It’s Time to Raise the 250g Limit
A 1kg limit proposed by FAA-recognized, community-based organizations strikes a better balance.
It has become increasingly apparent there are subjects of sufficient importance that they warrant long-form, guest editorials. To that end, we welcome Adam Weston as our first contributor in this regard. He writes eloquently in support of this issue of direct and immediate impact to the 31% of our readers who are based in the United States. It’s also of great interest to all readers, given many of you are facing similar challenges of your own in your home countries. — Ed.
FAA regulations requiring Remote ID (RID) and registration for both aircraft and pilot have exclusions for aircraft weighing less than 250g (8.8 oz). Two model aircraft organizations who recently joined the AMA as FAA-recognized Community Based Organizations (CBO) — the First Person View Freedom Coalition (FPVFC) and the Flite Test Community Association (FTCA) — have proposed raising the limit from 250g to 1kg (35.2oz / 2.2lbs).
These CBOs — links are provided in Resources, below — have suggested their members and anyone else who flies RC aircraft in this weight class join a letter-writing campaign to Congress. They feel now is the time to make this move as the current FAA authorization expires in 2023 — this year!
Some of you in the New RCSD readership will immediately appreciate why this campaign should be of interest. For the benefit of others, I’ll identify some of the reasons:
- As FAA regulations stand now, anyone flying an aircraft heavier than 250g after September 2023 will require full RID-compliance and registration of both aircraft and pilot to fly anywhere outside of an FAA Recognized Identification Area (FRIA).
- The FAA has recently disclosed their plans for FRIAs are very limited. They will likely only capture existing AMA model aircraft flying fields with ~20 or more members and will not include parks, school yards or people’s backyards.
- When it comes to pure RC sailplanes or electric-assist gliders there are very few aircraft we typically fly that will meet this 250g limit. If and when we move to a 1kg maximum a much broader range of aircraft will be available to pilots.
- For most of the aircraft we would want to fly in an uncontrolled park or schoolyard a 1kg limit is likely a good match. This should cover any 1.5m DLG’s and electric launch 1.5m as well as many aircraft in the 2m sailplane class while maintaining a reasonable margin of safety.
- This could also cover some of the slope planes we enjoy as well as many slopes aren’t AMA fields either. As we move into larger aircraft, RID and registration become more practical (once those systems become available).
Many of you are likely wondering why you are just hearing about this now and from some organizations you may have never heard of and not from the AMA. We’ve had several conversations with the AMA about raising the limit and their response is they think this would benefit model aviation, and they are supportive of less regulation in general and raising the limit specifically, but they don’t believe the time is right to write your Congress person.
From past experience, the AMA believes they have one chance to ask their membership to contact Congress. They believe if they ask their members to do so too often it loses its impact, and fewer and fewer members actually respond. The AMA has stated they are in constant contact with Congress and are still figuring out which points they will want to focus a letter-writing campaign on for the FAA reauthorization. It may be some items are clearly going to be in the bill but some others they’ll need some help with. It’s also possible that the current FAA reauthorization will get extended into 2024 or beyond as has happened in the past when reauthorization has come up and its just too early now.
So, where does that leave you? If you are excited about the prospect of raising the limit before RID and registration kick in, there are very few reasons not to go to the website noted in Resources below and chip in. The FPVFC has provided a form letter you can copy and paste, and instructions on finding your Congress person.
Often a personal letter can be more impactful than a form letter, as the staff may have to actually read your letter to see what issue you are corresponding about, but sometimes its the shear volume of interest in this topic and the form letter is just fine. If you think you’ll get fatigued by writing two letters to Congress, then you’ll want to wait and see if you agree with the AMA’s points they will be campaigning for, seemingly in the coming months.
Personally, I’m willing to write more than one letter to protect as much of this hobby as possible. I might even make a phone call or two or write more guest editorials for the New RCSD. (We would welcome them, Adam! — Ed.)
So what do you think? Please leave your thoughts in the Responses section — you get there by clicking the little 💬 below. Thanks for reading and please join me in helping to get this done!
©2023 Adam Weston
Resources
- FAA-Recognized Community Based Organizations — are those “that meet the statutory definition in Section 44809(h) of the Exception for Limited Recreational Operations of Unmanned Aircraft, may apply for FAA recognition…”
- First Person View Freedom Coalition (FPVFC) — “The culture of recreational First Person View (FPV) flight has and will continue to inspire a new generation of model aviation pilots…”
- FPVFC Congressional Outreach — “We encourage all of you to reach out to your representative with the below memo to encourage them to make the following changes for the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2023…”
- Flite Test Community Association (FTCA) — “designed to be the hub where the people identifying with the community can rally together to promote the future of model aviation. Our vision is simple, we want to bring hope for the future…”
Note that the author of this guest editorial is solely responsible for its content. If you would like to contribute your own guest editorial, please contact us for further details.
Read the next article in this issue, return to the previous article in this issue or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.
