Drones and Ultralights Lessons Learned

Drones and Ultralights Lessons Learned

There is much to learn and discuss on where we can fly our drones and RC model aircraft. With the increase in model flying and increase in the US population, there will be more and more interaction between model pilots and the general populace.

The FAA controls all airspace in the United States, but local governments and communities can control takeoffs and landings on various pieces of land. These rules will evolve over time, especially with aviators like paramotor pilots, that much like RC pilot, can fly from areas that are not considered conventional airport. Thus, there are lessons learned from the ultralight community that can assist drone and RC pilots and their interaction with police and local citizens.

Key item for RC and drones pilots is to stay out of controlled airspace if you do not have clearance from the FAA. The B4UFLY app is a great help with this.

As an aside, I cover the rules on if you wish to build a private airport on your property. It can be done!

Chapters

00:00 - Intro
00:41 - Where to fly
04:17 - Ultralight lessons learned
10:50 - Law enforcement
12:00 - What are the rules?
15:24 - FAA airpsace
17:55 - Private airports

[FarmerFpv]

Thanks for the video, Mr. McKay. It is really informative. There are Lots of drone pilots in my area. I'm always having to tell them not to launch from the hood of their car in a residential area. Then I have to explain to them why. When it should just be common sense. They already banned 5 parks in my area from model planes flying because of the drones. We had to fight back to get them open again for model planes and explain to the city the difference between a drone and a model RC plane. 99% of the ones making laws have no clue what the difference is between the two. It's crazy to me people making laws call model RC Planes Drones. It has taken us 3 years to get the parks open for flying our model planes again. This was back in 2018 and they opened them back up in 2021 to model airplanes only. No drones allowed. The reason why they closed them was people were complaining their kids were scared of the drones or they didn't want their family picnic filmed. I don't blame them. I blame the drone pilots. Who you vote for is important. Make sure they are not against model planes. Tell them you will not vote for them if they don't come up with a plan for us. Get involved in your area with politicians They have lots of pull over the FAA over city parks as long as they are not near any airports. As an FPV drone pilot myself, it is amazing how many people don't have common sense. Have a great weekend.

[spartan]

My AMA club is located in Class B airspace of a busy Nasa, Coast Guard, Apache, and F16 fighter as well as a flight museum that flies vintage aircraft and a large flight school. Our board has to seek and obtain a separate agreement with each agency. This club has done this for nearly 50 years.

[stevep]

We need to give more airspace to the greenest air users. That would be ourselves as RC fliers.
Modern FPV gear has amazing range. But as it stands we borrow a tiny corner of available space on sufferance. Not good enough. Safety can be maintained under a fairer sharing of the air. But money rules of course.

[RCBeginners]

Hi Tim, I have a arrows P-51 1100, I took the spectrum receiver out of the t28 binding fly I have, I'm having a difficult time hooking it up..

I'm new to the hobby, and I've been flying 5 channel planes year!
P-51 is my first plane with gear and flaps..

I've tried but you seem like the only guy who can tell me so far

[JeffWok]

Great video. I was glad to see all the frias that got approved but we need more. All the people I fly with prefer parks so we are working on submitting our local fields.

[xjet]

The situation with ultralites shows just what a poor job the organized RC hobby has done to protect its freedoms. If you fly an ultralight you need no registration, no licensing and no remote ID -- but build a 250g RC model of that same ultralight and all of those things are required. We look like idiots for allowing the hammer of over-regulation to fall on the hobby as it has.

[oddshot]

GOOD VIDEO! LOTS to discuss here.

Before I get started ... are you now or have you ever been an aviator ... military or civilian? Your vids have always had a formal, organized and almost professional format that suggests you have been one or the other.

1. Thank you for the information about flying in Georgia. I live in NoGa not far from the entrance to the Appalachian Trail. I definitely will be looking this stuff up.

2. We hobbyists always fly at the mercy of the public. Back in the mid 19and60s when I started building and flying control-line a/c, I remember flying fields drying up due to noise complaints. The response by the flying community was the installation of mufflers on our glo-engines ... but the damage was done. Once we became "problems" in the eyes of the public ... their opinions never changed. BTW ... the same thing happened with automobile race tracks. I still mourn the loss of Bridghampton as a race track which I raced on a number of years ago. It was lost to noise complaints ... and the burning need for (yet another) golf course in the Hamptons on Long Island.

3. My experience is that the public does not much like drones, mostly due to the cameras that can be installed on them. When I started flying one some time ago, I was asked how many windows I had looked into with it. I don't think the public knows what FPV means yet. When the public finds out about that ... all bets are off.

4. Anyone who watches the news is aware of the militarization of our toys. Although I don't recall the type used, I do recall that para-gliders of some type were used by terrorists during the assault on 7 October in Israel. Additionally, not a day goes by that the news doesn't report drones or some type of r/c guided a/c used as weapons or weapon platforms. If (when?) something like this happens in the US, the public isn't going to handle it well.

5. For the reasons cited in #4, I always have some concerns with "bigger, faster" builds hobbyists do, and wonder if we hobbyists should put hard limits on this sort of thing. I am reminded about that this week when I saw (yet another) extremely large, extremely fast ... and extremely BEAUTIFUL B-52 in vids on YouTube.

6. All of the above are reasons that I am interested in the small backyard flyers I keep asking you questions about. Where I live small r/c a/c are allowed in county parks, but flying out in public seems very risky to me. It only takes ONE accident. Small, low, slow and at home is the way to go for me.

[wegder]

I was thinking about buying a drone a year or so ago, as I was looking around YouTube I noticed people flying where common sense would suggest it wasn't a good idea also I saw so called drone audits antagonizing people, , so I didn't buy a drone.