4 ms·
>RC has been around for the better part of 60 years and it's never caused a major problem. Its not true that RC has been problem-less - there have been malicio
by fit2rule 11y ago
>RC has been around for the better part of 60 years and it's never caused a major problem.
Its not true that RC has been problem-less - there have been malicious uses of the technology, and fatalities, since the day it was possible to rig up a plane and fly it around. Flight systems, of any variety, are easy to weaponize.
Regulation is a good thing because it requires a more responsible response from civil society. The number of times I've seen day-one flyers out at the local park with their new toy, swooping and hawing over peoples heads recklessly, crashing far too close to civilian life for comfort .. as an RC pilot with 30+ years of experience, I welcome a little enforcement on this subject, frankly. Todays new flyers are quite reckless. Not everyone, obvious, but enough evidence of recklessness exists that I think its a perfectly reasonable requirement that people be registered in order to fly.
>So instead of them being able to spend resources building smarter, more intelligent flight controllers and guidance systems people will just look to DIY kits.
That's not a bad thing, imho, because - especially in the RC world - the DIY crowd have always driven progress in the technology. Flight hobbyists have always been a significant contributor to the science - I would say that flight nerds manifest some of the very same traits that the hacker world admire, inasmuch as the desire to experiment and use technology in interesting ways is promoted with every successful landing.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago> That's not a bad thing, imho, because - especially in the RC world - the DIY crowd have always driven progress in the technology. That's true in many fields and particularly quadcopters are, as far as I can tell, just like 3D printers - the entire industry exists because some hobbyists started making DIY models accessible to general public, and someone saw a new market in that.