot more clout than "We the people" ever will.  The funny thing is the orders failed to follow any legal procedure, dismissed public comment periods and broke the laws that congress passed and the president signed preventing the FAA from having authority over model aircraft.  They used the D.O.T. for a really shaky legal end run.  BTW, the penalty for flying that kite, or flying my old balsa control line plane are $250,000 and 3 years in jail.  That's more than the jail time for child rape in some jurisdictions!

Not a good future outlook for our hobby, and a lot of really angry people spouting off their opinions about the government on the RC boards.  (I can't blame them.  If  plastic models were banned or strictly regulated next week, I imagine this board would look like a cross between the Branch Davidians and Anonymous too!)  I have had a good forty year run flying model airplanes.  It is probably why I ended up studying engineering, and it sure helped my kids go to the top of their classes in science and math.  Whole generations of scientists, engineers and technologists have a model airplane in their background.   I am really sad to see the hobby in the trouble it is in right now.  I am pretty sure we won't be flying model airplanes as we know them by the time I retire.  

[peteski]

Funny, this sort of reminds me of the Communist Poland in the 70's (when I lived there).  You didn't have to register your flying models, but it was illegal to own a radio transmitter (like a RC transmitter or a walkie-talkie).  You had to go through all sorts of government hoops to get a license to operate one of those radio devices.