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Hi Folks,
I hold a commercial pilots license in both the U.S. and Canada for Airplanes, Floatplanes, Gliders, and Hot air balloons. I have been a flight instructor in airplanes and gliders. I have flown radio controlled airplanes since 1961 and R/C helicopters since 2009. I have flown airplanes, gliders, R/C airplanes, and camera carrying multi-rotors in national TV commercials and feature length movies.
I LOVE aviation. I own a new Inspire One and I think it is great. I am sharing 50 years of being in aviation in the hopes of educating new owners of the Inspire One and getting them to realized that they are joining the aviation community and that they must respect the rest of the community and act responsibly when they fly their wonderful machines.
HOW TO GET OUR BELOVED “DRONES” BANNED FROM THE AIR
1. Fly high! If you fly above 400 ft near almost any city you are very likely flying in positive controlled airspace. This also applies to flying in the mountains where gliders, small aircraft, and helicopters fly though the valleys. If you pop up in front of a airplane or helicopter they will complain to air traffic control and the air regulators will BAN us.
2. Fly over populated areas with lots of people! If anything in your aircraft goes wrong or you loose control of your aircraft it is possible to kill someone if they are struck by your machine. This will attract the media’s attention and the authorities and they will lobby to get us BANNED.
3. Fly in or through clouds! Do I really have to explain that you cannot know who else is up there under positive air traffic control and might hit your “Drone”? This will certainly get us BANNED.
4. Fly long distances, out of sight, using FPV? This is obvious to all thinking people that you cannot know who is coming up fast behind you in a manned aircraft and could hit your machine and that would cause us to be BANNED.
5. Be very arrogant and write flaming articles stating that the “air should be free” and the FAA or other authority should not have control over model aircraft! Do you really think that the best way to start a negotiation and work with another group is to poke them in the eye with a stick?
6. Fly with no liability insurance! This way if you do any damage to persons or property they can take everything you own. If you join one of the national model aviation organization and fly by their rules you will be covered by their insurance. When I fly in TV commercials and feature film productions I am covered by the production companies blanket liability policy. There are both safety and risk management people on the set and we all follow all of the safety rules required. This includes getting clearance from the aviation authorities.
7. If you do any of these things, be sure to post a YouTube video documenting where and when you did them! The authorities love you to provide all of the evidence they need to BAN our activities!
HOW TO FLY RESPONSIBLY
1. Seek out your local R/C flying club and learn how to manually fly your machine. If you read the threads on this forum you will notice almost all of the fly away and crashes have involved automatic features of the Inspire One. Many of these features are brand new.and may have not had enough time to be fully tested. I fly my Inspire One manually and will test out the automatic features at a R/C flying field well away from all persons or property and will not use it in a commercial production until I have logged many test flights and build confidence in the whole system. This is called being a responsible and professional pilot.
2. Go to the following national model aircraft sites and read the safety codes. These people have been flying radio controlled unmanned aircraft for over 50 years. R/C aircraft are not new. They have been made much easier to fly with recent technology. This gives people the idea that they can buy one and go out and fly these machines anywhere with no training or knowledge of the safety protocols established by many years of experience.
PLEASE BE A RESPONSIBLE PILOT.
“Safe flying is 10% flying ability and 90% judgement.” Use good judgment.
If you are new to flying R/C aircraft, please don’t ruin it for all of us that have been doing it for more than 50 years.
Happy and safe flying,
Ray
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