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[CircuitFlyer]

Since MAAC was brought up, hopefully I can post here without causing any grief.

Great discussion so far.  Sorry so many of you are not happy with the AMA. 

Speaking from personal experience sometimes it is possible to create a separate organizational body.  To make a long story short, back in the early 90's I competed in car rallies (another little known sport no one knows exists in North America).  Amateur motorsport is organized very similar to model aviation.  We have local/regional motorsport clubs affiliated with the CASC, and through the ASN, international affiliation with the FIA.  (You have the SCCA and local clubs, etc.) At the time, rally was just a subcommittee of the CASC board.  We felt that they were not representing/supporting our sport to the best interests of the rally community.  The Rally subcommittee was able to gain support, through proper due process within the organization, to negotiate an amicable separation from the CASC.  The Canadian Association of Rally Sport was born.  The process had challenges (negotiating with the ASN and the insurance company) but in the end it has worked out well to this day.

Bottom line - The prerequisite for anything like this to happen is that the sport or discipline must be well organized and functioning well within the parent organization before any changes can take place.

Take a close look at the organizational structure of control line within the AMA and compare it to other countries around the world.  You may find something missing, the regular Joe CL (fly a little of this, a little of that, maybe compete a little, all just for fun kind of guy) has no more voice within the AMA than the other 194,999 members.  A couple of suggestions: 1) How about a Control Line Flyer SIG to represent all control line flyers no matter what their interests? 2) Elect as associate VP in each district who's primary interest is control line.  Look at ways to get organized and represented within the AMA and maybe things can improve.

Just my nickel's worth (we don't have pennies anymore).

Happy New Year,

Paul

[wwwarbird]

 Thank you for that information and insight Keith. 

[wwwarbird]

Bottom line - The prerequisite for anything like this to happen is that the sport or discipline must be well organized and functioning well within the parent organization before any changes can take place.

 I would agree with that. And like has been pointed out a few times, that step seems to already be in place. For the most part the participants and other volunteers are already organizing and running their own shows, right?

[Steve Helmick]

Stunt News and Model Aviation both arrived on the same day, sometime earlier this week. I finally thumbed through the Model Aviation today, and it was all I could do to put it straight into the recycling bin. I waited a good 10 minutes.  Steve

Going through the pile of magazines in the heap, I discovered that I made a mistake. The Model Aviation I filed in the circular file was last month's issue and this month's issue has one of Bob Hunt's fine descriptions of how to do stuff...so it has been marked with the topic and taken down to the basement shop.

Sadly, announced his retirement from doing the "Stunt" column. Let's all wish Bob a long and happy retirement! And, try to support his replacement better than we have been doing for Bob...  Steve

[Ken Culbertson]

Going through the pile of magazines in the heap, I discovered that I made a mistake. The Model Aviation I filed in the circular file was last month's issue and this month's issue has one of Bob Hunt's fine descriptions of how to do stuff...so it has been marked with the topic and taken down to the basement shop.

Sadly, announced his retirement from doing the "Stunt" column. Let's all wish Bob a long and happy retirement! And, try to support his replacement better than we have been doing for Bob...  Steve

Amen

[Chuck_Smith]

More good input.

I'll point out however, that organizing things like this is much, much easier today with the advance of digital communications. If there was no internet, no forums, no facebook, etc., it could be pretty hard to do. But today is different, we've seen 250,000 people organize and march on Washington in a few days.

In the previous attempts, the problem was communication - getting the message out and contacting people. Today it's pretty easy to reach anyone.

Insurance: I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but I'm willing to bet that an organization that flies models tethered to the pilot within a 150' hemisphere, that weigh less than 6 pounds, can get insurance cheaper than one that has  200mph 40 pound turbines, F1 pylon, 130cc 3D RC, 7S helicopters, C gas free flight (You just let them go?!!!) and the list goes on.

Not saying throw the tea into the harbor just yet either. Just lay the groundwork. All good pilots know you need an alternate.


Chuck

[Steve Helmick]

<snip>
But today is different, we've seen 250,000 people organize and march on Washington in a few days.


Yes, but they were also mostly hired by and well financed by professional rabble-rousers chartering buses, accommodations, sani-cans, and paying the bills.

Insurance: I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but I'm willing to bet that an organization that flies models tethered to the pilot within a 150' hemisphere, that weigh less than 6 pounds, can get insurance cheaper <snip>

Bass fishing clubs usually have liability insurance, but also require the boat owners carry liability insurance. Ours set liability limits based on roughly how fast the boat was capable of attaining, basically about 45 mph and 70 mph, as I recall. I was a bit amazed that they could find an insurance company for such a small organization (maybe 35 boats in a tournament), so I'd be confident that a modelling organization would be able to do same. Remember that AMA insurance is only "secondary" insurance, coming to the rescue (hopefully) just after our homeowners or renters insurance taps out. When there is a court action, the maker of the engine, kit, control system, guy that built the model...are all subpoenaed...so just say that you made all that stuff yourself and keep it simpler! Steve

[curtis mattikow]

AMA insurance is PRIMARY to the SITE OWNER.
And that is critical.
And keep in mind that most payouts are over general liability...someone tripping over a log at the field...not the models themselves.

[Roy DeCamara]

Has anyone noted before throwing the latest MA issue away, that the late Roger Wildman donated more than $41000 to the AMA to improve  and restore the C/L areas in Muncie??  $41000 plus---Holy Crap!!!  Who makes sure these funds are used as Roger intended??   

[wwwarbird]

Has anyone noted before throwing the latest MA issue away, that the late Roger Wildman donated more than $41000 to the AMA to improve  and restore the C/L areas in Muncie??  $41000 plus---Holy Crap!!!  Who makes sure these funds are used as Roger intended??   

 Excellent point, and I immediately wondered the very same thing when I read news of Roger's donation. (I read it here on SH, not in the AMA rag) I never knew Roger any more than the name, but over the years I've put together enough things that every time I saw his name come up I respected the man as someone who clearly had a long time passion for our hobby. When I read of his donation I was amazed, an amount more than my annual salary. If the story of Roger's donation is true (?) it's extremely humbling IMO and the entire C/L community should be eternally grateful. But yes, as impressive as that is, it would be an even bigger disappointment and downright tragedy if Roger's donation wasn't solidly put to something truly beneficial to our hobby. To see that kind of money simply evaporate and disappear within some sort of AMA bureaucracy would be an incredible shame and total insult to the man. Thing is, the AMA has gotten really good at that type of thing, and if it actually gets into their hands I'd expect no more.

[Ken Culbertson]

Excellent point, and I immediately wondered the very same thing when I read news of Roger's donation. (I read it here on SH, not in the AMA rag) I never knew Roger any more than the name, but over the years I've put together enough things that every time I saw his name come up I respected the man as someone who clearly had a long time passion for our hobby. When I read of his donation I was amazed, an amount more than my annual salary. If the story of Roger's donation is true (?) it's extremely humbling IMO and the entire C/L community should be eternally grateful. But yes, as impressive as that is, it would be an even bigger disappointment and downright tragedy if Roger's donation wasn't solidly put to something truly beneficial to our hobby. To see that kind of money simply evaporate and disappear within some sort of AMA bureaucracy would be an incredible shame and total insult to the man. Thing is, the AMA has gotten really good at that type of thing, and if it actually gets into their hands I'd expect no more.

It is easy to do if the donation was not worded properly.  If the AMA already spent that amount on CL they could simply use this instead.  Effect - no donation to CL.  I read that this was dedicated to expanding the LPad.  If that is the case we might just get it.

Ken

[GallopingGhostler]

Control line drones, anyone? .25 Schneurle or .35 cross scavenge for forward propulsion, RC transmitter handle for controlling rotor speeds, and a conventional elevator to comply with AMA on .012 steel cables.

Actually I'm being a little facetious, but the drone fad is what it is. We do have a member of our AMA chapter locally, who flies conventional RC aircraft, but occasionally does some neat videos with his drone to show our flying field and activities underway. I think that as a camera platform, might add some new angles to videos of control line planes in motion.

We can't change those things round and about us that we have little control over, but we can influence that we do have control over. One way may be to have a renaissance with control line aircraft is to be regularly sending photos with activity info to the respectively state and area reps. They tell a story, and if enough district VP's show photos of CL's, could change the tides so we see more CL content.

Things won't change over night, but sometimes a few individuals with good photography and writing skills can make a difference.
Just food for thought. 

[Shorts,David]

HI Guys, just read about twenty threads. Let me give a different angle than most.
1. Model aviation, including Radio Control, is a tiny obscure fragment of society. And we are the tiny fragment of the tiny fragment.
Any publicity for Model Aviation at all, is actually publicity for all of model aviation. Having worked in a hobby shop for many years, the more customers through the front door, the higher the likelihood of exposure to all avenues of model aviation.

2. I did a survey on facebook of how many control line pilots were experienced with radio control and many added free flight. It was a surprisingly high number--again, because exposure to one avenue increases exposure to all avenues, even the small avenues like ours.

Point: AMA is by far the largest opportunity for people to know of the existence of control line regardless of the percentage of the magazine. If anything, it's probably disproportionately high in our favor.

We (AMA that is) need to promote a hobby wide atmosphere of model aviation, not radio control, not drones, not control line, but model aviation (they do a pretty good job of this). This promotes transference. I came out of radio control. Other's have gone the opposite direction and then came back. I have a few ideas to increase this, but are you a master modeler, or just a master... In other words, if you get bored with radio control pylon, try radio control scale, or try control line racing, or precision aerobatics, and vice versa. This keeps all avenues alive. If you don't like it, don't do it. But some people have tunnel vision and think their discipline is the only one. Some of you are arguing "But it is!"

Lastly, drones are the first big thing to happen as a next door neighbor to model aviation. If AMA can catch a third of the drone market, there's a hundred thousand new potential modelers and even if we catch a hundredth of them eventually, through transference, we've doubled our national numbers.

David

[Paul Smith]

Model Aviation's current policy is to focus each issue on ONE thing, not have every event every issue.

Control Line had it's "turn at bat" with the recent major article on The Brodak Fly In. 

Some day our turn will come again. 

Every month is not Christmas or your birthday.