So, there was a RC "drone" hovering above my house yesterday...I was kinda pissed.
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I don't have a gun so I'd probably try and hit it with my frisbee.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
This article from IEEE states that the airspace limit is solid at 400ft. And that drones under it are trespassing
It does not say that. It say they are considering a bill to limit drone usage below 400ft in California only.
Here is the part where it declares the line at 400ft:
above 400 feet, the airspace is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA is still working out its drone rules, but at this point the regulations require hobbyists to keep their drones below 400 feet.
So that part is very black and white (according to the article, which seems unlikely to be true given everything the lawyers have said about it being around that number but undetermined officially.) But the article itself seems sure of it.
You are correct, the bit about it being trespassing was in a title that is not on the article itself. It must be part of a link from elsewhere that someone added when linking to the article. The title that I saw referred to the location of the drones as trespass. But it wasn't the IEEE's title.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
This article from IEEE states that the airspace limit is solid at 400ft. And that drones under it are trespassing
It does not say that. It say they are considering a bill to limit drone usage below 400ft in California only.
Here is the part where it declares the line at 400ft:
above 400 feet, the airspace is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA is still working out its drone rules, but at this point the regulations require hobbyists to keep their drones below 400 feet.
That doesn't mean what you think it does. The FAA allows Drone use below 400ft, However anything more than that is US Government property and only the FAA can make rules on that, not local government.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
What are these models of? How does model aircraft apply to drones?
That's an incredibly inappropriate term to use if that applies to drones and other "non-model" aircraft. Nothing model about them.
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How is "near people" interpreted? Seems like hovering over people in their backyard would be generally seen as "near people."
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
What are these models of? How does model aircraft apply to drones?
That's an incredibly inappropriate term to use if that applies to drones and other "non-model" aircraft. Nothing model about them.
That is the offical term. "Drone" is a marketing term. It's not a term used by anyone else.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
That is the offical term. "Drone" is a marketing term. It's not a term used by anyone else.
I totally understand that drone is purely a "soft" term. It's the term model, though, that violates the English usage of the term. The word model means something that doesn't apply here. Lots of terms could be used that would include all these devices, model, in English, does not though.
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@scottalanmiller said:
model, in English, does not though.
Model is because it's smaller aircraft.. Like model cars.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Model is because it's smaller aircraft.. Like model cars.
A model car is a smaller model of a car.. That's what I am asking, what is the drone a model of?
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A model car is one that is a replica of a larger car. A toy car or other term applies when it is not a replica.
In the hobby communities this has always been a clear distinction. A drone is not a smaller copy of something larger, the drone itself is the original.
In model railroading, for example, this is a tightly held distinction. A toy or prototype are different than a model. You can only call something a model train when it is an attempt to replicate a real world train, but when you just made something that looks like a train and runs on tracks smaller than a certain size.
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A three-dimensional representation of a person or thing or of a proposed structure, typically on a smaller scale than the original: a model of St Paul’s Cathedral [as modifier]: a model aeroplane - Oxford
Notice that it is that it is a replica that makes it a model. That it is smaller is only "typical." The term model in English is very, very much not what the FAA means to imply there.
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If I was a judge looking at that FAA page, I would say that clearly nothing in it suggests that it applies to non-model aircraft like most drones. They are primary, non-model, devices and the FAA has gone pretty out of their way to make the rules stated on that page appear to be specifically for the modeling community, not the operators of non-model small aircraft.
I doubt that the law itself uses those terms or states them without clarifying them. But that page is horrible. If I was looking for drone info, knowing that they are obviously not models, I would not look there.
And there is precedence of that. Classic cars, for example, are carefully regulated in the US. When you are doing something historic or modeling there are often special laws for doing that where operating non-models is seen as a different activity. This is both legal and standard for the hobby communities to be split along those lines.
People who do model trains and people who use toy trains often have different stores to shop at and different hobby events. Just like people who make replicas of antique aircraft and people using drones have essentially no hobby overlap other than overlapping (but unclear) regulations. And even what they want to do is completely different. No one was concerned about or ran into people operating models in their backyard, but drones are there all of the time, it seems (I hear about these questions a lot, probably just a hot topic.)
But already I know commercial drone operators and I've never known a model airplane enthusiast.
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Did you ever consider becoming a lawyer instead of IT, Scott?
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Looking at the law, it appeas that the use of "model" is purely by the person making the website and not from the FAA's lawyers. Why they changed the term to be confusing when making it for the general public I have no idea because calling them unmanned aircraft in the law is both straightforward and obvious to everyone.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Did you ever consider becoming a lawyer instead of IT, Scott?
I did actually looking into challenging the bar back when it was still legal to do so (part of my "you don't need college to do this." thing) but they since found that they weren't making enough money up here in NY and added the college requirement so I lost interest. Did look into it and got a book, though.
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I live in Ga, so I say shoot the thing down. Exterminate with extreme prejudice.
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What happens when a drone "interferes with your free-fire zone"?
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@scottalanmiller said:
What happens when a drone "interferes with your free-fire zone"?
There are other weapons that can be used in the city limits... or as somebody else suggested: A frisbee.
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My dad was looking at getting a "net" launching device for capturing bees. That would cause some havoc.
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Tiny EMP devices are what is needed. No damage, just take them out of the air.
