Fight for Higher Flight!

A couple of days ago I was on the HMA Board member call when several representatives from the AMA had mentioned they could use our help. There are some new FAA regulations coming down the pipe where some areas of the AIR/flying/quad being severely effected. Some locations are looking at a cap of 400 feet! That might seem high to someone that does mostly surface, but you can hit that mark pretty quickly. Just because this does not directly effect you, does not mean you shouldn’t be concerned or not help. If there were regulations coming down more on the surface side, you’d want all the help you could get. Please take a moment to check out the letter from the AMA below, and click some of those links to help out.

Recently, the FAA unexpectedly informed us that, contrary to earlier commitments to AMA, the agency is planning to limit all recreational model aircraft operations to 400 feet in controlled airspace – with no exceptions. Additionally, the FAA is proposing restrictions in uncontrolled airspace to altitudes that could present safety issues as well as limit some model aircraft operations altogether. We were stunned by this proposal and are pushing back, but we need your help.

Congress specifically granted the FAA the flexibility to allow operations over 400 feet if safety would not be affected. The FAA has not provided AMA with any data that proves that our operations are a safety risk. As you know, our model aircraft operations do not pose any safety or security risk to local airports or aircraft. The FAA needs to honor the Congressional directive to work with AMA on these issues.

While these altitudes will be sufficient for a majority of our members, we have a number of disciplines that will need to go higher than these proposed heights. Thermal soaring, large model aircraft, turbine jets, and international competitions will suffer greatly if there is a hard cap at these heights. Not only will these disciplines suffer, but the industry supporting these disciplines will be negatively impacted.

Members and non-members can contact their representatives and make their voice heard by visiting https://www.modelaircraft.org/higher-flight.

To learn more about this policy, please visit the AMA Blog.