John, the political improvements are indeed small, but they are there. A significant change in regulation is when the BVLOS ARC happened over a 9 month period, we worked hard to add Recreational operations to the rule. The ARC explicitly excluded recreational. We know recreational has been added as a chapter in the BVLOS NPRM. We'll see how helpful or wonderful it is when it comes out. Also, We have been pushing for Shielded Operations for recreational operators for four years and we are making progress on that. Dave Messina
The solution is to move away from the sour west. I live in the Philippines and it's a drone paradise here. Everybody loves them, everybody smiles at them, everybody wants to be filmed by my drone.
Lately I have been having as much fun with fpv like it was in the early days. With how good tiny whoops, micros and 1s batteries have gotten, I don't remember flying as much as I do now since like 2018... All on a 18g analog tiny whoop. I just go out and fly in all kinds of random places. I think it's been over a year and a half since I touched a 5 inch.
Yeah I still fly my whoops at least weekly and it’s always fun. All my other sizes are currently on the shelf because I’m having more fun flying fixed wing (line of sight and fpv both) at the moment. I was more of a cruiser quad pilot anyway so fpv planes is a natural next step to cruising that feels even more like flight.
It’s another case where technology driven by consumer demand has far outstripped what military technology has produced. It happened with PCs back in 1984, smartphones and now drones. We think of it as a hobby but those responsible for national security see that same drone with an explosive device attached to it. Those guys are freaking out. I think that pandora’s box has been opened in one regard and you can never put it back in the box but that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to make your life miserable trying…
I'm so glad to have gotten in this hobby going on 5 years but I do regret that I didn't get into it alot earlier....all these rules and regs are discouraging and have made me not be able to enjoy the hobby or the "Rc plane hobby" the way I would like and it's a shame....
I am encouraged with the direction of the FPV hobby because commercial and military use of FPV is growing quickly. This positions recreational FPV pilots and manufacturers to be in a place where we can spread the cost of purpose-designed FPV drones across a large population (recreational pilots) and we can leverage STEM programs to 1) provide great jobs for young people and 2) provide a positive "drones for good" messaging by using drones in school STEM programs. Dave Messina, Pres & CEO, FPV Freedom Coalition.
While the import ban (I assume you are referring to increased tariffs [not bans] on semiconductors) will increase costs short term, I would hope many would see the larger picture of US facilities coming back online and ultimately prices coming down. *break some eggs*
I like to think we're in the "satanic panic" phase of FPV. There's this new thing and people are reacting how they react with all new things: Fear. In my day it was MTG and D&D, next it was video games destroying the world, metal music, raves, etc. RN People are literally just seeing planes in the sky and freaking out over "drones!!!" all over the place. This isn't ofc helped by the war and the tactics being used. I don't like where drones are right now. It's not so bad for me though because I'm not in the USA and RID isn't a thing. Can't get parts easily anymore though.... BUT I do realise that with most of the aforementioned things society got over it. But my sadness is that the enthusiasm, for whatever reason, in the community itself is waning. We used to have lots of newcomers and looky-loos at local FPV races, but it's atrophied hard and we're down to just a small core group that's always there. I don't know if this is just hype about the hobby dying down in general... but I hope people can get excited about the hobby again sometime...
Poor hobbyists will always loose when it comes to big money, and the masses have been convinced that Drones are bad! so they don't care if they are banned or people fined. It's a losing battle for now.
I agree. The rising WW3 has or will have negative impact on everything, but especially on this hobby. A lot of additional regulations, import bans, etc.
The way the community fought RID was ineffective compared to the ongoing problem of people just not being compliant. You have to view these systems as a whole, RID was one component of a larger system of air traffic management. The FAA and the community had (and may still) the option to force RID on all manned aircraft instead of all UAS, and they failed to do that. Having RID on all aircraft is something that could allow for automatic sense and avoid on models with GPS positioning.
I think this is naive. We never had the influence to force the FAA to do very much. And remote ID was never going to be put on manned aircraft. They already have ADS-B to solve that problem. A true traffic management system would put ADS-B on drones but there are technical reasons why that wouldn't work either.
@JoshuaBardwell you misunderstood. ADSB is RID for manned aircraft. FAA failed to mandate it for ALL aircraft, using a SINGLE frequency. This makes sense and avoid much more difficult for UAS platforms. I worked directly w/ NASA testing UAS integration into NAS and saw the program flop before RID was even announced. The lack of compliance is a bigger issue because there's such a weak enforcement mechanism, this undermines the whole program. Potentially enabling a wedge to prove the government doesn't enforce equally or constantly, which is a problem for common law courts like ours.
Basically the technical side of FPV remains amazing, but the politics of it are exhausting and never improve no matter what we do.
John, the political improvements are indeed small, but they are there. A significant change in regulation is when the BVLOS ARC happened over a 9 month period, we worked hard to add Recreational operations to the rule. The ARC explicitly excluded recreational. We know recreational has been added as a chapter in the BVLOS NPRM. We'll see how helpful or wonderful it is when it comes out.
Also, We have been pushing for Shielded Operations for recreational operators for four years and we are making progress on that. Dave Messina
@@OpaFPV that is good indeed.
The solution is to move away from the sour west. I live in the Philippines and it's a drone paradise here. Everybody loves them, everybody smiles at them, everybody wants to be filmed by my drone.
Lately I have been having as much fun with fpv like it was in the early days. With how good tiny whoops, micros and 1s batteries have gotten, I don't remember flying as much as I do now since like 2018... All on a 18g analog tiny whoop. I just go out and fly in all kinds of random places. I think it's been over a year and a half since I touched a 5 inch.
this
Yeah I still fly my whoops at least weekly and it’s always fun. All my other sizes are currently on the shelf because I’m having more fun flying fixed wing (line of sight and fpv both) at the moment. I was more of a cruiser quad pilot anyway so fpv planes is a natural next step to cruising that feels even more like flight.
It’s another case where technology driven by consumer demand has far outstripped what military technology has produced. It happened with PCs back in 1984, smartphones and now drones. We think of it as a hobby but those responsible for national security see that same drone with an explosive device attached to it. Those guys are freaking out. I think that pandora’s box has been opened in one regard and you can never put it back in the box but that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to make your life miserable trying…
I'm so glad to have gotten in this hobby going on 5 years but I do regret that I didn't get into it alot earlier....all these rules and regs are discouraging and have made me not be able to enjoy the hobby or the "Rc plane hobby" the way I would like and it's a shame....
I am back in the game since 2019. I am building an AOS 5 V5 6s with the DJI O4 Air Unit Pro. First I need to learn all the new stuff in BF 4.5.1.
With AOS 5 you have super good pids for it on presets
I am encouraged with the direction of the FPV hobby because commercial and military use of FPV is growing quickly. This positions recreational FPV pilots and manufacturers to be in a place where we can spread the cost of purpose-designed FPV drones across a large population (recreational pilots) and we can leverage STEM programs to 1) provide great jobs for young people and 2) provide a positive "drones for good" messaging by using drones in school STEM programs. Dave Messina, Pres & CEO, FPV Freedom Coalition.
Mark my words. They will ban FPV eventually. It's already illegal to fly without a spotter / line of sight so most of us are already breaking the law.
I was just thinking about everyone in DC during our protest....and how much the world has changed since then.....
While the import ban (I assume you are referring to increased tariffs [not bans] on semiconductors) will increase costs short term, I would hope many would see the larger picture of US facilities coming back online and ultimately prices coming down.
*break some eggs*
exactly! cause we'd rather fight with each other than with the real bad guys!
I like to think we're in the "satanic panic" phase of FPV. There's this new thing and people are reacting how they react with all new things: Fear. In my day it was MTG and D&D, next it was video games destroying the world, metal music, raves, etc. RN People are literally just seeing planes in the sky and freaking out over "drones!!!" all over the place. This isn't ofc helped by the war and the tactics being used. I don't like where drones are right now. It's not so bad for me though because I'm not in the USA and RID isn't a thing. Can't get parts easily anymore though.... BUT I do realise that with most of the aforementioned things society got over it.
But my sadness is that the enthusiasm, for whatever reason, in the community itself is waning. We used to have lots of newcomers and looky-loos at local FPV races, but it's atrophied hard and we're down to just a small core group that's always there. I don't know if this is just hype about the hobby dying down in general... but I hope people can get excited about the hobby again sometime...
Poor hobbyists will always loose when it comes to big money, and the masses have been convinced that Drones are bad! so they don't care if they are banned or people fined. It's a losing battle for now.
Muffin
I agree. The rising WW3 has or will have negative impact on everything, but especially on this hobby. A lot of additional regulations, import bans, etc.
The way the community fought RID was ineffective compared to the ongoing problem of people just not being compliant.
You have to view these systems as a whole, RID was one component of a larger system of air traffic management.
The FAA and the community had (and may still) the option to force RID on all manned aircraft instead of all UAS, and they failed to do that.
Having RID on all aircraft is something that could allow for automatic sense and avoid on models with GPS positioning.
I think this is naive. We never had the influence to force the FAA to do very much. And remote ID was never going to be put on manned aircraft. They already have ADS-B to solve that problem. A true traffic management system would put ADS-B on drones but there are technical reasons why that wouldn't work either.
@JoshuaBardwell you misunderstood. ADSB is RID for manned aircraft. FAA failed to mandate it for ALL aircraft, using a SINGLE frequency.
This makes sense and avoid much more difficult for UAS platforms. I worked directly w/ NASA testing UAS integration into NAS and saw the program flop before RID was even announced.
The lack of compliance is a bigger issue because there's such a weak enforcement mechanism, this undermines the whole program. Potentially enabling a wedge to prove the government doesn't enforce equally or constantly, which is a problem for common law courts like ours.
Land of freedom 😂