AMA members are now required by regulation to register their aircraft with the FAA to avoid federal enforcement and potential penalties. All Radio Control modelers must register aircraft weighing greater than 0.55 pounds online no later than February 19, 2016. The registration fee is $5. However, FAA is offering free registration when registering on or before midnight EST on January 21. Online registration can be accomplished on the FAA webpage at, RegisterMyUAS.faa.gov . Several AMA staff members and AMA leaders have been working with legal counsel and the FAA to find a solution for our members on the registration rule. To date, FAA has agreed in principle to several proposed initiatives that will help ease this process for our members in the future. Visit modelaircraft.org/gov to learn more.
Some highlights -
Some highlights -
- We raised multiple questions around the guidelines pilots must agree to during the registration process, such as the requirement to stay below 400 feet. The FAA acknowledged that AMA members should continue to follow AMA’s community-based safety code. We also discussed and the FAA confirmed that the language on the FAA registration site is a guideline, not regulation. This guideline is not directed at the AMA community but rather, it is a simplified set of safety guidelines geared to the general public.We specifically addressed the 400 foot altitude limitation and explained how under appropriate circumstances some modeling activity necessarily occurs above 400’ and other activity occurs at altitude to protect modelers and spectators on the ground. The FAA understands that this community flies higher than the guideline and acknowledged that AMA pilots can abide by their own safety code which is proven to provide safe aeromodelling operations
- In addition, we discussed the numerous affiliate AMA members, non-US citizen or non-US resident competitors, and citizens who are currently away from the states who have not been able to register on the FAA site. The registration site so far has not accepted foreign applications, foreign addresses or foreign IP addresses. The FAA shares our concern about this and is working on a solution, which is expected in early February.
- Many of our members have raised concerns about the privacy and security of the federal registration database. While we know that the database will be searchable by federal registration number, we do not know yet what additional information will be publicly available. We expressed strong concerns with the release of personal information, especially the personal data of AMA’s youth members . We will continue to press the FAA to safeguard the security of our members’ personal information.
- We discussed with the FAA the use of a paper application, which currently is only available at local FAA Flight Standards Ditrict Offices (FSDO). To make these paper applications easier to obtain, AMA is working to acquire these documents, which we can send to members who request them. As for members who are willing to register online, but cannot or do not want to submit credit card information, the FAA has agreed to accept gift credit cards such as Visa or Mastercard.
