 Hey guys, it's Drew and I'm back with another video about the FAA's newly proposed regulations for drones and all RC aircraft. Today we're talking about the comment period, which is part of the formal process where we all get a chance to say what we think of this proposal. Give feedback to the FAA. This is our chance to talk about all the problems with this proposal and propose solutions to these problems. First off, I want to say that don't let anyone tell you that this doesn't matter or that it won't make a difference. It is simply not true. As we've gotten more active about this and we've been putting our content and trying to get help and learn more about the process, we've gotten to talk with a lot of different people from other companies in the RC industries to policy advisors in Washington D.C. And even some members of the FAA and a takeaway that I've gotten from these conversations is that we need to take this process seriously and it does make a difference. Now, they're not telling me and I'm not telling you that, oh, we make a comment. Everything's going to be great. We're going to get everything that we want. But if we all come together, we can push things in a way that they need to go to protect the future of building and flying drones and other model aircraft. Now, the comment period ends on March 2nd. We've taken our time to learn how this process works and learn how we can best make effective comments, but it is getting to be the time where we have to get our comments in. So I urge you guys to watch this video and make a comment. There will be a link in the description to take you straight to the place where you can type in your comment. We've gathered some tips about making effective comments that we want to share to help you guys leave effective comments that will make the biggest impact on the NPRM. The first thing is that your comment needs to be unique and original. There are other times where it's appropriate to copy and paste, maybe if you're writing to a state representative or something, it's just about getting the numbers up. But this is not the case. Only unique comments will be counted. So it is very important that you write an original comment and not just copy and paste. Another thing that will prevent your comment from even being read is if your comment is vulgar or inappropriate. If you're like me and you're angry about the proposal, I need you to remember to channel that emotion into positive action and not negative discourse. If you come at them and say, bleep bleep bleep for that FAA bleep bleep that, your comment's not going to be read. It's not going to make a difference. So please keep your comments polite and professional. Now do make your comments personal. Do talk about all the positive impacts that the hobby of flight has on your life. your life. And talk about how these regulations affect that hobby and the impact it will have on you and your life. Talk about why this matters to you and then expand the scope and talk about why this matters to more than just us that care about FPV, why this matters to the world. A great thing to talk about is STEM. I cannot think of a better vehicle for science and arts inspiration and education than FPV drones. There are so many STEM programs that are designed around the building and flying of drones and that is a great thing to talk about. You can also talk about how these regulations will stifle American innovation in the drone space and how it's going to make it difficult for the United States to compete with other countries in the drone space. Innovation comes from the hobbyists like us. Talk about specific items in the proposal, what it actually says, why it's problematic, and what can be done as an alternative to the problematic proposal. I chose to focus on the distinguishment between consumer grade drones, say the ones that you can buy at Best Buy, and amateur built aircraft, whether that's model aircraft or FPV drones because there is a difference. Those of us that build and fly these machines that takes a lot of skill to build and fly, we are not the ones causing the problems. That's a big issue of mine with the proposal is that it in effect punishes the wrong people because under the proposal you could keep going to stores and buying ready to fly semi-autonomous drones so long as they have built-in remote ID, but you cannot continue to build your drone. There is no provision in the proposal that reasonably allows us to build our drone with or without remote ID. Essentially you have to buy pre-manufactured drones and that is not acceptable. I talked about the history of years of safe FPV flight and the decades of safe RC flight that came before us. I recommend you go beyond just talking about the problems and suggest solutions. One such solution that I chose to write about is a shielded operations provision. A shielded operations provision would exempt certain drone flights from these regulations if the drone is flying below a certain altitude of natural or man-made objects and I think this makes a ton of sense. If I'm flying my drone below the tree tops or in a parking lot below the surrounding buildings there is no reason why my drone should ever interfere with a manned aircraft. If there's a manned aircraft in that area there's a much bigger problem than my little drone. Now these are just the problematic areas and potential solutions that I chose to talk about but there are a lot of areas of the proposal that deserve attention and if you would like to learn more detail check the links in the description to information from the FPV Freedom Coalition. They have put together multiple documents to provide advice for writing comments, talking points that you can focus on, potential solutions, just heaps of information so definitely check that out. Lastly consider uploading documents or even photos that support your comment. I will be uploading a copy of the FPVFC's comments to the NPRM as well as a photo from our last community meetup where dozens of FPV pilots got together to share in their passion for engineering, art and flight. This is the community that I love so much and I'm fighting for. I want to thank all of you that have gotten active and have already been taking action on this. Again our actions matter here. Do not let anyone tell you it doesn't matter. Going to the protest in DC does make a difference. Leaving a comment on the NPRM does make a difference. We have to come together and we have to fight for FPV.