The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) functions as a regulatory agency under the U.S. Department of Transportation with a primary mission of ensuring the safety of civil aviation. “Civil aviation” includes all non-military, private, and commercial aviation activities, including aerospace activities.
The FAA has been very engaged in a review of aeromodeling (referring to the hobby as “unmanned aircraft systems” or “UAS” and sometimes aggregating all types of models as “drones”). If you would like to learn more about updates from the FAA, please click here.
The FAA has requested that aeromodelers register models which meet or exceed certain defined weight limits. If you would like to register one or more of your models, click here.
The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) is the official national body for model aviation in the United States and is the world’s largest model aviation association, representing a membership of nearly 200,000 from every walk of life, income level, and age group. The AMA has actively advocated for aeromodelers’ interests with the FAA. Please click here for updates from the AMA concerning its interactions with the FAA. Following the FAA’s Final Rule on Remote ID of Unmanned Aircraft in December 2020, the AMA circulated a document summarizing (among other aspects of the ruling) important and noteworthy changes from the proposed version to the final version. Please click here to review that AMA document.
To supplement the material provided by the AMA, an NCRCC member volunteered to study the topic and to prepare important educational materials. The first part is an explanation on how the location of the NCRCC flying field in Ellington relates to the airspace of area airports. Click here to review this document. The second part is an analysis of the December 2020 FAA ruling. Click here to review this analysis document or, if you prefer a more concise summary of the analysis, click here to view a PowerPoint version.
