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Big risks, small risks

As I type this, the sky is falling.

Well not the sky as such but something way up there in the sky.

The NASA Swift observatory satellite is about to come plunging through the earth's atmosphere towards the ground below and nobody's quite sure where it will impact.

To be fair, most of it will burn up on re-entry but the experts claim that some of the heavier bits, such as the intertia wheels used to stabilize the craft while it was in orbit, may not be fully consumed during its descent.

Despite the fact that this one and a half tonnes of space junk could hit a populated area and cause significant damage and even death, no warnings or cautions have been published.

In fact, you won't even be advised to wear a hard-hat when you go on your morning jog. The risk is non-zero but if you do get turned into a stain on the footpath, well that's just your bad luck.

Now compare this with the problem I'm presently facing.

As regular readers know, I like to fly drones and model aircraft, as I have done for over 65 years now.

I'm a competent, responsible, well disciplined pilot of these small craft and during that entire 65 year period I have never caused harm to any other person or any other person's property.

While most of the reasons for this impeccable safety record are due to my own personal abilities and standards, it also has a great deal to do with the intrinsically low risks associated with this hobby.

Modern RC model aircraft tend to be built from energy-absorbing foams such as EPP or EPO and the trend is towards smaller and lighter models. When you combine these two factors you find that low mass plus slower energy-transfer in the event of a collision means greatly reduced forces in such cases.

Since the local council is still playing silly buggers and abusing their powers to prevent me from flying with others at the local airfield, I'm on the hunt for a new space in which to do my flying.

If this was Australia, the USA or almost any other country in the world, that wouldn't be a problem. I could simply negotiate with a local farmer, perhaps mow a little runway in the grass and enjoy the warm days of summer staring at my model circling in the sky above.

However, this is New Zealand and my search for a new flying field has been constantly thwarted by our idiotic drone regulations, combined with our malfeasant council.

Due to our dumb-arsed regulations, neither I, nor anyone else, can fly a tiny sub-250 gram drone or RC model within 4Km of an airfield or helipad unless it's effectively under cover of nearby trees. Yes, that's right, if I find a lovely, flat, grassy field 3.9Km from the boundary of our airfield I'm still forbidden to fly there, even if my tiny, lightweight model never ventures more than a few tens of metres above the ground.

In Australia, model flyers can operate almost right up to the edge of an uncontrolled airfield, so long as they make sure they stay out of the way of any aircraft that might come along. Apparently CAA New Zealand believes that Kiwis can't be trusted to act with similar commonsense as our mates across the ditch so we're simply forbidden to fly anywhere near such facilities.

The obvious question one must ask is "why the hell would any aircraft be flying below 400 feet (in breach of other CAA regulations) when they were 3.9Km from a runway?"

Apparently, one is not supposed to ask such questions or demonstrate any other form of logical or commonsense challenge to this ridiculously restrictive regulation.

So here we have the ultimate of ironies... on the one hand, a tonne and a half of (previously) orbiting observatory is about to crash into the planet and that's okay, an acceptable risk -- yet at the same time, an old man with his 249g piece of foam and an impeccable 65 year record of safety is forbidden to circle just 10m above the ground in a grassy field 3.9Km from a virtually unused airfield because it's deemed to be too dangerous for him to do so.

The world truly is screwed up, don't you think?

Carpe Diem folks!

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