I agree very much with this responce and plan to support the AMA in the effort:

"Dear Members,

As you might be aware, in a press conference on Monday October 19, 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced its intent to require registration for certain small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS).

Led by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, a concept was laid out calling for the creation of a task force to develop a plan to implement the registration process.

AMA was represented at the press conference by Government and Regulatory Affairs Representative Rich Hanson who offered comments on behalf of our organization. Representatives from the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) and the Air Line Pilots Association also provided input. A video of the press conference can be found here.

AMA has also been invited to participate in the task force which has been charged with completing its work by mid-November 2015.

The DOT is looking at the full spectrum of sUAS that would be subject to registration, and AMA agrees that registration may be appropriate at some level; however, before the process can be established, AMA believes that a threshold must be identified that will determine which platforms, what aircraft with what capabilities, will require registration and which will not.

AMA believes that traditional model aircraft, as well as the “toy-type” drones with minimal capability would fall below the threshold and not be subject to the registration process.

In a prepared statement released yesterday, AMA was clear in its position that any required registration process “should not become a prohibitive burden for recreational users who fly for fun and educational purposes and who have operated harmoniously within our communities for decades.”

AMA does not and will not support any proposal that calls for the registration of any sUAS that fall below an established threshold and is resolute in its position that all forms of traditional model aircraft must remain exempt from the registration process."

In other words, the AMA is saying: 'As long as you leave our members alone, you can do what you want with the rest.'

Geebax Posted at 2015-10-20 18:29
In other words, the AMA is saying: 'As long as you leave our members alone, you can do what you want ...

That's not my read.

My read is that the AMA wants to see what the size and weight requirements are going to be before signing onto the registration process.

For $75 a year, (last year they were $58) you get membership and $2.5 million of liability insurance. I don't think that the insurance covers commercial use. You also get the magazine which keeps up on the legislative goings on in the world of model aircraft.

gregg1r Posted at 2015-10-20 20:43
That's not my read.

My read is that the AMA wants to see what the size and weight requirements ar ...

It was mentioned in the news today here in NJ that anything below 5 pound that flys is not going to be registered.

I have seen one drone that was hand made, which had a payload capability of 15 pounds and had 4 6 cell batteries, i was able to record it, it was scary to watch flying and using a pixhawk controller with waypoints and full autonomous flight, to make matters worse it was holding a metal pipe with cable ties for payload simulation....... MAN that was nuts !!! and to top it off it was going to crash because it started to loose altitude and i told the guy flying it TAKE CONTROL don't let go on its course, then it comes back, then he goes flying a Y configuration hex and then crashes it.

There is some really really stupid people out there, and i do have video of this crap.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-10-20 20:58
It was mentioned in the news today here in NJ that anything below 5 pound that flys is not going t ...

Well Willie,  at the 5 pound weight limit, the Phantom wouldn't require registration. That would be good for DJI, but in reality, I imagine that due to the shear numbers, that DJI products are responsible for 50% of the encroachments.

I can see a 1 pound limit, but 5 would allow for just about all of the photographic quads on the market other than the Inspire 1 and the Align M480.

I'm stocking up on Pepto, as I can see that this is going to be a long month wait. By that time, winter will be here and I won't be flying unless the temperature gets above 60F.

gregg1r Posted at 2015-10-20 18:29
Well Willie,  at the 5 pound weight limit, the Phantom wouldn't require registration. That would b ...

I support registration.  I don't think 50% are from DJI, I think it is mostly hobbyists building their own, AC planes (they keep calling them drones), commercial UAV and military UAVs.  If you get a chance, take a look at the near miss list on the FAA site and you can see that most are at 2000, 5000, etc.  feet.  The ones I suspect are ours are more like the flying in fire efforts, around airports, etc.  The media just loves using "drone"...

Oh, here: https://www.faa.gov/data_research/accident_incident/

gregg1r Posted at 2015-10-20 21:29
Well Willie,  at the 5 pound weight limit, the Phantom wouldn't require registration. That would b ...

Pepto is my friend, I already have my batteries in hibernation mode, and looks like i am not going to be ever charging them till the day comes to sell the drone as i would otherwise need a couple of hundred dollars and then wait for a registration and placard to come in the mail by late august of 2016, then file for state mandated drone insurance and pay the premium, Then go to walmart and get me A permit to fly in my county plus permits for other special areas i might fly in.

gregg1r Posted at 2015-10-21 11:43
That's not my read.

My read is that the AMA wants to see what the size and weight requirements are ...

It was said: 'AMA believes that traditional model aircraft, as well as the “toy-type” drones with minimal capability would fall below the threshold and not be subject to the registration process."

The AMA is not putting any weight limitation into their statement, they are saying 'traditional model aircraft' should be exempt. Why? Most of those weigh well above the weight of a Phantom.

So the AMA is saying screw your drone and leave our model airplanes alone... Got it...

Spankybear Posted at 2015-10-20 23:33
So the AMA is saying screw your drone and leave our model airplanes alone... Got it...

That is exactly what they are saying.

And don't forget, the guy who got fined first for "reckless" and "commercial flying" , Raphael Pirker (aka Trappy) with Team Blacksheep, was flying a MODEL AIRPLANE.

suqsid.bobmail Posted at 2015-10-22 00:49
That is exactly what they are saying.

And don't forget, the guy who got fined first for "reckless ...

Here he is in all his glory (the Snowden of FPV) LOL

If the government wants me to register my quad, then I also want legislation that anybody interfering with the legal operation of my quad is guilty of a felony and is responsible for damage to my quad and also liable for any damage done by my quad if it crashes and they have interfered with my flight.  Also, anybody in possession of a stolen or missing registered quad is guilty of theft of an aircraft and it should also a felony.  If they are going to be jerks about it, I get to be one too.  This applies to police officers.  They have to give you time to responsibly get your quad returned to the landing point before they start messing with you, otherwise they are putting the public in danger and/or contributing to the destruction of your private property.

I'm reminded of an acronym from my days as a drone in the employment of the government:  BOHICA

Bend Over Here It Comes Again

From my perspective the operative phrase appears to be what is going to constitute the "established threshold".  Considering the failure of the FAA to meet it's deadline for guidance and they recently changed the definition of "aircraft" as anything in the air (including paper airplanes) in a blatant attempt to include everything under it's control.  I am increasingly skeptical about how reasonable the government is going to be in defining that threshold.  The sudden need for the DOT to "expedite" this registration process tells me they are going to try and ram something down everyone's throat.  

gil Posted at 2015-10-21 17:20
From my perspective the operative phrase appears to be what is going to constitute the "established  ...

We already got rammed up the B... with all sorts of taxes and crap, why not be a total sadistic and jam up the other remaining holes....

Man i am getting graphic, i gotta stop this ranting and start protesting for real, i probably end up in a jail somewhere, are we in russia ?

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-10-22 05:26
We already got rammed up the B... with all sorts of taxes and crap, why not be a total sadistic an ...

I think Putin is more relaxed in Russia, Willie.

jimcloud74@yaho Posted at 2015-10-22 21:36
I think Putin is more relaxed in Russia, Willie.

Oh yeah i forgot that putin is cool guy, anyways i don't know why things are going south over here? I already gave my information to the FCC, NRA, DMV, FBI, DHS, SSA, NSA, CIA and the so called AMA, BUT i have not had my information in the  FAA yet.

And i am sure there is a couple of terabytes of "metadata" regarding me and another couple of terabytes of location data gathered from my GPS enabled devices, plus another couple of petabytes regarding my web traffic being collected from an end point next to my service provider's second hop router.

Also i am sure that more "metadata" being collected from every cell tower that i pass by and my cell phone handshakes with and all my calls are "keyword" screened for potential "national security concerns".

Then comes healthy drones.com collecting "metadata" about my personal flights because i choose to share because i want to know what could be wrong, but then again we have DJI "cloud" storage of flight data, and then again DJI is now a partner in the "Task force".

I gave away so many liberties and freedoms for what in return ? Did that stop mass shootings, NOPE, did that stop "T" attacks... NOPE.  

I guess it was detected that we were having so much fun in our hobby and it is not costing us much and they can't get a penny from us like this, and all the money is getting wired to china, then they said WTH !

Apple CEO and Google CEO met with the president a while ago so that they can strike a deal to put backdoors in the firmware of there devices in favor for easing importing of the devices into the US and make it easy for devices to act as slaves to the advanced surveillance system.

Expect to see similar data collection to be relayed to the same entity in favor for DJI to import in the US.

My head hurts .....

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-10-22 22:38
Oh yeah i forgot that putin is cool guy, anyways i don't know why things are going south over here ...

It doesn’t really matter what country, all bureaucrats love data, all kinds of data, and they never throw it away.  With the advent of newer and newer technology, it will only get worse and there is really no way to stop it and keep the technology.  Technology and loss of privacy go hand in hand.  Makes me glad I’m old since I will be gone before it gets really bad.  I worry for my grandkids.

Don Loftus Posted at 2015-10-23 20:26
It doesn’t really matter what country, all bureaucrats love data, all kinds of data, and they nev ...

Your grand kids will be indoctrinated by the schools, so there's nothing other than home schooling you can do.

As far as the rest, the people that are responsible for our safety couldn't give a fiddlers phuck about us. We're pawns in the scheme of a big game called life.

Whenever I just want to get away from it all, I drive my truck with the obliterated license plates and don't bother bringing my cell phone. Every traffic camera I see gets the laser treatment.

gregg1r Posted at 2015-10-24 20:04
Your grand kids will be indoctrinated by the schools, so there's nothing other than home schooling ...

The grandkids are being home schooled, thanks goodness!  My daughter is a school teacher but at least she was raised in a conservative home.