FLYING AT TEMAC - NEW INFORMATION

[Michael]

Greatings

I hastily cancelled a plane on order from Pinnacle, but then realized my stupidity, and rebooked it, I want to FLY.

It would be great if REPAS Members in the TEMAC club could share their experience to help us through this difficult situation.

Maybe Temac could set up a TEMAC Flight School dedicated to Repas learning, so we can all learn REPAS together as a team.

Regards

Mike Brodey

Hi Mike

The board is meeting in person tomorrow (first time indoors in 3 years!).

One of our goals is to give members an easy to understand path forward.

Hopefully, everything will be in place by this weekend.

[Canuke]

Sounds good. I'll keep my distance. I would be surprised if she replied.

[Chappers]

Thanks to Michael and the board for getting on top of this..

For those are looking to get their RPAS Basic license, I found the following website to be a great resource for understanding how to go about getting this, and what knowledge is required to pass the test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kRBtm_Y35M

You take the test online by paying $10 to Transport Canada, and have 90 minutes to answer 35 multiple choice questions. Many of the questions are of dubious relevence to the aero modelling community, however unfortunately these are the hoops we must now jump through..

[GordPayne]

Yesterday after getting the notification from MAAC, I found this site:

https://www.flyrpas.ca/learn/canadian-basic-rpas-exam-guide-how-i-passed/

Very informative.

I basically had the Government RPAS manual open on the screen with the CARS document for RPAS and frequently doing a Find operation in documents. I needed to do a general search for conventional engine arrangement for a quadcopter with Google. Got what I needed.

During the test I referred to them and got through the test with an 82%.

My lost marks were mostly on radio communications with ATC and aspects of multicopters. No big deal as I'll neither be talking to ATC nor flying quadcopters.

Easily passable in about 35 minutes from my recollection.

It's very doable and should not be approached with apprehension.

We can all do it!

Gordo

[Oscar]

Got bored tonight.  Took the online exam.  I didnt do any study, or download and open AIM, CAR.  If you have a Common Sense and know how to search in Google (it will bring you to the right page of AIM, CAR), you will do fine.  And if nothing works, pick the longest answer from the multiple choice.  LOL

[Wingnutz]

CARS 901.58 "No person shall, in respect of an examination taken under this Division,
(a) copy or remove from any place all or any portion of the text of the examination"

Why is TC so concerned about people copying RPAS pilot exam questions? Are they afraid the copied questions might be shared with people preparing for the exam so they could learn the answers? Isn't that what preparing is supposed to be?
If there are several versions of the RPAS pilot exam or if each exam is randomly generated to cover required areas, seems unlikely by learning the answers to one version of the exam there's much advantage as it's unlikely you will encounter that version when you take the exam. If one was to really "cheat" and have access to all the questions and learn all the answers before taking the exam, wouldn't that be good preparation? (IF the exam is a good test of required knowledge )
Seems to me, TC should have a large bank of exam questions which are public knowledge and  randomly choose 35 questions for each exam... On the other hand, with an open book exam, perhaps we only need to know where to look and really don't need to know any of the answers...I am impressed with Oscar's approach to the exam although my search skills aren't as good as his...

Apologies for my rant...I'm annoyed at the whole mess and grateful to TEMAC and its executive for the leadership shown on this thread. I did pass the RPAS exam as I want to be able to fly and I'm skeptical of TC granting another exemption in timely fashion. Did the same thing in the US and my model airplane (refuse to insult it by calling it a drone or RPAS) has enough numbers on it to complete a couple of sudoku puzzles!

[Oscar]

Bill

I agreed. 

For me, the idea of MAAC is a place that brings together model airplane enthusiasts from flying just for fun to world class competition.  The club is a place to provide a common theme of safety and a fun place to enjoy the hobby.  Under MAAC, we are supposed to get exempted on taking the exam.  But with recent change, we have no choice but get the pilot cert from TC in order to fly our hobby grade plane.

Over 3/4 of my exam questions has nothing to do with my radio-control planes.  What is the point to ask me real plane aviation questions that I can only fly 400ft and LOS with a radio transmitter standing on the ground. 

I cannot speak of others but if I want to continue to fly my hobby grade plane in a club, I have to comply and get the pilot cert from TC.  I know some of us worries getting the exam passed.  I am just sharing the experience and how to get thru it. 

[GordPayne]

With the most sincere respect to all members and those far more experienced than myself, we're in an age of optics.

If we want to participate in a hobby that gives us great joy, there must be a recognition that there are some risks to the public associated with it, as remote as they may be. That risk gives others concern.

I recall last summer that the chief instructor made a point of having students take extra care to always know how close their planes are to the road because there may have been a case of a plane crashing on the road that could have caused a tragic accident for drivers on that relatively high speed route.

It's a risk, and we are responsible in that we take such incidents to heart and hopefully incorporate those events into our pilot mindset which should be a growth mindset.

But unfortunately, in the eyes of the media and by extension the public, we need to demonstrate a level of professionalism and/or certification that the event at Buttonville clearly didn't involve in multiple ways. We're unfortunately being tarred as a group for an individual's negligence.

If it takes each of us $10 and an hour of our time to sit in front of a computer and do some really quick searches while we're doing an exam which is quite common sense (as pointed out by another member), it would seem like a reasonable bit of effort to expend to give our hobby just that increased level of credibility and seriousness that the public wants to know we approach our hobby with.

I am sure others have a different opinion than mine and I respect that.

Thanks for your consideration and let's look forward to lots more flying.

[Wingnutz]

Agree with Gord that taking the exam is a small price to pay for being able to move ahead and enjoy our hobby.
I also agree MAAC members who have a long history of safe operations have been unfairly lumped in with non MAAC members. I am appalled MAAC let the CARs Part IX exemption slip away causing TC to lump us in with non MAAC members such as the drone operator in the Buttonville incident. If the public has in their minds similarly lumped traditional MAAC operations with irresponsible drone operation, then yes, we need to bolster the image of safe, responsible model aircraft (aka RPAS)  operators and getting licenced is one way to do that.
Thanks to TEMAC and this forum for giving me a place to vent amongst other RCers. I will refrain from further ranting.
As per Gord's suggestion, took the RPAS pilot exam and registered one model airplane. Registered the same model with FAA while flying it in the States in February...starting to get a bit cluttered! Add MAAC# ?, Telephone# ?...Naw, not for now.

[Michael]

Thanks for all the input.

I will start a new thread in the next couple days outlining our path forward.

[Gregor77]

Bill. I did some research on registration of model aircraft. I would suggest a sticker or something you can peel off. As you know, we trade planes as much as comic books and hockey cards. There is a liability aspect if you forget to remove the numbers. A good % of my aircraft go to non RC community members and there is a likely hood of a few cold beers and the guy decides to fly it into a person or worse. What I read is the reg number is linked to you and you are liable. You have to de register a model every time you sell or destroy. So please keep in mind. This is just me trying to keep our club members and friends safe.

[Wingnutz]

Thanks Greg. You're correct. Will do the sticker and if I sell it, some surgery!