WASHINGTON INSIGHT

GO FLY A KITE? Model airplane operators are bombarding bureaucrats and lawmakers with protests that the government wants to shoot down their radio-controlled aircraft. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has received dozens of letters; the Federal Communications Commission, more than 10,000. . . . At issue: an FCC plan to allow more intense use of frequencies reserved mostly for two-way business radios and remote control of construction cranes. The hobbyists, who are assigned adjacent frequencies, claim the change might cause so much radio static that their planes (some with 10-foot wingspans, flying at 100 m.p.h.) would crash, endangering people and property. . . . FCC official Ralph Haller says the agency doesn’t think its plan would harm model plane flights but invites owners to supply technical data indicating otherwise. The FCC is not expected to act until fall or winter.