In this episode
Join us for the main discussion, practical takeaways, and stories from this episode of RC Plane Lab.
The weather didn’t cooperate for our Duellist maidens this week. Trust us when we say nobody is more disappointed than we are! From an ice storm New Years Day, to 5 inches of snow on our backup date, Mother Nature had a way of throwing a wrench in our plans!
Join Ron and Tom in this episode as they talk about the new Remote ID rules from the FAA.
Episode 51 Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for readability. Timestamps are retained.
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[0:00] Hello and welcome to RC Plane Lab, a podcast for anyone interested in RC airplanes. We'll share tips and tricks on how to build models and talk about successful flights, epic crashes, and everything in between. Visit us at rcplanelab.com to sign up for our email list and to ask us questions. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please help us out by rating and reviewing us in your favorite podcast app. Thanks for spending time with us today.
[0:36] Now here are your hosts, Ron and Tom. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the RC Planelab podcast. I'm Ron. And I'm Tom. Well, this is going to be a little bit different this episode you might notice we sound differently that's because we are now unfortunately recording in our own houses remotely yeah that's my fault i've been sick the past few days and we didn't want to risk getting the together potentially getting our families sick so yep that's that's
[1:03] tom's fault i got sick and i'm on the mend i'm feeling So, yep, that's Tom's fault. I got sick. And I'm on the mend. I'm feeling much better. But, yeah, that's why we sound different this time. Yeah, not COVID, apparently. You had your test, and it was not that. I did get a test, yes. And it came back COVID negative, also flu negative. So, anyway, I'm feeling better. And hopefully next episode we'll be back to normal. Yeah, that would be the plan, because this is weird.
[1:26] Like, it's weird looking across and seeing an empty chair. I kind of miss your face over there. It's awkward. Oh, that might be the best compliment you've ever given me. Well, take them when you get them. Maybe the only one. Oh, that might be true. I don't know. So, anyway, today I wanted to talk about a couple things. The biggest thing I wanted to cover, and we'll get to it here in just a little bit,
[1:49] since you've been sick, you've had some time to kind of look over some of these FAA regulations. So you're kind of going to school us on it as to what it is. Well, I don't know about schooling anyone. But yeah, I definitely have had some time to read and get smart on the subject so hopefully i can put to rest any of the rumors and maybe put some folks at ease hopefully yeah because i i i know the the gist of it
[2:17] but i have not gotten too too deep into it before we start that, I do want to bring up our duelists. We have not flown them yet. That's a little bit disappointing. They are ready. I mean, they are waiting to fly. They have the batteries charged. I mean, everything is ready. We just need to get out to the field and do it. However, Mother Nature. And they're both beautiful, by the way, I have to admit. They turned out pretty good. I think so, too.
[2:44] Yeah, I think they both look really sharp. But Mother Nature has not cooperated. So we planned originally on flying on the first, which was Friday, last Friday. Woke up to an ice storm. Like we had a quarter inch of ice or so covering everything. It really was kind of pretty, but treacherous. It was pretty, yes. The trees coated in ice, and it was a nice thing to look at. It would have been a beautiful thing to look at on January 2nd. Yeah, it would have. Unfortunately.
[3:20] So that was the first. We had not too great weather on the second, and you were actually busy with something else, so we kind of took the second out. And we had planned on going out there on Sunday the third. That was, I mean, weather looked great, no problems whatsoever. That was our plan. That was our backup date. And like I said, even Saturday afternoon, the weather was looking good. They were calling for maybe a half inch of snow or something, which I can handle a half inch of snow.
[3:47] Well, and I can handle the half inch of snow, too, with the extra ground clearance on my dualist. Your eight feet ground clearance. But anyway, so it woke up Sunday morning to five inches of snow on the ground. Yeah, five inches. So that kind of took it out of contention. So there was not going to be any duelist maidens last weekend. So far, weather is looking good for this weekend, but things change. So I don't know what's going on yet. We're just going to have to play it by ear. Yep.
[4:18] And I have to work at least one of the days, maybe two of the days, potentially getting off early Sunday. So there could still be hope for this weekend. But yeah, I mean, I wouldn't get the hopes up for this weekend. Oh, I'm getting my hopes up. Which might surprise you. I'm definitely getting my hopes up. Don't disappoint me. It's been long enough. Hey, I told you what the possibilities are. I know, I know.
[4:43] You have the same information I have now. And you can also just tell them I'm not coming in. Well, I could, I told you what the possibilities are. I know, I know. You have the same information I have now. And you can also just tell them I'm not coming in. Well, I could, I guess. I'm not sure if I should after taking, basically three days off for being sick the week before. Yeah. Well, anyway. So we'll see how it goes. But the plan hopefully is this weekend.
[5:02] If not, we'll push it back to the next weekend and then maybe next year. Who knows? Hey, listen. Like, nobody wants to maiden these airplanes more than us. I'm not joking. Like, I am chomping at the bit to fly this Duelist. I don't know about you. I'm ready to get it behind me, so I'm not worried about it. And I'm excited to see how they fly. Like, I mean, really. I don't know why why but one of the coolest things i'm looking forward to is we both bought some new cameras we both
[5:31] bought some new gopros so we'll be able to get some hopefully decent shots of our flights but the cool thing about those that i'm i'm really looking forward to is it will tell you how fast you're going with with the gps module so we're going to find out who's this faster yes should we throw a bet on it do you want to throw five or ten bucks on it i'm not sure if i want to do that ah you're chicken huh i wouldn't say i'm chicken i just
[5:57] i just don't want to be disappointed that's all well okay tell you what next time we get together whoever loses has has to take care of dinner. Yeah, I think, yeah, that's doable. So whoever's the slower will be responsible for dinner next time we get together. There we go. Is that the bet? That's a good enough bet for me. Okay. Plus we get to eat no matter what. So it's a good day for everybody.
[6:21] Exactly. So Sunday was a bad day for maidening doulas however it was a last minute thing so our buddy reggie gave me a holler and said hey i'm still going out to the field if you guys want to come out originally i told him no i don't have anything ready to fly i don't want to it's okay but then my wife five inches of of snow, by the way, everybody.
[6:51] Okay. Now, hold on. In his defense, when we got out there, there was literally maybe two to three inches of snow there. So wherever… I don't know if it melted that much or what, but there was not as much snow out of the field as there was at my house. And also, when we pulled in, he is out on the runway with a shovel. Keep in mind, grass runway, okay? Shoveling a runway. Shoveling a runway.
[7:15] And he ended up making it probably, I'd say a good 150 feet long runway and maybe three feet wide. So there was not a lot of landing or taking off on that runway. So was he able to land on that little strip? No. Okay. Nobody was, but it was funny because when he landed his, I think it was his carbon cub he landed it and and where he took the snow that was on the runway and and shoved it like four feet away that's where he
[7:49] actually landed and it flipped his his carbon cub over because he hit his little snow drift that he made but no it was a good time but anyway so I wasn't planning on going out there at all and my wife was like just we don't have anything else to do let's go out and just kind of see what's going on hang out with people that are out there because it was Reggie and a couple other guys went out and just have fun. So, the whole family went out. Crystal came with me.
[8:12] Piper came and Cody even came too, which surprised me. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Just the four of us, except Cody was cold when we got out there and he just stayed in the car the whole time. But what? He's 17 and he made the effort. So that's a good thing in my opinion. That's something. Yeah, you got to give him some credit for that. That's something. I mean, he might have watched YouTube the whole time. I don't know, but so be it.
[8:33] He still wanted to be with his family though. Yeah, it was cool that he actually got out of the house. I was happy to see that. So we got out there and one of the guys that was out there, I'm not going to say names because I don't want to get anybody in trouble or get anybody upset with me for saying this, but I saw something that made me, made me question what I was seeing. So one of the guys
[9:00] who was out there had a nitro plane and keep in mind, this is really cold he was having a lot of issues getting it started he was using the electric starter and finally got it to where it would start and run at full throttle okay so you follow me just at full throttle it ran if you went down a three-quarter throttle or half throttle it just cut out and died he couldn't get it adjusted correctly to run at idle okay well i was talking to him and he said
[9:28] after it was running he had it running pretty good at full throttle he's like hey will you put it down on the ground for me and i said why and he said because i'm gonna fly it even even though it's not running correctly even though it's not running correctly and i i strongly cautioned him not to. And I said, you're kidding, right? And he's like, no, no, I'm not kidding. Put it on the ground for me. So I put it on the ground and it got maybe five feet and it shut off. And
[9:57] I was like, okay. I was like, good. You had me going there for a second. I said, I can't believe you were going to do that. I said, I didn't think you were that dumb to actually do something like that. Well, then he said, oh, it just died. I'm going to start it back up and do it. Once again, I'm like, are you serious? You're really going to just start it up? So long story short, he gets it started up again. He actually takes off with
[10:21] this airplane that's not flying right because the motor's not running right, and he gets it to where he has to fly. And this is a Sig Rascal. So, it's a pretty big plane. Yeah. I don't know. What's the wingspan on that? Probably 7 feet, 6 feet? More than 80 inches, I think, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. It's a good-sized plane. Yeah. It's not a small airplane. No. And so he gets it going, and he's flying around, and he's like, this thing just keeps climbing.
[10:47] It's like, well, yeah, you're under full throttle. What do you expect is going to happen when you have full throttle on this airplane that's meant to fly at, what, quarter to half throttle? Really? I mean, it's a floater. It is. So he gets it going around and stuff, and then all of a sudden, it cuts out. Just dies. Like, you should have seen this coming. I mean, you had plenty of things saying, hey, this is probably not going to come down without being a dead stick landing.
[11:15] Now, I will say in his defense, he was able to land it. However, it was probably a good 700 to 800 feet away from where we were on our runway. In the snow. In the snow. In the snow. And he had to go down and get it. And I tell you what, it was, I mean, like he was so far away, it took him a long time to go get it. He almost took one of the guy's trucks down to pick it up, but he didn't. He walked down to get it. And that wouldn't have been the first time he's done that.
[11:42] The best and funniest thing, and maybe you had to be there, and I shouldn't be laughing at this. One of the guys had his dog there with him, and the dog ran down with this guy to go get his airplane. And he went under his feet and made the guy fall and kind of roll a couple times in the snow. Oops. It was funny. I mean, nobody got hurt. It was just funny to watch him go down that way. But yeah, so he flew without a properly tuned engine.
[12:10] And I was thinking the whole time, I wish Tommy was here because he's not going to believe me when I tell him this story. Well, I mean, luckily for me, I know, or I'm pretty sure I know who we're talking about. And I do believe it because of who I think it is and the history this person has. So, yeah, I don't, I'm not sitting here in disbelief. What I'm sitting here in is bewilderment. I mean, we preach pre-flight, pre-flight, pre-flight.
[12:45] Don't fly if everything isn't right. But, like, I mean, we preach pre-flight, pre-flight, pre-flight. Yeah. don't fly if everything isn't right and the engine wasn't right. So that's, I mean, luckily for him, he got away with it. This time. Right, exactly, this time. Next time, maybe it'll cut out on him, when it's over field a mile away, and then he has to go chase it down. Maybe he has to, like I said, I don't disbelieve it because I think I know who it is.
[13:24] Yeah, so my takeaway from that, and I tell this story as a learning experience, really, and I can't stress this enough, if your plane is not right, don't fly it. Just don't fly it. Yes. If it's not right, no flight. I like that. If it's not right, no flight. However, on the other side of that, I will also say he knew what he was doing and no harm, no foul. It came back fine in the same amount of pieces
[13:40] as it left with. That's true. But I mean mean i would say a good deal of luck was involved with that i mean it wasn't it wasn't because he was a good pilot which he is he's a good pilot if it's who i think it is but i mean a that a large amount of luck is is why that airplane is still in one piece yeah i mean let's be honest it has to do with where that motor cut out exactly yeah had that thing cut out exactly yeah had
[14:05] that thing cut out on takeoff or shortly after takeoff when he couldn't make the field then he's landing out there in a bare cornfield i mean could have pulled the landing gear out at a minimum yeah or done even more damage or heaven forbid he made a turn over the pit and then the engine died yeah so many ways that could have gone wrong and that's a big expensive plane to be doing that with so yes yes it is but that's okay that's what that was my story i
[14:32] enjoyed watching it so i hope you enjoyed hearing it well i enjoyed hearing it so made me giggle yeah so you're ready to move on and talk about the FAA. Hey, Ron. Hey, Tom. Flight team member Jeff here. How's it going? I just wanted to say hi. Hope you've had a Merry Christmas. Wish you a Happy New Year. And I just want to reach out to all of you guys out there in the aviation community and just say it's been, a wonderful year. It's been a trying year.
[15:02] It's been, a wonderful year. It's been a trying year. I know we're going from one pandemic to an possible existential crisis, right? But, just hang in there. We're, we're going to make it through this. There's plenty of time to get through all the information that we've just learned about. I just want to say, get out there, keep flying, stay up to date.
[15:26] I was just at the hobby shop recently and listening to a guy in front of me just asking questions about what's going on. And he's like, oh, I'm going to stop flying and I'm just going to do boats instead. No, let's not do that. Let's keep going with the passion that we have. We want to fly.
[15:55] And if we just make ourselves known and we keep doing what we're doing, it's going to work out. So don't fret, everybody. All right. I appreciate everything that you guys are doing here with the aviation RC community. You guys and the other podcasters, you're doing a wonderful job, and I appreciate you. So keep the blue skies up, safe landings, and have a good 2021. And I can't agree with Jeff more. People, relax.
[16:27] It's going to be okay. We just all, just like Jeff says, we need to hang in there. There's lots of information out there. We have plenty of time to digest it and see how it's going to impact us, which I've had all this time. I've got it digested. I've got it, I think I got it figured out. But what? If you don't want to take Jeff's word for it or mine, you can do your own research too. FAA.gov, the information is all right there. And basically, I mean, I'm
[16:52] going to boil it down. From the way the FAA approached the situation initially to what they have proposed now is a night and day difference. I mean, let me just say that. It really, I mean, in my eyes, probably 70% of us, I'm going to call us hobbyists, okay, is probably not even going to affect us because one of the three ways that you'll be able to comply with some of these FAA mandates is to fly at a federally recognized flying area. They're called FRIAs, which is a FAA-recognized
[17:36] identification area. So basically, a club airfield can apply to be a FRIA, and then you will comply with remote ID by simply flying at your club field, just like you've been doing for the last 50, 30, 20, 70, however many years you've been flying. Okay. So you can actually fly with, under these guidelines, you can actually fly your RC airplanes without having any remote identification in them? Absolutely correct. So if your field applies for, this FRIA and gets approved,
[18:12] which if your field is set up as per the AMA, more than likely they will comply with the FAA FRIA requirements. Anyway, if your club goes through the the motions and makes that happen you fly at that airfield you're covered no remote id devices whatsoever are required that's the easiest way to comply that's nice yeah right i mean not for for the for a large portion of us hobbyists, that's a relief. Yeah. And it's a relief to me.
[18:49] One of the other ways, which is, I'm going to call it the second easiest way to comply with a remote ID, is to fly with a, and I'm not going to call them drones. I'm never going to call my airplane a drone. But in the FAA's eyes, yeah, I know, they're drones. Yeah. So I'm going to call it an RC. You can fly your RC with a broadcast module. Now, basically, I equate this to back in the RC car
[19:17] days, we raced with transponders, which were these little electronic devices. We mounted them in our cars, and they ran over a loop in the track, and they counted our laps for us. And they gave us statistics like lap time, and if you knew the distance of the track, it could give you average speed and all this kind of cool stuff. But that's what they used to track who was the winner and who wasn't, right?
[19:39] But it was this little electronic device that you could either purchase or the track purchased for you to rent or whatever. You put it in your car and you are covered. That's what I envisioned this broadcast module device being. It's a device that broadcasts the identification and location information about your RC. And then it also does some other stuff that the FAA is going to mandate, which will be all self-contained in this unit. And I can foresee,
[20:06] now, I can't obviously predict the future, right? But I can foresee these little modules being available to the general RC public for probably no more than 50 bucks, probably even cheaper than that. And if you're flying under the recreational flyer rules, which I'm not flying for money, so I'm a recreational flyer, you can use one of these devices for your FAA registration, and you can use that device in any of the airplanes that you fly. You don't have
[20:40] to have one for each and every airplane that you fly. So that to me is way better than the original verbiage of the FAA rules. Yeah, honestly, the original wording was quite concerning. Yeah. Because they were talking about, having to have internet connection at all times, having to broadcast nationally where you are, where you took off, what you're flying. Each airplane was going to have to have its own transponder. And that has all just been removed?
[21:13] Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. So basically, this broadcast module is supposed to broadcast via radio frequency. So that means Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, things of that nature. It's not going to have to maintain a constant Internet connection. So it's not going to have to have 5G wireless or 4G wireless or whatever all it was saying originally. So to me, that's a huge relief. That's a big win. Yeah.
[21:47] I mean, I'll read specifically the bullet points here it says remote id capability through a module attached to the drone or rc and basically it's gonna from takeoff to shutdown it's gonna broadcast the id number so basically your uas registration number which is the same under the recreational flyer rules as your drone registration or your RC registration. It will also broadcast location and altitude, velocity, takeoff location and elevation, and a timestamp. That's it.
[22:18] That's all it's going to broadcast. Hmm. Yeah. And it's going to do that, like I said, via radio frequency. So that, in my opinion, that's a big win. Yeah. That's not at all what I was expecting, to actually get out of this. So that's, that's very handy. Right. Right. Do you think it'll ever end up being like built
[22:38] into a receiver? I can, I can actually envision that. I mean, look at receivers you can buy now. I mean, Ron, you can buy receivers that have three-axis gyros. We have receivers that have be added for just, I mean, honestly, a few dollars more than what we already pay for quality receivers. I mean, the ways that they can comply with this are, I mean, I'm not a tech guy, and I can already kind of begin to understand that there's multiple ways that they can comply with this second bullet,
[23:25] operating an RC with a remote broadcast module. So relax, everyone. It's going to be okay. So the only concern, though, or the thing that I'm not quite sure about, do you think anything's going to have to change with the radios that we use now to accept the interference that we might be putting into or putting out with these new modules, whether it's Bluetooth or Wi-Fi? Because I know
[23:52] like flying at 2.4 gigahertz, that's going to be the same. Possibly if they're doing Wi-Fi signals, they might be using that same 2.4 gigahertz to broadcast do you think there might be some some problems with with that so i'm i'm not an expert on radio transmission but my understanding of ds or spread spectrum technology is that even even if you're operating on the same 2.4 gigahertz frequency because of the frequency hopping and the and the ID and the packet IDs that the
[24:28] transmitters send and then receive and understand from the receivers, I don't honestly think that even if they decide to use existing 2.4 technology to transmit this data, I don't think we really need to worry about interference. I really don't. Okay. Well, I hope that works out that way. Like I said, I'm not an expert. There are people out there that are far smarter than me who are probably, as I say this, already working on it. Yeah.
[24:57] I remember that was one of the main issues that we were not sure of was how they were going to be taking care of all this and what they were going to be implementing. Like the scariest part for me was when they were talking about having a drone or RC airplane that you could only buy if it was built into that RC airplane or that drone or whatever, if that ID thing was built into it. And that's what really set set most of the hobbies
[25:26] myself included i mean i'll be honest i mean when i first saw the faa's i don't want to say suggestions because they i mean they they sent out for comments and then the next thing we've got these rules now and everybody's heads exploded mine mine included, when we read that. And that was the first thing that I really keyed in on was, wait a minute. I can only fly something now that has this crap built in it from a manufacturer? Well, dang, I'm done.
[25:57] But no, the FAA has, for whatever reason, listened to a lot of the comments that were submitted after,
[26:13] the second round. And they've now made a way, two ways, actually, if you want to think about it, for us to be able to fly our pre-existing airplanes, airplanes that we build ourselves, and airplanes in the future. There are two now ways that we're going to be able to do that. One, like I said, is to operate out of FRIA, a federally FAA-recognized identification area where you won't have to have a device at all. Or, the other way was this little
[26:36] broadcast module device that you'll stick in your airplane before you fly. So, yeah, huge win. So, good job. And thank you you everybody that submitted all the all their comments to the faa it seemed like that the ama and and all of these other organizations that were pushing for us hobbyists right we were heard and we were taken into consideration and it just had turned out much better than we were fearing so thank you
[27:05] everybody that commented and and you have made a big difference in in the future of the hobby really and yeah and if if you if like i did i i wrote to my congressman and i wrote to my representatives and i and everyone out there who did that, let me tell you, they heard us. And so this is, I mean, now I'm not a huge fan of the federal government getting involved in my hobby. I mean, I'll be honest, but this is so much better than what it could have been. So at any rate.
[27:42] Not to be a Debbie Downer, but I'm still not convinced that it's not going to change, somewhere down in the future and get more restrictive. I think the only way that it's going to stay as open as it is now, though, is if people follow the rules. Like, I know everybody's not going to follow the rules. Unfortunately, there's always going to follow the rules. Unfortunately, there's always going to be the outliers that, that don't follow. I mean, that don't do what
[28:11] they're supposed to do. And it's, it's unfortunate that we have to do this. Like, I mean, really, that ideally, Hey, you guys have a plane, go fly it wherever you want, do it however you want to fly, however high you want. It doesn't matter. Just be careful. that would be awesome, but that's never going to be like that again. I mean, honestly, that day has passed. Well, and let's be completely transparent here. I mean, let's talk here just a little bit before
[28:36] I get into the final, the final remote ID point. What really is the impetus for the FAA involvement in our hobby? Yes, there are a few, bad seeds out there that maybe did some stuff they weren't supposed to do with their drone or their helicopter or their RC airplane or what have you. But in this country, money talks. It's always about the dollar. I mean, that's what Western civilization really is. So I'm not convinced that that's what really brought this on.
[29:14] I think, the commercialization of small airspace is really what this is about. I would agree with that. There's a lot of changes coming as technology advances. And I think that's what we're seeing now is that there's other people that want to use the same space that we are. And because of that, we have to, pretty much we have to play by these new rules so they can do what they want to do. Right. i'm i'm not really opposed to businesses
[29:48] wanting to make money off the airspace that i also want to use i do however feel that we can we can come to an agreement or or a compromise on how we can both use that for what we want and i think this these rules reflect that. Yeah. And like, okay, so what I'm about to say, I have no evidence for whatsoever. I don't like usually talking about that kind of stuff. Like I don't like speculate on things, but here's what
[30:16] it sounds like to me now that you, now that you kind of brought up that whole commercializing thing. Oh, I opened a can of worms. No, no, no, no, no. So this is not something to where you're going to be having like real airplanes flying around and looking at where you are. If they're talking about broadcasting with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth or something else,
[30:39] the distance traveled for those signals is not very far. So if this was something to where they were worried about real airplanes, worried about, colliding with helicopters, colliding with airplanes, it would be a completely different rule than what came out. Once again, this is just my feeling. I don't know this for sure. So the reason I say that is because airplanes move fast.
[31:04] And by the time an airplane receives the signal from your little model airplanes flying around, it is not going to have enough time to move to avoid it. Correct? No, that is absolutely correct. What are we trying to avoid other than these autonomous drones that are going to be delivering packages or doing whatever that are going to be flying at maybe 20 miles an hour, maybe 30 miles an hour, maybe a little bit faster. Yeah, the FAA is trying
[31:30] to compromise and trying to de-conflict that airspace so that we can all kind of be happy. Yeah, and our fight is not with the full-fledged aviation community, and I don't even want to say fight, I shouldn't have said that, but as you say, the impetus behind this is not from full-fledged aviation, I don't think. It sounds to me like it's more from Amazon and Walmart or Google. whoever is wanting
[31:54] to push this in order to use that airspace for drone deliveries is my takeaway. So for what it's worth, like I said, I have nothing to back that up other than this is just kind of what I see coming from the rules that came out and what kind of makes sense in my head. Yep. No, I agree. Absolutely.
[32:30] I mean, let's be honest, it's always about who has the most money, and usually whoever that is, is sort of going to kind of get the rules bent in their favor.
[32:43] But in this particular case, I don't feel like these rules in their present state are really that difficult or expensive to live with. Yeah, I agree. And this is why, by the way, it's good to be a part of the AMA. I was just going to say that. Well, good. Great minds, right? But this is what your dues get you. It helps to have an organization that will fight, not necessarily fight. It helps to have
[33:05] an organization that will kind of go to bat for you. No, they do though. They do fight for the average modeler who, doesn't have the means to fight on their own behalf. Yeah. They'll lobby. If you don't want to call it fighting, call it lobbying. That's what they do. Yeah. So there you go. So that's become a member of the AMA if you have not yet because that's what you get for it. And nice insurance coverage too. So it doesn't hurt.
[33:33] And so finally, the final way that you'll be able to comply with remote ID is what we've kind of already talked about is a manufacturer will manufacture a RC and have a remote ID built into it, and you simply register it and go fly. And that's something else I wanted to cover, your registration. So if you register as a recreational flyer, it's $5 and it covers you for three years. And if you're a recreational
[34:01] flyer only, that covers everything. Every airplane, every helicopter, every drone, every flying apparatus that you own, that you fly remotely, will be covered under that one registration for $5, covers you for three years. Nice. Kind of the same way it is now then. Nice. Kind of the same way it is now then.
[34:35] Yeah, exactly. Now, part 107, that's a little bit different. I know a little bit about that too. I did some reading on that, and I actually did go ahead and register as a 107. I think you're going to also, Ron. Yeah, I need to look into it because I don't know anything about it yet. Yeah. But yes, we need to. It's basically the same deal. there's rules that you have to fly by. I'm not going to get into them.
[34:49] But honestly, they're fairly common sense. Like if you have some common sense and a little bit about airplanes and airspace, you're probably already flying by the rules. But anyway, if you're, for Part 107, it's $5 for three years for each registered RC. So because we're going to be using a few of our airplanes for videos eventually for the podcast, we'll be flying them under part 107.
[35:17] So each of those airplanes that we plan on flying with a camera on it is registered as a UAS. And each one of those registrations, $5 for three years. And that's really the biggest difference. And each one has its own number then? Exactly. Yep. Each registered RC has a unique UAS registration number. So I registered three airplanes. I have four registration numbers. I have my recreational flyer one, and then I have
[35:45] one for each of the 107, part 107 airplanes. So then when the Real ID becomes a thing, and it's actually implemented, which is not for a while yet too, by the way, when that becomes a thing, you will have to have a separate transmitter for each one of those airplanes. However, if I understand this right, for your recreational flyer airplanes, you will have one transponder or one real ID module that can be put
[36:12] in any of them and it will work? Exactly right. Okay. See, I wonder how that works then. So when you buy it, does it come with its own number or do you have to update it? I mean, I don't understand how that's going to work then. I can imagine that when you buy the broadcast module, it will have a transmitter, probably ID associated with it, like a tag of some kind. And you'll probably register that number. It'll probably be in the instructions that you get with the device, I'm guessing.
[36:41] And then you'll log into your Drone account on the faa and you'll register it and you'll link that number with that particular uas number and then okay and then off you go that's how i see it happening yeah and that would make sense and that would be fairly simple yeah obviously i could be i could be completely wrong but i mean that that seems to me to be the
[37:02] easiest way to do it and i'm i'm sure technology is not – if it's not already out there, it's probably not difficult to come up with it. So then by the end of the time when the manufacturers have to have it built into their airplanes, so is that like any – see, I wonder how that's going to affect like ARFs and all that kind of stuff, because that would just be for ready- fly airplanes and i would think or drones or
[37:25] whatnot so you you would still have to buy a module separately then i would guess for an arf or for a kit so or anything you would yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna take a trip back in the time machine okay way back in way back in 1991 a lot of our listeners will probably remember this we had to comply with narrowband frequencies.
[37:55] And the way you knew that your new radio purchase was narrowband ready was that it had a gold label, usually stamped on the back of the transmitter, with a date on it. And I believe anything that was produced after a certain date in 1991 was, gold labeled. And then you knew by buying that package with that gold label on it that you were complying with the FCC at that time regulations. So in my mind, this way,
[38:16] manufacturers will have options now. They can produce an ARF with remote ID, and they can produce ARFs without them for use at FRIAs or for people who fly as recreational flyers who already have broadcast modules that they want to use, thereby reducing the price of the ARF. So, do you see what I'm saying, where I'm going with that? Yeah. I forgot about the ability to fly at a site without having it
[38:48] built into it. Exactly. So I can see manufacturers producing ARVs two ways, or maybe even three ways, if you want to look at it that way. They'll sell them with the remote ID, and maybe they'll sell them without a remote ID if you don't need one. And in the case of recreational flyers who only fly at their club airfield that is a recognized identification area, they don't need one. So they're going to purchase the lower cost option, which, perfect. I mean, doesn't impact them at all.
[39:21] What's the third way? Well, I guess there's really only two ways. What's the third way? Well, I guess there's really only two ways. Maybe they'll sell one that has a mount for your broadcast module, and then the other one doesn't. There you go. I was trying to figure out what the third way would be. I forgot I said three ways. Oops. Bottom line, I mean, let's all take a deep breath and relax a little bit. It's not nearly as bad as it was initially.
[39:57] And in my mind, it's a minimal impact for us hobbyists who are flying recreationally, really. Yeah, I would agree. And we have some time,. I mean, we're talking implementation sometime in 2023. So, I mean, we've got, there's plenty of time, like you alluded to, time for this to change again between now and then. Well, but hopefully it won't because it does say final rule. It does. I mean, that doesn't mean anything, I suppose.
[40:24] But hopefully final means they're pretty close to what it's going to be. Well, you would hope so. Final doesn't mean final in a government organization. I'm just saying. I should know. True. So, yeah, that's the bottom line. That's all the reading that I've, all the time I've had to do and the reading I've done.
[40:51] It has really set my mind at ease because I was really kind of worked up over it initially. But now the new rules are out, new final rules are out, and I'm not worried. Yeah, one of the nicest things that I was excited to see taken away, not only was, the fact that it's not all manufacturers have to do it and we can still build our own airplanes and still fly them. Okay. That was awesome. I was very excited to see they took away the
[41:10] live broadcast nationwide. There was no way they were going to be able to implement that. I mean, let's be honest. Well, I agree. It would be difficult. And that would probably be one of those things where they said, you have to do it. We don't know how, but you have to do it or else you don't fly. Yeah. But then the big companies that are kind of involved with this are like, hey, wait a minute. And I don't mean RC companies.
[41:33] They're like, hey, wait a minute. You're making this, you're pricing us out of business here. And then that affects, competition. And then now you have monopolies and oligopolies and all this other kind of, consumer trade stuff. I just never really saw that happening. I mean, yeah, I was pretty worried. And it's a government organization. Stranger things have happened. Yeah, but like I said, that was the biggest thing I was glad to see gone.
[42:03] There's no monthly subscription fees. There's no cellular data you have to worry about. all that has been taken out. And it really, with anything having to change, like if it had to change, if it couldn't be left alone, if changes had to be made, this is probably the best case scenario as to what could have happened, I think. Yeah, other than the complete repeal yes I agree all right so next I want to move on to just
[42:31] a quick text we got don't forget guys text us email us let us know yeah what you're thinking it's always great to hear from our listeners it really is also go to the website fill out out the listener survey if you haven't yet. Actually, even if you have yet and you want to say something else, feel free to fill it out. Yeah, go ahead. More information is not a bad thing. No, it's always fun to get those.
[42:55] And if you get to the point where, you want to stay anonymous and you don't want to put your name in it, you don't have to fill out any identification fields on the survey. in it you don't have to fill out the any identification fields on the survey you can also do the contact us form on the website and you can do that without putting in name or email nice i think now that i say that now that i say that i might be wrong but i know you might be
[43:19] wrong i know you can do it without giving us any kind of information on the listener feedback form. So if I'm wrong and you have to put like a name or something in the contact us form and you want to use that, just make something up. I don't care. That's fine. But anyway, just reach out and get in touch with us. Let us know what you have going on. We will also be starting YouTube videos before long. We will also be starting YouTube videos before long.
[43:51] It was pushed off, honestly, a week, so I'm hoping we can start doing that next week.
[44:01] Our plan at this point is to do some how-to videos and to actually release the podcast in video form. Nothing is going to change on how we release the audio. It's going to stay the same. So now you're going to have to see our ugly faces instead of just listen to them. Or just, yeah, actually you're right. You got to watch us from now on. It might be kind of boring though because we won't be doing anything other than talking, but whatever, listen to us, watch us,
[44:20] whatever you want to do, that's great. We'll try to put some cool stuff in the background for you to look at when we're battling on about stuff. But we need ideas on what you want to see for YouTube videos. So please reach out and let us know if, what kind of how-to you want to see, what you want to see us do, if there's anything you want us to try and teach you how to do or, anything you just want to see us do that's maybe even dumb and just kind of fun.
[44:46] I mean, I'm up for that kind of stuff too. Yeah. I mean, as long as it doesn't involve crashing an airplane. Well, even that might be fun sometimes. I knew you were going to say that. I was trying to set it up because I knew you'd say that. Let's see how bad we can crash it and still rebuild it. Ron is always game for crashing an airplane, just so everybody everybody especially especially if it's not mine just saying right but anyway so we we have
[45:12] started the youtube channel there's like hardly anything on there so don't expect to go see anything great but there is a link on our our home page on the website that takes you to the YouTube channel is just a couple short, not great videos up there as of now. But there will be more coming up. So go maybe watch them. And if you don't want to watch them, at least subscribe. Subscribing is really going to help us in the long run.
[45:41] So also when you subscribe, it will let when we release new videos, what's coming up and just another way for us to kind of keep in touch with you guys. So go subscribe, like us, do whatever you got to do and we will be moving on and seeing what comes next. So all that. So let's talk about this text. All of that came out because we did receive another text from somebody
[46:04] and that's what took me down that rabbit hole of getting off topic. So let's talk about this text. All of that came out because we did receive another text from somebody. And that's what took me down that rabbit hole of getting off topic. But anyway, so I have no clue who this is. I reeled you back in. Yeah, thank you. I have no clue who this is because he never said a name.
[46:18] But he said, love the podcast. Hey, guys, there's a local gun range in my town and an awesome hobby shop in Minnesota. But no RC flight clubs anywhere close how can I get connected with the gun range to help them use it as a double-purpose RC airfield and create an RC airplane Club he says I'm also an avid hunter I do have a great side business welding I could possibly put up some money and also what would be the best way to make a runway on an existing grass field?
[46:55] Well, for the club field business, I would say I'm not an expert on how to start clubs, but I know who is, the AMA. You can log into the, you can go to the Academy of Model Aeronautics website, and you can read through there. I'm pretty sure there's probably a tutorial on how to start a club. That's probably where I would start. And if that goes well and you've got enough buy-in from the AMA and whatever else you need to form a club, then I would say then your next step would be to
[47:20] contact the gun range and work up maybe some kind of agreement mutual agreement between your new club and the gun range to see if you guys can come to a mutually beneficial satisfactory agreement yeah i i don't know if there's any ama guidelines about gun ranges and that kind of stuff because i i don't know yeah it seems like they wouldn't really go together, but who knows? I mean, maybe there's a way to really distinctly separate the two
[47:52] so that you're not flying when they're shooting and you're not shooting when you're flying and all that kind of business. Or do it at once and have target practice while you're flying. Okay, I'm not going to try to shoot anybody's plane down, and I wouldn't appreciate anybody trying to shoot mine down. Well, if you were up for it, though, that might be kind of fun. You never know. Add a whole other line to it. I'm just thinking of all the danger involved with that.
[48:18] Stray bullets and I don't know. It just seems like a bad idea. It's Minnesota. Maybe he's out on like 400 acres, and there's no way it's ever going to get hit. I mean, I don't know. It just seems like a bad idea. It's Minnesota. Maybe he's out on like 400 acres and there's no way it's ever going to get hit. I mean, I don't know. Sometimes I talk without thinking. Okay, fair enough. But anyway, it seems like the two would be mutually exclusive, but who knows.
[48:40] But the AMA is certainly where I would start. And all of their information, like literally all of their information is available right online. And most of that information is free. You don't even need to be a member to read it.
[49:07] information and stuff on there too. And yeah, that would be the first logical step. Just kind of see what, according to them, what all goes into opening up an AMA sanction field. Because don't forget here in the next year, two years, whatever it ends up being, you're going to have to get that also as one, what did you call it? fia a faa recognized oh gosh i lost it here it is faa recognized identification area
[49:31] oh f-r-i-a that's where it comes from i gotcha okay so a freya because that sounds awesome so yeah an faa recognized whatever you say i'm saying it i I guess. But yeah, you'll want to get it changed over to one of those when that's available too. So yeah, reach out to the AMA and see what they say and reach out to us and let us know what you end up finding out. As for making a runway on an existing grass field, that's pretty easy. Cut the grass short. a little bit about that.
[50:05] Yeah, all I did, honestly, and we don't fly a lot of tiny stuff, so short grass is good enough for us. But all I did is I ran a lawn roller over it to make sure that we're, as smooth as possible. And then I just keep the grass cut short where we want to land. So make sure there's no grass clumps and all that kind of stuff in the middle of your runway. And I just remembered this. If you have a mole problem, you might want to get rid of those as quickly as you can.
[50:35] Because, man, a mole rut or hole or whatever they're called in the middle of a runway is not fun when you hit it unexpectedly. Yeah. We actually had to do that here a couple times so there you go good call and actually if you're wanting to fly like edf jets and stuff they also make rolls of plastic big big rolls that you can actually roll out and use that kind of like as a a paved runway i'm doing air quotes, but you can't see it.
[51:06] A paved runway for like the small wheels on the EDF jets. So there's ways of doing it. But if it's just small, like nitro or even electric airplanes, easiest thing to do is cut your grass short, make sure you get all the clippings on the outside, not towards the center, and you're good. Yep. Yep. Get it as short as you can without killing it, and smooth is better. Yeah, I've scalped mine in a few spots a couple times, and I got in trouble, but it grew back.
[51:35] It does, for the most part, unless the weeds grow in, and then it gets all clumpy and rough. Yeah, well, it's still green, so that's all that matters. That's true. Weeds still green so that's all that matters that's true weeds are green all right well is there anything else you want to talk about today or do you think we got it all covered no i think i think that does it for this episode i i have conveyed all of my
[51:57] faa wisdom to you all now so very good well i hope i, I hope next week we're back in person and we can kind of get moving on with everything that we had planned on doing. Yes, I agree. I'm feeling much better, so I see no reason why we won't be able to do that. Yeah, there was a little while there. I didn't know if you were going to make it. Yeah, I was feeling pretty crummy for a while.
[52:22] I mean, I got the text from you just saying I wasn't feeling well and that kind of stuff, and then nothing. And then your wife texted and said he's not doing well at all. He's doing bad. I'm like, oh. And then we got no text from you for two days straight. I'm like, man, maybe he really is. I don't know. He's getting old anyway. Well, that's true. I am getting old. And Lori does maybe exaggerate a little. But I spent a couple days in bed. That's for sure. That's no lie.
[52:52] Well, I'm very glad to hear you're feeling better. So, like I said, hopefully next weekend we'll be back to normal and we will move on and talk about flying the duelist. I hope so. Me too. So, okay. okay well until next time everybody thank you for listening i'm ron yep i'm tom good night goodbye we hope you enjoyed this episode of the rc plane lab podcast for topic suggestions to ask questions or to give any feedback connect with us
[53:20] at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either ron rcplanelab.com or tom rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either ron at rcplanelab.com or tom at rcplanelab.com. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, may your landings be gentle.
