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Model aircraft builders are terrorists?

I found an interesting story on NetworkWorld.com today.

It was a bit of a beat-up on the commonality between creating your own civil disaster emergency kit and acting like a terrorist (slow news day huh?) and as such it wasn't much of a story.

However, I take a look at the graphic titled "Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Hobby Shops".

My goodness -- wasn't this the very thing I was trying to get across to "the powers that be" and "the public at large" when I did my DIY Cruise Missile project?

Of course, as usual, the bureaucrats have got much of it wrong again.

For a start, most RC model aircraft have neither they range nor payload capabilities needed to deliver any practical payload of a terrorist nature.

With a trend towards smaller, lighter, electric-powered foam models, this is even more the case now. A 1Kg electric foam model isn't going to carry much extra weight without a significant loss of endurance and flight capabilities.

Based on the rather naive set of bullet points under that title of "What Should I Consider Suspicious", it seems that almost anyone considering getting into the hobby of flying RC models will be considered a terror suspect.

Before my RC flying activities were curtailed, I'd often get members of the public (including young kids) asking such questions as:

"How high/far/fast will that plane go?"

"Can you put bombs on it mista?"

"What's the biggest model you can build?"

"Have you ever put a dog in one of those planes?"

My goodness -- if this was the USA, all those kids and their parents would likely have been on a watch-list by now.

What a tragic world we live in when people who simply wish to engage in one of the most enjoyable, rewarding, challenging hobbies in the world now run the risk of being seen as potential baby-killers -- simply because they ask questions that might be on a US Bureau of Justice warning list.

As I pointed out when doing the DIY cruise missile project, anyone contemplating the use of unmanned miniature aircraft to deliver a nasty payload won't need to pop down to their local hobby shop and ask naive questions.

The internet is a treasure-trove of information and parts.

I'm seriously tempted to do another LCCM build -- a decade after the first.

It will be very interesting to compare the differences in cost, capabilities, availability of parts and other factors.

Or would I simply be asking for trouble?

Hey, thanks to the actions of a couple of groups of grumpy old men I'm left with time on my hands and, as we all know, "the devil finds work for idle hands" :-)

This time however, I would perhaps not do a build-log -- just unveil the completed project once it was done.

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