Discussion Park flying in South Africa

[snarf007]

What does the law say about park flying in South-Africa? Would something like the AMA park pilot program work here in SA?

All I know is that my SAMAA insurance won't cover me if I fly at my local school field and most newcomers to the hobby fly electrics due to their ease of operation and now being relatively inexpensive.

I had an incident this weekend that got me thinking. I was flying my parkflyer type electrics at a local field where I have been flying for over 5 years. Then a 'gentleman' arrived with a 50 size nitro heli. I hinted to him that it is probably not a good idea to fly it in a residential area and that every time we have had problems with people complaining about noise, it was because of some nitro head flying his heli. He fueled up and started flying. About 30min later a man arrived complaining about the noise and produced a letter from the school principal stating that we don’t have permission to fly radio control airplanes on the fields and threatened to put the cops on us. I apologized and left, even though I have been flying there the whole morning without anyone complaining. The problem only started when the nitro heli arrived.

The letter showed me that the man must have had the same problem before and just how desperate he is to get rid of people flying close to his house.

My problem is that the general public does not differentiate between parkflyers and noisy inconsiderate nitro heads.

[mikegbogh]

I understand your predicament, here's a suggestion, maybe go visit the headmaster, explain that you fly a quite electric and that it is the "other" aircraft that are the problem.
Here's the smart part , If you are an accomplished pilot offer to do a flight demonstration to any High school kids who maybe interested in going into the "hobby" suggest the school possibly start a Aeromodelling club, building and flying. Maybe with some help from other nearby "electric" clubs you could start a whole new group of pilots with the schools blessing, a win win situation all round.
MAYBE JUST MAYBE you get it right and the headmaster issues you a letter that states "electric park flying welcome on our fields" . Mr Nitro head would then need to go and join a registered club somewhere else and pay his SAMMA fees.
My fairytale, hope you like it.
Mike
Who by the way flies neither of these type's