Hello everybody.
I am here with my hat in my hand as they say to ask of you all a huge favour. As you al well know, you are all under the hammer in the States with the new FAA ruling and I have spread the word here in Spain amongst the forums I am on, and people have signed from the on the change.org petition that was published for the matter, which unfortunately we couldn't help more with letter campaign and things like that as we are not american citizens. Now unfortunately, sparking off from what the FAA has done over there, the AESA (our equivalent of your FAA) togeather with the sporting federations (yes, plural, one for the nation and one for each autonomous region) have decided to band togeather to enforce a new law to take action on September 5th. It's all a very long and winded plan they have out, just as most of these official organisms do, but really, what is saying is this:
-That from the 5th of September, anyone wanting to fly a model aircraft must have the appropriate licence with which to do so, which is in itself raising an issue as the issuing of the licence will be with arbitrary rules and price depending which federation is issuing it and will have limited coverage.
-You will only be able to fly within the confines of a federation approved site, which in itself eliminates all slopesoaring, as well as the prohibition on most sites nowadays against helicopters, multirotors and nitro/gas engines.
-You will only be able to fly on clear days when the weather is favourable, without indicating of course what the definition of "favourable weather" is, such as wind velocity. Also, incidently, banning all night flying.
-The range will be of 300m, which in itself removes long range FPV entirely, eventhough FPV is still allowed, arbeit it's not allowed at many flying fields just like helicopters and such.
-The movement is to enforce everyone under the governing body of a sports federation, who's existence is solely for competition reasons. This would be like having to join a professional sporting federation for cycling just to ride a bike to work for example. The federations have no jurisdiction over the sport on a hobby level, and in fact have absolutely no interest, but are using this ploy to get more money for their own uses, as not only do they get money from memberships, but also an assigned grant from the government which is in accordance with the number of members they have. At a vote, only the members who actively compete actually get a right to vote for example. This enforcement is of no interest to anyone on a hobby level, and in fact doesn't even cover under their own insurance plan as that only covers in officially organised federation events, being the usage on normal days even on federation land uncovered, as well as not covering anyone before third party (other pilots, federation members and their families not being considered third party and therefore being uncovered by the insurance).
-The ability to add new random rules after the law enforcement without any needed consent from anyone. Meaning that if after the law is in place, they can decide to say "no 3 blade propellers allowed" for example, with no reason as to why and no ability to challenge the ruling, becoming law immediately.
These things and many others are what they have decided to try and enforce onto us, literally banning the hobby as such entirely unless practised in an environment completely controlled by them under their random rules, and all for a random fee that they will decide almost on a case-to-case basis, which is not surprising considering the amount of corruption this so called government is in to, and the federations just want more money for their own use and just to invest in the competitive sport, and whatever's left over, well, that usually just dissapears, no questions asked, for those with the authority to ask them are in on it too. You are not even allowed to fly on your own property without it first being surveyed by a federation official for a large fee, and then subsequent yearly fees ontop of your membership fee, and all to fly a quad for example in your back yard.
As such we are starting a letter campaign against the movement over here in Spain, but just as with your case, you have to be a Spanish resident to be able to do so. But, on a parallel line, a petition has been made at change.org which anyone will be able to sign, and this is where I ask, where I beg you to please help us by doing the favour of signing it. At the moment, the goal is only set at 200 as not many people actually fly within Spain, but I would LOVE to be able to blow everybody's expectations with a goal that totally breaks that if possible.
I come to you on this forum as I find it to be a wonderful community, on an international basis, where everyone is so kind and helpful always, hoping you could possibly help us out with this issue which is downright totally unfair, and as I said before, literally banning the hobby and forcing many of us to give it up.
If you do wish to help, here is the link to the Change.org petition been created for the issue. If there are any questions about it, being as it is in Spanish of course, please ask them here or even in a private message, and I will be happy to answer them for you.
Thank you all very much for your support, and thank you FT for being such a great site/show/community.
Andrea
I am here with my hat in my hand as they say to ask of you all a huge favour. As you al well know, you are all under the hammer in the States with the new FAA ruling and I have spread the word here in Spain amongst the forums I am on, and people have signed from the on the change.org petition that was published for the matter, which unfortunately we couldn't help more with letter campaign and things like that as we are not american citizens. Now unfortunately, sparking off from what the FAA has done over there, the AESA (our equivalent of your FAA) togeather with the sporting federations (yes, plural, one for the nation and one for each autonomous region) have decided to band togeather to enforce a new law to take action on September 5th. It's all a very long and winded plan they have out, just as most of these official organisms do, but really, what is saying is this:
-That from the 5th of September, anyone wanting to fly a model aircraft must have the appropriate licence with which to do so, which is in itself raising an issue as the issuing of the licence will be with arbitrary rules and price depending which federation is issuing it and will have limited coverage.
-You will only be able to fly within the confines of a federation approved site, which in itself eliminates all slopesoaring, as well as the prohibition on most sites nowadays against helicopters, multirotors and nitro/gas engines.
-You will only be able to fly on clear days when the weather is favourable, without indicating of course what the definition of "favourable weather" is, such as wind velocity. Also, incidently, banning all night flying.
-The range will be of 300m, which in itself removes long range FPV entirely, eventhough FPV is still allowed, arbeit it's not allowed at many flying fields just like helicopters and such.
-The movement is to enforce everyone under the governing body of a sports federation, who's existence is solely for competition reasons. This would be like having to join a professional sporting federation for cycling just to ride a bike to work for example. The federations have no jurisdiction over the sport on a hobby level, and in fact have absolutely no interest, but are using this ploy to get more money for their own uses, as not only do they get money from memberships, but also an assigned grant from the government which is in accordance with the number of members they have. At a vote, only the members who actively compete actually get a right to vote for example. This enforcement is of no interest to anyone on a hobby level, and in fact doesn't even cover under their own insurance plan as that only covers in officially organised federation events, being the usage on normal days even on federation land uncovered, as well as not covering anyone before third party (other pilots, federation members and their families not being considered third party and therefore being uncovered by the insurance).
-The ability to add new random rules after the law enforcement without any needed consent from anyone. Meaning that if after the law is in place, they can decide to say "no 3 blade propellers allowed" for example, with no reason as to why and no ability to challenge the ruling, becoming law immediately.
These things and many others are what they have decided to try and enforce onto us, literally banning the hobby as such entirely unless practised in an environment completely controlled by them under their random rules, and all for a random fee that they will decide almost on a case-to-case basis, which is not surprising considering the amount of corruption this so called government is in to, and the federations just want more money for their own use and just to invest in the competitive sport, and whatever's left over, well, that usually just dissapears, no questions asked, for those with the authority to ask them are in on it too. You are not even allowed to fly on your own property without it first being surveyed by a federation official for a large fee, and then subsequent yearly fees ontop of your membership fee, and all to fly a quad for example in your back yard.
As such we are starting a letter campaign against the movement over here in Spain, but just as with your case, you have to be a Spanish resident to be able to do so. But, on a parallel line, a petition has been made at change.org which anyone will be able to sign, and this is where I ask, where I beg you to please help us by doing the favour of signing it. At the moment, the goal is only set at 200 as not many people actually fly within Spain, but I would LOVE to be able to blow everybody's expectations with a goal that totally breaks that if possible.
I come to you on this forum as I find it to be a wonderful community, on an international basis, where everyone is so kind and helpful always, hoping you could possibly help us out with this issue which is downright totally unfair, and as I said before, literally banning the hobby and forcing many of us to give it up.
If you do wish to help, here is the link to the Change.org petition been created for the issue. If there are any questions about it, being as it is in Spanish of course, please ask them here or even in a private message, and I will be happy to answer them for you.
Thank you all very much for your support, and thank you FT for being such a great site/show/community.
Andrea
