January Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the 655th Meeting of the Keystone Clippers Model Aircraft Club

AMA Charter 553 

Monday January 27, 2020

The 655th meeting of the Keystone Clippers was held at the Circleville United Methodist Church at 7:00 pm and called to order by President Mike Shepherd with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. There were 15 regular members and 5 Officers present. 

Readings

Perspective members John Hudzik, and Mark Yothers gave their second readings.

Treasurer’s Report

The Treasurer’s report was given by Jerry Thomas and approved by the membership. A motion to pay the bills was made and seconded. 

Communications

None

Field Report

The field is in good condition. Equipment have been winterized and stored.

Old Business

Application for Constitution and By-Laws Change Notices 1 and 2 initiated and signed at the September 30 meeting were voted on and unanimously accepted by the membership.

The second review of the Application for Constitution and By-Laws Change Notice 3 Article II Section 1 was presented the membership by the Club Secretary. This change will allow unlimited terms for elected Club Officers. The third review of this change will occur at the February 2020 meeting. This change will be voted on during the March 2020 meeting (per Article XI Section 1).

New Business

FAA RID NPRM

Vice President Jim Kealey talked in detail about the FAA NPRM and its pending impact on our hobby. He provided the following information to the Club for those who were responding in writing to the FAA.

  • Send your response in your own words. Tell them about your experience in model aviation and why you participate. DO NOT copy and paste the AMA or someone else’s response word for word.
  • Oppose the limitation to the .55lb weight limitation to be exempt from regulation. Suggest a higher weight threshold for regulation and required remote ID.
  • There should be further delineation of regulations addressing Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operation utilizing FPV & GPS systems and Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) operations where the aircraft is within sight of the operator at all times and under his direct control. VLOS operation of model aircraft are not a threat and has an outstanding safety record spanning more than 80 years. If BVLOS operations were properly regulated and enforced the threat to full scale aviation would be eliminated.
  • Oppose the requirement to register every model individually with the FAA. Since we already label our aircraft with our FAA number and also include information in our aircraft identifying the operator, contact information and AMA number that should be sufficient. There is no need for the additional cost and red tape when the operator is in close proximity to the model when it is flown.
  • Oppose the twelve month limitation for the application for new FRIAs. It is unfair to place limitations that eliminate the use of FRIAs through attrition and it is beyond the scope of intended purpose the FAA should be trying to achieve. It is overly restrictive for the FAA to push for the eventually extinction of traditional model aviation with its outstanding safety record spanning over 80 years. Flying sites that are lost by land sale, acquisition or development should be able to be replaced and not force model aircraft hobbyist organizations to dissolve.
  • There should be a process to easily and quickly get permission for special events outside of the FRIAs such as float flys that would permit temporary recognition of an area as an FRIA for duration of the even.
  • If the eventual goal is to have remote ID in every model aircraft the FAA should challenge the manufacturers to make provision for retrofitting our aircraft with devices that can be added to existing aircraft. If it were integrated with, and replaced the existing onboard receiver it could provide the failsafe capability to not allow the aircraft to operate without communication, it could broadcast a unique serial number and other data and provide the compliance desired. The serial number should be control unit specific and not model specific allowing its transfer from one airframe to another. The unit could be made tamperproof and unable to be altered. This is a cost effective and workable approach to incorporate traditional model aircraft operation into Remote ID.
  • In evaluating the financial impact of the regulation consider the negative impact this will have on the existing model aviation industry (including fixed wing model aircraft) sales which employs thousands of people. Also take into consideration the cost and effort being caused to model aviation hobbyists to register all of their models when the average modeler has 10 or more and many own fifty or more. Finally consider the thousands of dollars each that most long term model aviation hobbyists will lose if their extensive collections of airplanes and accessories are rendered worthless through this regulation.

Show and Tell

None

A motion to adjourn concluded the meeting at 7:55 pm.

Eric R Haberman, Secretary KCRC