Could someone please tell me what the state law is here? I have searched high and low and all I found was the latest from AMA. The Bill from what I understand died in committee, then was resurrected and passed after the exemption from the AMA included the FAA 2012 Model Aircraft protection rule, This is all too confusing but from what I have found its pretty harsh, in 2016 they will require all drones including recreational quads to be registered with the Oregon department of aviation, any idea what that fee will be? I can't seem to understand the last word on this, are quads like the Syma X5-c and 11-c legal to fly? Then there is this http://flitetest.com/articles/fpv-is-being-threaten. so is FPV illegal? Are there local laws that prohibit flying in parks other than national or state? Has anyone had any issues with their neighbors, flying in parks and the local Police, County Sheriff or State Police? As far as the privacy issue, what if your bird catches a draft and drifts over someone else property? Please help me understand Thanks Ken
Ken - To tell you the truth, nobody really knows how the "drone" laws are going to shake out. I don't know of any Oregon specific laws except the common sense ones that have been around forever like being a Peeping Tom. It's really the FAA that regulates the airspace and not the State. No matter how you slice it, the little drones have to end up exempt from any regulation. Their numbers alone will make them impossible to regulate them and anyway, they simply are not big enough to be a threat. The biggest problem we have now is a few people doing stupid things and equally stupid lawmakers having a knee jerk reaction it. By the end of the year, hopefully the FAA will publish some reasonable guidelines. In the mean time, most of what you read is speculation and nobody knows what's what so we're all doing what we've always done. Just go fly and be smart about it! I can't tell from your posting just what your interest is. If you're thinking of investing thousands of dollars in some giant flying camera platform, you might like to wait just a bit. If you're just looking to fly FPV with the rest of us guys, I'd just jump in. If you haven't figured it out from other postings on here, we meet to fly on Sunday mornings at Redwood School on Leanard Road here in GP. It's a modest size group and we fly everything from the tiny toys to Phantom sized platforms. Some of us have larger quads, but you generally don't see those flying with the group on Sundays. Right now the biggest interest seems to be in the 200 to 250 sized FPV racing quads. The "racing" is pretty mild and mellow, but we have a lot of fun. Hope you'll join us. ...Tiger
