It’s official. Model airplanes are aircraft, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which on November 18 reversed the March 6 ruling of NTSB judge Patrick Geraghty. In that ruling, which came about because the FAA assessed a $10,000 civil penalty on the commercial use of a model aircraft by Raphael Pirker, Geraghty said the FAA had no basis for asserting FAR Part 91 authority over Pirker’s operation and that only advisory guidance applies to model aircraft. The FAA said that Pirker flew his aircraft, a Ritewing Zephyr weighing less than five pounds, “in a careless or reckless manner” in violation of FAR 91.13(a).
The FAA “has not issued an enforceable FAR regulatory rule governing model aircraft operation; (and) has historically exempted model aircraft from the statutory FAR definitions of ‘aircraft’ by relegating model aircraft operations to voluntary compliance with the guidance expressed in AC 91-57,” the ruling stated.
Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.
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