07-Aug-2019, 02:21 AM
Now that the FPVFC has been doing public meetings in discord for more than a year, I thought I ought to give a little overview of the FPVFC and a history of what my involvement with the group has been.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the FPV Freedom Coalition, here is our mission statement. “The FPV Freedom Coalition fosters the freedoms of recreational FPV pilots, enhances our culture through defined safety guidelines and effective educational resources while protecting the privilege to access abundant airspace.” It was started by Chad Kapper in the summer of 2018 with the help of FPV community volunteers.
So to begin this story we need to go back to the summer of 2018. There were a few events that took place at that time which I believe directly impacted the creation of the FPVFC and kickstarted the group into becoming what we are today. There was an FAA subcommittee hearing that Zoe FPV live streamed and some videos by xjet questioning who was representing our community to the lawmakers.
It was shortly after watching these videos that I happened to be on a discord server where an invite went out asking people to participate in a different discord server run by Chad Kapper with the intent to form a group to advocate for the rights of FPV pilots. Chad was probably working on this for a while, but spurred on by the recent ( at the time ) FAA news it gained my attention as was the first time I had heard anything about it.
So I joined Chad’s Discord server and lurked for a bit before joining the first organized meeting of the FPVFC on July 31, 2018. Just before the meeting started I had the crazy idea that someone should record this so others who could not attend could watch the replay and get caught up with what was discussed and as a quick easy way to take notes to refer to later. So that’s what I did. I recorded the meeting and posted it up on YouTube. This was just the beginning of my involvement with the newly created group.
From there things began moving pretty quickly. It became clear to me that anyone who saw a need, offered to fill the need, and was capable of doing so, was greatly appreciated. At one point Chad mentioned he was looking for help with the website. Since I have a long history of creating websites and thought my skills could be useful there in addition to recording the meetings, I contacted Chad to offer up my services. Shortly there after I was given access to the website and YouTube channel where I could begin working.
A core group of volunteers started to emerge from the Discord server and began taking on more and more of the responsibilities of getting the FPVFC off the ground. Around this time the FAA reauthorization act of 2018 was passed and it became clear that the FPVFC needed to become a recognized community based organization (CBO). The act laid out a few of the requirements that an organization would have to meet to become recognized by the FAA as a CBO. The main requirement that we needed to focus on at the time was becoming a 501(c)(3) non profit organization and to do that we need the help of a lawyer. This is where your donations come in. In order to run an organization such as this, we have expenses such as website hosting and paying for lawyers to help us become an official group.
In December 2018, the FPVFC became incorporated and submitted our paperwork to become a non-profit organization with the IRS. While we had hoped this would be a quick process, it turned out it would take a lot longer due to the US government shutdown that occurred during this time.
On April 3, 2019 the FPV Freedom Coalition announced our official launch as a non-profit organization.
As roles and responsibilities continued to shake out, Chad Kapper became the CEO and Board Chair, Dave Messina became the President and Board Member, Josh Cook became the Vice President and Board Member, Stephanie Cunningham became the Marketing Program Manager, and I became the Technology and Regulations Program Manager. While we may have official titles, the core team is very small and we all pitch in in whatever way we can to try to make this organization succeed.
So, that not so brief recap brings us to the FPVFC that you see today. Hope that helps get you all up to speed on what the FPVFC is, where we came from, where we intend to go, and how you can help us get there. For more information please visit https://fpvfc.org/ where you will also find links to our Discord channel, Facebook group, and more.
If you have any questions about the FPVFC or regulations in the US, please let me know. I’ll do my best to answer them.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the FPV Freedom Coalition, here is our mission statement. “The FPV Freedom Coalition fosters the freedoms of recreational FPV pilots, enhances our culture through defined safety guidelines and effective educational resources while protecting the privilege to access abundant airspace.” It was started by Chad Kapper in the summer of 2018 with the help of FPV community volunteers.
So to begin this story we need to go back to the summer of 2018. There were a few events that took place at that time which I believe directly impacted the creation of the FPVFC and kickstarted the group into becoming what we are today. There was an FAA subcommittee hearing that Zoe FPV live streamed and some videos by xjet questioning who was representing our community to the lawmakers.
It was shortly after watching these videos that I happened to be on a discord server where an invite went out asking people to participate in a different discord server run by Chad Kapper with the intent to form a group to advocate for the rights of FPV pilots. Chad was probably working on this for a while, but spurred on by the recent ( at the time ) FAA news it gained my attention as was the first time I had heard anything about it.
So I joined Chad’s Discord server and lurked for a bit before joining the first organized meeting of the FPVFC on July 31, 2018. Just before the meeting started I had the crazy idea that someone should record this so others who could not attend could watch the replay and get caught up with what was discussed and as a quick easy way to take notes to refer to later. So that’s what I did. I recorded the meeting and posted it up on YouTube. This was just the beginning of my involvement with the newly created group.
From there things began moving pretty quickly. It became clear to me that anyone who saw a need, offered to fill the need, and was capable of doing so, was greatly appreciated. At one point Chad mentioned he was looking for help with the website. Since I have a long history of creating websites and thought my skills could be useful there in addition to recording the meetings, I contacted Chad to offer up my services. Shortly there after I was given access to the website and YouTube channel where I could begin working.
A core group of volunteers started to emerge from the Discord server and began taking on more and more of the responsibilities of getting the FPVFC off the ground. Around this time the FAA reauthorization act of 2018 was passed and it became clear that the FPVFC needed to become a recognized community based organization (CBO). The act laid out a few of the requirements that an organization would have to meet to become recognized by the FAA as a CBO. The main requirement that we needed to focus on at the time was becoming a 501(c)(3) non profit organization and to do that we need the help of a lawyer. This is where your donations come in. In order to run an organization such as this, we have expenses such as website hosting and paying for lawyers to help us become an official group.
In December 2018, the FPVFC became incorporated and submitted our paperwork to become a non-profit organization with the IRS. While we had hoped this would be a quick process, it turned out it would take a lot longer due to the US government shutdown that occurred during this time.
On April 3, 2019 the FPV Freedom Coalition announced our official launch as a non-profit organization.
As roles and responsibilities continued to shake out, Chad Kapper became the CEO and Board Chair, Dave Messina became the President and Board Member, Josh Cook became the Vice President and Board Member, Stephanie Cunningham became the Marketing Program Manager, and I became the Technology and Regulations Program Manager. While we may have official titles, the core team is very small and we all pitch in in whatever way we can to try to make this organization succeed.
So, that not so brief recap brings us to the FPVFC that you see today. Hope that helps get you all up to speed on what the FPVFC is, where we came from, where we intend to go, and how you can help us get there. For more information please visit https://fpvfc.org/ where you will also find links to our Discord channel, Facebook group, and more.
If you have any questions about the FPVFC or regulations in the US, please let me know. I’ll do my best to answer them.
Like listening to 80s and 90s music? Perhaps you will like my FPV Channel.
Concerned about regulations? Join the FPV Freedom Coalition.
Concerned about regulations? Join the FPV Freedom Coalition.
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