Dear AMA Members:
As many of you know yesterday, August 6, 2008 we took a big step forward in promoting model aviation and the Academy of Model Aeronautics.
A little over seven months ago when I became AMA president, I said that I wanted to get model aviation on ESPN – and yesterday we accomplished that objective! While this was a relatively short clip, and our ultimate goal still is to get feature coverage of an aeromodeling event, we now have our "foot in the door".
ESPN's daily show, "ESPN First Take," featured footage (provided by AMA member Fred Midgett who is President of High Planes Productions) of the 2008 XFC and AMA All-Star Andrew Jesky flying his helicopter. ESPN First Take, formerly Cold Pizza, is aired Monday-Friday from 10 AM-Noon ET on ESPN2.
During the segment, host Dana Jacobson mentioned that she doesn't think of model flying as a sport although she thought it was "very cool". While many of us view modeling as our hobby, there are just as many of us that describe today's aeromodeling activities as sport. Let's contact Dana, thank her for featuring model flying on her show, let her know that competing in championships such as the XFC is indeed a sport, and that we, as AMA members, would love to see more model flying on ESPN.
You can contact Dana at: espnfirsttake@espn.com
If enough of us contact ESPN, perhaps we can continue to see model flying on national T.V.
Sincerely,
Dave Mathewson
AMA President
Do not mention PAMPA in this thread!