FAA Registration Mandate is LAW (Again) 

On December 12th, President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act which reinstated the FAA's sUAS registration requirement. As a result, ALL 'drones', which under the law are defined as any small Unmanned Aircraft System, or in plain English- ANY RC aircraft weighing more than 0.55LBS and less than 55LBS.   We strongly encourage all LLFC members to comply with the law until such time as the AMA can either secure a waiver allowing AMA members to use their AMA number instead or until further legal challenges and changes are made. 

From the FAA Website: " You will be subject to civil and criminal penalties if you meet the criteria to register an unmanned aircraft and do not register. "

Again, the Law defines Model Aircraft  as follows (originally from the FAA website FAQ)

Is a UAS the same as a model aircraft?

• Congress defined a "model aircraft" as a UAS that meets all of the following:

• Is capable of sustained flight in the atmosphere

• Is flown within visual line-of-sight of the person operating it

• Is flown for hobby or recreational purposes

We prefer to take a better safe than sorry approach to this issue. We'll be updating our member application to include your FAA registration number again as well as your AMA number.

The law doesn't require you to register every plane/heli/drone you own. Only that you register yourself and affix the FAA number somewhere on your aircraft. It can be hidden inside the battery compartment as long as the number can be easily accessed with simple tools - like a screwdriver.

If you haven't already registered, you can do so here: https://registermyuas.faa.gov/register

The AMA has created a small FAQ to answer questions about this matter, and you can find it here: http://www.modelaircraft.org/aboutama/faa-uas-faq.aspx