>  > The guy flying the R/C plane so close to an airport is an idiot.
> 
> 
> Yes he is but not because he is flying near an airport but because of his
lack of good
> judgement.  In the US, you can fly near airports but there are strict
rules to live by or
> fly by for it.  My club was near an air force base and it was a pain to
fly there because
> of the primary rule which was to require a spotter when flying.  This
meant you could
> never just get up on your day off and go fly by yourself first thing in
the morning like I
> liked to do.  You always had to find somebody to go with you.  We have
since moved
> our flying site and so those rules are no longer required.  Being that
Australia has
> banned guns and lasers, I guess model airplanes are next.


It's not like you can ban idiots.

The current laws can deal with him, from memory it's no flying within 6km of
an airfield, and a 250 metre ceiling, and lobbing stuff at planes (or even
suggesting) has always been frowned upon.  It'll be other flyers who track
him down, they have a vested interest in weeding out the undesired.

Yeah, lasers got restricted to 1mW, down from 5mW.  You can still amuse your
cat.  You can still own high-powered ones if you have a 'reasonable excuse'.
Still sucks, and the US isn't much better.

The 'great Australian gun ban' is an NRA myth.  Here ya go, get educated -
this <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Australia> sums it up
reasonably well.

I know it's hard for the stereotypical (not average) American to believe,
but Australians really don't care about guns all that much - it's simply not
in our culture.  Beer and sport, on the other hand...  It's actually quite
hard to disarm a nation that never had many guns in the first place.  

If you want a gun, you can get a gun.  You never really could own full-auto,
handguns or anti-aircraft cannons, the new rules added no semi-autos,
pump-action shotguns, or magazines holding more than five rounds.  That's
it, that's the 'great gun ban'.  Basically, you're allowed to have
bolt-action rifles.  In some cases (pro shooters) you're still allowed
semi-auto.

Of the guns handed in, about 5% were the banned semi-auto, the rest was
probably people dumping old crap for cash - I know a few who did just that.
Most shooters I know think semi-autos are for people with poor aim.

Tony

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