AMA Alpha

[Tim Wescott]

I haven't looked at the price -- but I want one!  amaflightschool.org/alpha.  Looks like a Sleek Streak after some clever person has ripped off the landing gear (did any of you keep those wheels ON after the first few flights?)

It'd be nice if they had 'em without the winders and the rubber, for a reduced price.

[Steve Helmick]

I haven't looked at the price -- but I want one!  amaflightschool.org/alpha.  Looks like a Sleek Streak after some clever person has ripped off the landing gear (did any of you keep those wheels ON after the first few flights?)

It'd be nice if they had 'em without the winders and the rubber, for a reduced price.

Looks like an ARF to me. SIG sells similar things, that are actual KITS...Delta Dart KITS. Is the "AMA Racer" KIT still available from AMA? Whose dues money went into developing this "AMA Alpha"? Yours and mine. At least it doesn't have R/C or propellers on all the corners. Surprised, I am!  Steve 

[mike londke]

Pretty cool and they are having a postal flight competition for any AMA member under 19. Too bad I didn't see it sooner I would have organized Sam's Scout troop to participate. Deadline is 2/12, not enough time to pull it off now. I'll be getting a few anyway.

[john e. holliday]

Not enough time to get for my grand kids.   

[Dave_Trible]

Doc I’ll order several.  We can shag em while we wait on engines to cool....

Dave

[Scott Richlen]

It's a FF ARF.

The whole thing is pointless.

Well meaning people will buy them thinking that this will make some kind of difference.  They'll recruit some kids to fly them.  The kids will fly them.  "Gee, that was fun!"  And then they'll go back to their I-phones and games because they are just as much (or more) fun.

What did they learn?  How to wind a rubber band.

What else did they learn?  That that exercise was what is called "model airplane flying".

The whole exercise is about entertainment.

The model airplane hobby is about so much more!  When you cut out everything but flying, you provide the reward for no effort!  There is an incredible amount of learning and character building for a child that model airplane building and flying can provide.  None of that can happen when you hand a kid an ARF.

Please connect the dots: a nation with a population that is becoming more narcissistic       ....       and over-weight      ....      and thinks that life is all about entertainment.  Woo-hoo!  More ARFs!!

[mike londke]

It's a FF ARF.

The whole thing is pointless.

Well meaning people will buy them thinking that this will make some kind of difference.  They'll recruit some kids to fly them.  The kids will fly them.  "Gee, that was fun!"  And then they'll go back to their I-phones and games because they are just as much (or more) fun.

What did they learn?  How to wind a rubber band.

What else did they learn?  That that exercise was what is called "model airplane flying".

The whole exercise is about entertainment.

The model airplane hobby is about so much more!  When you cut out everything but flying, you provide the reward for no effort!  There is an incredible amount of learning and character building for a child that model airplane building and flying can provide.  None of that can happen when you hand a kid an ARF.

Please connect the dots: a nation with a population that is becoming more narcissistic       ....       and over-weight      ....      and thinks that life is all about entertainment.  Woo-hoo!  More ARFs!!

???Anything that puts an airplane in a child's hands is a good thing. I'm glad my outlook isn't as bleak as yours. So you are telling me you never had a sheet balsa rubber powered plane when you were a kid bought from a drugstore? I doubt it. We all did.

[Brett Buck]

???Anything that puts an airplane in a child's hands is a good thing. I'm glad my outlook isn't as bleak as yours. So you never owned or had a sheet balsa rubber powered plane when you were a kid bought from a drugstore? I doubt it. We all did.

  It's supposed to be for STEM education purposes - exactly what do you suppose a kid is going to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math from playing with a disposable toy for an hour under strict adult supervision/direction?

   Not that this is a particularly bad case, most of these "STEM" come-on are of such narrow scope and limited activity that they are at least useless, if not counterproductive. I have tried to become involved with these programs through work and I got very frustrated very quickly - more completely-"programmed", adult-directed, activities are going to do jack sh*t for engineering education or encourage kids to go into engineering.

    And I might add, at least some of these programs are directed at getting *girls* to become involved, and mostly, this consists of things about like putting glitter or pony stickers on your AMA Alpha - which is insulting and sexist, not to mention, pointless. Not that they can't do it, if so inclined - the best new-hire we have had in years/decades is a young lady from Nepal! But you have to want to do it, and just like model airplanes or just about anything else, recruiting people just doesn't seem to work. '

    Brett
     

[mike londke]

If anyone bothers to click the link to the Alpha in the first post and scrolls down to the lessons outlined by AMA I think you'd agree there is more going on than a kid playing with a disposable toy airplane. They'll learn about CG, Potential Energy and how to build a stooge. All good lessons for up and coming modelers. Now they've extended the contest deadline to 4/16. I know one kid that's going to participate, and I bet we have fun.

[Dan Berry]

If anyone bothers to click the link to the Alpha in the first post and scrolls down to the lessons outlined by AMA I think you'd agree there is more going on than a kid playing with a disposable toy airplane. They'll learn about CG, Potential Energy and how to build a stooge. All good lessons for up and coming modelers. Now they've extended the contest deadline to 4/16. I know one kid that's going to participate, and I bet we have fun.

No.
 They will be entertained for an hour. And go back to playing video games while texting in the hope that Mom and Dad will buy them a car soon.

[mike londke]

My comment was a little hot headed so I removed it. I'll just say I'm going to participate in the Alpha Postal Contest with my boy and leave it at that.

[Dan McEntee]

  I have read about this in recent history where they were looking for a design to replace the delta dart, because it too "so long" to get the delta dart finished. AMA would give away Guillow's rubber powered airplanes and gliders at their booth at Oshkosh, and I wonder why they just didn't expand on that? The longer motor stick looks like the twilight Flyers that Bill Warner and Dave Thornburg made out of Sleek Streek parts to fly under the street light. I have a bunch of Sleek Streeks stashed away just for that purpose but the same modifications can be done to any dime store airplane. Whether kids take to it or not, I still like to fly simple rubber powered airplanes like this under the street light on calm evenings. I never get tired of it.
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Dave_Trible]

As a kid (young one and old one) I've spent many enjoyable hours flinging chuck gliders and Sleek Streaks.  This has always been the foundation of the hobby from the earliest days.  Most any kid can have some fun with them and those few now, as then and always who are prone to stick with the hobby will and the rest won't.  Without this first simple introduction there wouldn't be an introduction to many. Expecting to achieve too much more out of this than that might be a waste of time.  But I can't think of a better way to catch the imagination and light the fire for that kid with the heart and mind for the hobby.  Break out some chuck gliders at your next stunt contest and watch how many stunt fliers are wandering around out in the field chasing them!

Dave

[Scott Richlen]

Unfortunately, many of you are missing the point.  And I apologize to you for not better explaining this issue.

Our culture has changed a great deal since we were kids.  When most of us were young you couldn't walk down the street without hearing a model airplane engine in the distance.  You couldn't find a magazine rack not filled with magazines filled with "do it yourself" articles.  If you wanted to know how to put a plane together ask Dad or the next-door neighbor kid.  It was expected that you built balsa and plastic models of airplanes.  Airplanes were romantic and exciting.  Our adventures in space were real.  We were self-reliant or at least attempted to be.

Yes, now days many things are better.  Some are not.  In any case, things are different.  You cannot expect to hand a kid an ARF free flight and expect that it will carry him very far.  The modern child lives in a narcissistic nanny-culture that expects to be entertained.  Happily, there are exceptions.  But, when you hand them a FF ARF, you are reinforcing that culture because what you are doing is fitting in with every norm of the culture: free entertainment with little understanding or personnel investment required, instant gratification with no real achievement.

Contrast that with guiding the child through their first stick and tissue build and then helping them to fly their plane, the plane that they built.  And then take the time to do it again on their second plane and their third plane and their fourth plane.  You will be amazed to see children who had never built anything before in their life (besides maybe Legoes - which actually are a good thing) build from scratch using techniques such as laminated structures.  This is something that far exceeds entertainment.  This is now achievement.  And achievement trumps entertainment by a long shot.  They are on their way to self direction and a focus on accomplishment.

Fooling around with an AMA Alpha, even cooking up pseudo "science experiments" with it, doesn't make it STEM related.  STEM has little to do with entertainment and everything to do with achievement.