Quote Originally Posted by Tom Charpentier View Post
TWhat we're envisioning is that if I want to fly my eFlite Taylorcraft at the nearby Winnebago County park, I log onto my computer shortly beforehand and tell the FAA that I'll be flying from 6:00-7:30 PM at that location, and the automated system quickly sends me back a verification that I am not in controlled airspace and no TFRs are active (if I'm in controlled airspace, that's not a problem either as long as I have authorization). I would provide a minimum of information about the model(s) I am flying, if at all (perhaps just a self-certification that what I am flying is VLOS-only). Then I go fly my unequipped model exactly as I do today. Or I could go to my local model field, which would be registered as a FRIA, or if I had enough land, maybe even my own backyard, which I could register as a FRIA or operate from in a similar manner to the county park.
So as long as you remember every single time you feel like flying your RC T-craft to log into a website ahead of time and let someone know you're going to be at the park doing circles at 50' AGL, you haven't violated any laws... maybe...

Or you hop into your full scale Taylorcraft without a radio, transponder, or ADS-B, take off whenever you please, fly whenever and wherever you please (as long as you stay out of Class C airspace and Mode C veils), land wherever you please, at whatever altitude you please up to 10,000 MSL, without telling a soul anything about it, and still be just fine.

But if you unbox your new electric park flyer, disregard the paperwork that people generally disregard, take it to the park and fly it around without notifying the FAA about it first... now you're breaking the law. Sounds like we're creating a new class of criminal.

Is it April 1 yet?