Flying in Springfield

[JimCorbett]

FYI

5.056 Prohibition of the Operation of Certain Unmanned Model Planes Within the City.

(1) No person shall operate in flight any electronic or radio controlled internal combustion propelled model aircraft within the city.

(2) For purposes of this section, a model aircraft is defined as any aircraft not regulated by the FAA which relies upon electronic or radio remote control for guidance. It shall not apply to any model aircraft attached by wire or other physical direct manual control to the operator or to any form of auto-pilot where the aircraft operator is present on board the aircraft.

http://www.qcode.us/codes/springfield/v ... &frames=on

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From feedback I have received it seems that SOME Springfield police officers believe this apples to ELECTRIC PROPELLED model aircraft as well. IT DOES NOT.

Politely explain the them the the CODE 5.056 prohibits "internal combustion propelled model aircraft" not ELECTRIC PROPELLED model aircraft.

[DwayneG]

Jim

Wow, I wonder how many cities have laws written this poorly. I guess they will pop up now and then. Good catch Jim.

DG

[JRgraham]

From my understanding, this 'Law' was introduced many years ago (80's?) from a plane that had crashed into a vehicle or something along those lines, and may have injured a person. There use to be a fairly active flying site where the old Airport use to be (yep, Springfield had an airport, I think it was where Walmart and Jerry's are now located) and the city went to the extreme and banned all radio controlled flight. (or so they thought)
This of course was before electric motors evolved into RC, so the code was written as it is. That could explain why anyone that knows the Law would just automatically assume it meant ALL RC aircraft, when it clearly states internal combustion propelled model aircraft

I can see how this would be assumed, because of the "No person shall operate in flight any electronic or radio controlled internal combustion propelled model aircraft within the city."

I would assume that had electric motors been around at the time of the writing, it would have been included. So really what we are dealing with is a law that was meant for ALL radio controlled aircraft, that is worded in a way that did not allow for the evolution of different propulsion types to come.

I would go so far as to say that its definitely time to have this law removed. Because if revision is allowed, it will almost definitely include electric propulsion as well.

Point is, we should be careful how we approach this, and to whom we approach it to.

-JR