By J. Chism
A drone is defined as an unmanned aircraft operated remotely by means of a radio and receiver. There are a couple of types of drones. One is the quad copter which has four rotor blades. It can carry Cameras, life preservers, food, mail and light packages. New uses are being discovered daily. Some carry all types of instrumentation and many can return to the sender at the push of a button. The other type of drones is the fixed wing type with an electric driven propeller or a gasoline driven prop.
Drones are in the news lately in a most unlikely way. In Oklahoma City there have been six reports of drone interference with aircraft, as helicopter drones were seen flying off the ends of airport runways.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) claimed the problem was epidemic and wanted to license all drone operators!
There is a little known insurance group that insures flyers of model aircraft, called the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA). When the FAA proposed licensing all model airplane flyers, the AMA went to work! Hiring several attorneys, the AMA began investigating the reports of drone interference with aircraft.
After AMA concluded its investigation, they published a statement:
‘While AMA works closely with the FAA, and we continue to consider the agency a partner in promoting model aircraft and consumer drone safety, our report concludes that the FAA could have done a better job of presenting their data in a more factually accurate manner. By using misleading language in its press release, releasing only preliminary reports and not critically analyzing those reports, the FAA’s report only served, at best, to paint a cloudy and less than accurate picture and raises concerns that simply may not be realistic.’
Whoa! A Federal agency exaggerating reports! How unusual! In the meantime we model aircraft enthusiasts can continue to fly our models in safety without Government interference! Just remember, don’t fly over four hundred feet high and don’t fly off the end of runways!

DISCLAIMER: All columns in The Mannford Reporter are the opinions of the writers of those columns and not necessarily those of the newspaper. They are not researched for accuracy and are provided solely for entertainment purposes.