“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
—George Bernard Shaw
We’ve just returned from the Toledo show and it’s always an amazing time, catching up with friends, seeing the latest and greatest products, and having the opportunity to share what we do with Education through Aviation.
Something I found rewarding this year was the number of members stopping by the education booth to simply report that they not only read this column, they enjoy it! Who knew? Ha! Seriously, thanks!
In April, Executive Vice President Gary Fitch had an informative column and, without his permission, I’m going to expand on it a bit. He reported on the FAA and our role in the integration of sUAS in the National Air Space (NAS). Gary reported that “members of AMA’s Executive Council have received a few emails voicing members’ concerns about drones and advertisements in Model Aviation. They are concerned that sUAS activity will doom model aviation as we know it.”
Let’s take a closer look at some history of doomsday reports about model aviation. I’ll use some of my personal experience. Since I was eight years old, I flew CL, thanks to my dad. It was fun, but very few days passed that I didn’t see the ads in magazines for radio systems and wanted desperately to get an RC rig.
At approximately age 14, my dad and I joined the Thunderbirds in Logansport, Indiana, and met my eventual mentor, Don Albright. He suggested what we needed and we got it—much to the dismay of a few of the older Thunderbirds. RC will be the death of this hobby, they said. The first RC airplane that I flew successfully was a Mid-West Tri-Squire with a Citizenship radio. It was covered with MonoKote—oh no, MonoKote! Again, some in the modeling community predicted the death of model aviation … the very thought that anyone would use anything but silk and dope. After all, it wasn’t what they used. The end must be near.
And so it goes, the creative progress from 1/4 scale being “big,” to the formation of the International Miniature Aircraft Association, to the current Large Model Aircraft program and turbines—and oh my! Helicopters are really a threat to our hobby. Some people seem to want to avoid change. Their strategy to do that is to be critical, sometimes even alarmist about the latest and greatest.
Back to Gary Fitch: “… new quadcopters, multirotor, and FPV technology should be embraced and not excluded. These technologies aren’t going away, and can be fun to fly, so why not welcome these pilots into our family, work with them, and show them the correct way to fly these products according to our rules?”
Why not indeed? To be clear, and although I’ve said it before, it bears repeating. Whatever you are flying right now is a sUAS. It’s a small unmanned aerial system of some kind that weighs less than 55 pounds. Your Mid-West Tri-Squire is an sUAS. So is your 700-size heli and your Three-Meter Sailplane. Yes, your CL stunt model qualifies as well as all of your FF aircraft.
There aren’t any exceptions, and that’s why the FAA uses that broad brush to describe our activity and to strategize how this group of flying platforms can best be integrated into the NAS. The advent of multirotor platforms, automated flight, and FPV fit inside our family of model aviation as additional platforms of sUAS. That means that they also fit inside our safety code—the most important document we have.
Safe operations are critical and everyone must work together toward ensuring that modelers fly their sUAS without risk to manned aircraft, people, or property on the ground. Any type of unsafe operation of any sUAS is a threat to all of us. It also means that the entire sUAS community must work, fly, and share the fun and responsibility together.
Keep in mind the number of airplanes our members fly that are radio controlled and covered in MonoKote. Helis? They are the only growing aspect of model aviation right now—and the key is “right now.” As in the past, the latest technology will be a huge shot in the arm for model aviation. Our flying ranks, while continuing to diversify, will grow.
This ball is in our court and you, your club, and everyone interested in model aviation is on the team to make sure we embrace the new. When you’re doing an open house, mall show, or outreach in the community of any type, talk about drones! We don’t call them that, but your audience will be all ears. The next time you hear someone say “drone,” point out what it is that we have! I think it was Churchill that said something about a lie being halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on.
I love this month’s quote from Shaw. This entire column is about how we communicate with those interested in something that some of us aren’t. Or, maybe we are and simply don’t want to learn anything new? That’s for that conversation you have with yourself to decide …
Fly and have fun!
