Tim, I agree 100 percent. Also, that is probably the most well written and thought out post I have seen on RCSE all year. Kudos to you my man.
See Ya, Pat McCleave Wichita, KS > > From: "Tim Bennett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 2005/11/01 Tue PM 03:18:21 EST > To: "RCSE Soaring" <soaring@airage.com> > Subject: [RCSE] Some Thoughts on AMA > > All the comments I have read on this exchange over the last two days bring > to mind some ideas that have been boiling in my mind for a couple of years > regarding the Academy of Model Aeronautics and how it is organized. > > First, a little background regarding me. I have been a model airplane > hobbyist for forty-eight years. My father and his brother were modelers > before me. Like many others in the RC soaring branch of the hobby, I have > built and flown FF, CL, RC "gas", and electric models over the years, but > have been pretty much exclusive to RC soaring for the last fifteen years. I > fly with the Soaring League of North Texas (SLNT) in the Dallas/ Ft Worth > area and am an AMA contest director. I think you could say I am an active > contest flyer. > > Holding thirty-one club contests a year, SLNT may be the most active > competition club in the country. There are thirteen unlimited sailplane > contests including two separate contest days of the Texas National > Tournament (TNT) each year. We will complete a total of fifteen > handlaunch/DLG contests this year. There were also three RES events > including one at TNT. I have flown in all but about three of these events > over the past five or six years and have been CD of all the handlaunch > events for the last six years. Attendance at these competitions has ranged > from about eight to forty-five entrants with the average being between > fifteen and twenty per event. Except for this year, SLNT has obtained AMA > sanctions for about fourteen of these contests each year for at least as > many years as I have been involved. > > My issue with the organization of AMA is that AMA is governed by an > executive council made up of elected regional vice presidents. These > officers are elected by AMA members within a geographic area regardless of > their interest in the various disciplines of the hobby. For the most part > geographical areas are irrelevent to the issues affecting AMA. It is clear > to me that this system is doing a poor job of representing and dealing with > the needs of a large portion of the hobby, including soaring. Model > aviation has evolved into a diverse set of disciplines with many AMA members > specializing in just one or a small subset of these disciplines. There do > not seem to be many pylon racers who fly sailplanes, helicopters, indoor > free flight, and control line carrier as well. How effectively are they > represented by their regional vice president? > > I believe that this system should be replaced by a realignment of the > governing board along the lines of special interest groups representing the > modeling disciplines. Each special interest group should function as a > separate division of the organization with its own funding and staff. The > executive council should be made up of the heads of these groups with some > form of proportional representation based on the number of members in each > group. Members having interests in multiple special interest groups should > be given the opportunity to join multiple groups paying dues reflecting > these multiple interests. > > The current organization of AMA is a legacy of the state of the sport in the > 1930's and 1940's when the academy was formed. Just making a model fly was > a major achievement in those days. With rare exceptions, free flight was the > only choice. Competition was primarily segmented along the lines of the age > of the flyer and how the free flight models were powered. Junior, Senior, > and Open flyers flew glider, rubber, or gas free flight models in AMA > events. The interests of modelers in Virginia were different from those in > California and representation was needed primarily to address those regional > interests. > > Today, age group competition is almost non-existent. Flyers travel the > whole country to fly in AMA events within their special interests. There > are at least eight different segments of RC soaring each having their own > needs regarding safety, insurance, flying sites, air space, competition > regulation, radio frequency control, and launch equipment issues. These > segments include electric, flat land thermal, slope, dynamic, hand launch, > aero-tow, F3J, and F3B. AMA's regional vice presidents, for the most part, > have no awareness let alone informed positions regarding any of these > segments or their specialized issues and yet they govern our sport. > > The AMA contest sanction packages I have received recently have each had > several pages of information and a waiver form regarding the use of jet > turbine engines in my sailplane contests. AMA says we should not fly gliders > higher than 400 feet AGL, but those same packages also included forms for > measuring and filing for altitude records for models flying up to several > thousand feet high. The safety column in Model Aviation has a lot of > information about people cutting their fingers on propellers, but nothing > about a dynamic soarer traveling at speeds so fast that if its wing were to > hit you in the neck it would remove your head without knocking you off your > feet (300+ MPH). > > The soaring community needs AMA to address these issues and represent > soaring's needs more than it needs to represent all the flyers from region 7 > versus those from region 8. We need representatives that know that a hand > launch glider doesn't use a jet turbine engine. We need to not be paying > insurance premiums for helicopters and fifty-pound, multi-engine meat > grinders when we fly ten ounce floaters. > > Just some thoughts. I am putting on my flame-proof suit now. > > Tim Bennett > > > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and > "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and > unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. > Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in > text format > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
