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If this acceptance is possible in an indoor
venue,
then why not at the
normal club site?
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Do
you belong to an AMA chartered club? Many would say of
course, assuming that the majority of AMA members do.
Would
you be surprised to learn that only roughly half the members
of AMA belong to clubs? I have been since I first saw the
statistics. Can we believe them?
My gut feeling has always
been that the majority of members belong to clubs, but the
numbers have remained roughly the same for a long time. I
would estimate the number of members in the average AMA
chartered club at approximately 40. This corresponds with
what would result if roughly half of our members belonged to
clubs—even taking into consideration those who belong to more
than one club.
As the sport experiences the rapid emergence
of park flyers—those small, electric-powered RC models—many
think that clubs are no longer as necessary as they have
been in the past because park flyers can be flown almost
anywhere. Nothing can be further from the truth.
While you
can physically fly the little models anywhere, there are
problems with doing that literally. Flying park flyers in
inappropriate places is resulting in problems for all of us.
These models span a wide range, from expensive, complex,
small helicopters to the RC models you find in Wal-Mart,
Target, and RadioShack. Members in our clubs do not seem to
have too much trouble embracing the upper-end models and
even the simple foamies, but those who fly the simpler
models are finding it difficult to gain acceptance within
AMA clubs. This is understandable, but I think we might want
to re-examine our attitude toward these pilots.
This past
winter, I participated in a number of indoor RC fly-ins that
an Indiana club held in a hangar at the Anderson airport. I
was amazed at the broad cross-section of models flown there.
The spectrum ran from Air Hogs to $1,000 helicopters.
What I
found interesting was how well the people got along and how
much pure fun everyone had. It didn't matter if you were
flying a "serious" model or a dime-store RC toy, everyone
enjoyed whatever model he or she was watching at the time.
Some of the "toy" models stole the show at some point when
they did something that caught your attention.
If this
acceptance is possible in an indoor venue, then why not at
the normal club site?
I would like to see clubs make
particular efforts to work with communities to provide a
specific place in a park or similar place for flying the
smaller RC electric-powered models. Ideally this would be in
or close to the town or city where it would get the most use
and do the most to grow our activity.
If the people who use
that site end up migrating to larger models, they will join
the club and fly at the normal club field. I would not
banish those little models from the club field.
If the club
tries to convince the city to provide a designated spot for
park flyer pilots near where they live, then it has gone a
long way toward ensuring that those who fly these little
models are less likely to fly in inappropriate places, which
could result in local ordinances which ban model
flying—ordinances that might unintentionally apply to your
club.
Think about this effort as flying field insurance. It doesn't matter if the public field for small,
electric-powered models requires AMA membership; what
matters is that those people have a designated place to fly,
which will help protect your field.
Besides, how many of "us" would like to be able to stop at this nearby park for a
quick flight with our little foamie on the way home from
work when we do not have the time or inclination to make the
long trip to the club field? MA
Until next month ...
Dave Brown, AMA president
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