Author Topic: I got a answer from AMA (thank you Tim Wescott) (Read 4493 times)

Mike Griffin · « **on:** July 13, 2015, 12:10:46 PM »

I just got off the phone with Shawn Grubbs of the AMA and he was very nice and helpful and had the figures to answer my question. For those of you who may not have read my post asking the question, here is what I asked.

How many members in AMA fly in specific genres. For example, how many fly RC, how many Control Line and how many Free Flight? Following are the figures that Shawn gave me.

As of last Sunday, July 12, 2015, there are a total of 179,773 AMA members.

Here is the breakdown by genre.

Radio Control - 138,000 members say they fly RC. Now out of these 138,000, 10,000 say they fly helicopters and 7200 say they fly multi rotors, FPV and SUAF. So basically, within the 138,000 member base that is grouped in RC, 17,200 of them fly something other than fixed wing craft.

CONTROL LINE - 4500 Members in this group

FREE FLIGHT - 4700 Members is this group.

So here you go...straight from the horses mouth. Anyone surprised by this?

Mike

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #1 on:** July 13, 2015, 12:18:59 PM »

Not particularly. Especially if it's based on that "check only one" survey they hand out -- if you mostly fly RC and dabble in something else, then they're only going to tag you as flying RC, etc. I suspect that colors their answers.

To most people, if they're aware of aircraft modeling at all, they think RC. Flying on strings, or just letting it go wherever it will, is a foreign concept. This applies to over half the RC guys out there as well.

Randy Cuberly · « **Reply #2 on:** July 13, 2015, 02:06:59 PM »

I agree completely with Tim. I and several other people I know fly C/L and FF and I suspect some of those R/C flolks also fly C/L but none of that appears in the survey.

I did find it interesting that 17,000 of those R/C fliers fly some kind of Rotary Wing craft.

Randy Cuberly

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #3 on:** July 13, 2015, 02:20:22 PM »

I was surprised at how low the multi-rotor numbers are -- half the RC guys at my club fly multi-rotors or heli's at least part of the time, they just mostly fly fixed-wing. Given that it's a fixed-wing club, I'd expect a lot more "drone" pilots out there.

Mike Griffin · « **Reply #4 on:** July 13, 2015, 03:43:11 PM »

Shawn and I discussed the fact that when you join you can only check one and there is crossover between the genres. Some guys fly RC and control line as well etc. I was kind of surprised at how low the total membership is now as compared to a few years ago.

Mike

Andre Ming · « **Reply #5 on:** July 13, 2015, 04:15:22 PM »

Quote from: Rusty Pieper on July 13, 2015, 03:09:25 PM

Does being a 2%er have the same clout as a 1%er?

Only if you wear jeans w/black leather chaps, black tee shirt w/black vest, heavy lace-up boots, and a doo-rag when flying.

You really should have known.

peabody · « **Reply #6 on:** July 13, 2015, 04:22:07 PM »

I would imagine things would look different if the percentages were of, say, people with five years continuous membership. There are a lot of ARF guys that join for a year (or two) and then quit.....
Control Line and Free Flight guys tend to be in it for the long run.....
Have fun.

John Cralley · « **Reply #7 on:** July 13, 2015, 06:06:16 PM »

Looks like about 30,000 didn't check off anything for theor primary interest!

john e. holliday · « **Reply #8 on:** July 14, 2015, 09:17:12 AM »

When I was up to it I flew Racing, Combat, Carrier, Aerobatics and have flown Scale, so I checked Sport under Control Line. I did fly RC at one time and tried Free Flight. Might say I started with FF with the ready to fly gliders and rubber power before doing the Comet stick and tissue kits. Now where does that put people like me???

Mike Griffin · « **Reply #9 on:** July 14, 2015, 09:43:32 AM »

I know Doc, I like to fly my sailplane every once in a while and I just bought plans for a free flight. I like just about any model that flies. I think we all suspected that control line was the smallest sector of the flying model hobby and these general numbers prove that. There is room for every interest in the hobby. It. Does appear however, that membership in AMA has fallen off some. Some of that can probably be attributed to the economy and the aging populace of the hobby in general.

Mike

Avaiojet · « **Reply #10 on:** July 14, 2015, 10:24:49 AM »

Quote from: Rusty Pieper on July 13, 2015, 05:25:25 PM

CL is about 2% of total membership, isn't it?

Rusty,

I didn't do the math so I'll take your word for this.

What's the total number of participants competing in the Nats?

Randy Cuberly · « **Reply #11 on:** July 14, 2015, 12:17:25 PM »

Not sure how it runs now but in the not too distant past R/C glider was always the biggest class of competition. Suprisingly R/C Pattern and C/L stunt were fairly close in numbers.
R/C is overwhelmingly the largest number of AMA members but not so much for competition!

Randy Cuberly

Wayne J. Buran · « **Reply #12 on:** July 14, 2015, 12:22:40 PM »

What I would find more interesting would be the sales numbers from people like Tower, Horizon etc that furnish Radio Control aircraft of all kinds to buyers. I bet that the number of fliers that are AMA non members is huge. Looks like AMA is not hitting there targets.
Wayne

Steve Helmick · « **Reply #13 on:** July 14, 2015, 12:31:21 PM »

We were down at Auburn Airport/Dick Scobee Memorial Municipal Airport flying. A guy came and stood outside the chainlink fence and watched awhile. After a flight or two, he still didn't realize we were NOT flying R/C, leading me to believe that the general population is pretty ignorant. This reminds me of a time when I was flying Free Flight. Somebody asked if they were R/C. The answer was "No, these are much more sophisticated, because they're fully automatic."

Steve

peabody · « **Reply #14 on:** July 14, 2015, 02:53:37 PM »

I know that Brodak has significantly more customers than the AMA lists as C/L....even before he began producing R/C stuff....a lot of "lurkers"...
Have fun

Avaiojet · « **Reply #15 on:** July 14, 2015, 02:58:17 PM »

Quote from: Rusty Pieper on July 14, 2015, 01:52:19 PM

Charles,

Here is a link that may answer your questions about NATS and other topics related to control line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_line

Rusty, Rusty, Rusty!

Always helping. What a guy!

Thanks for that.

david beazley · « **Reply #16 on:** July 14, 2015, 04:30:45 PM »

I consider myself as tri-lingual. I can crash in all 3 disiplines CL, RC, and FF.
i never liked the check one box deal.

Jim Carter · « **Reply #17 on:** July 14, 2015, 04:37:52 PM »

Quote from: david beazley on July 14, 2015, 04:30:45 PM

I consider myself as tri-lingual. I can crash in all 3 disiplines CL, RC, and FF.
i never liked the check one box deal.

And I am ambi-dexterous

!! I can pick up my pieces with both hands at the same time!!

Avaiojet · « **Reply #18 on:** July 14, 2015, 05:28:51 PM »

Quote from: Rusty Pieper on July 14, 2015, 03:20:33 PM

Okay Charles. I try to help with your material and intellectual needs.

Try to show up next Saturday to fly.

Rusty, Rusty, Rusty,

I have to work on Saturday.

Hey! Don't forget I owe you this model, a deal is a deal.

I have one more of these models, had three total.

I may modify mine and turn it into a Crossfire wannabe.

Easy things, change the moments, raise the wing, straighten the stab, increase the flap area, increase the elevator area, get a bellcrank in the wing somehow.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, nevermind.

Charles Hofacker · « **Reply #19 on:** July 14, 2015, 05:52:11 PM »

Still, all in all, we c/l builders and flyers are a pretty small market segment. Looks to me like the c/l suppliers are doing it for the love of the sport not green stamps. I'm glad they are there.

Randy Cuberly · « **Reply #20 on:** July 14, 2015, 06:29:19 PM »

Quote from: Charles Hofacker on July 14, 2015, 05:52:11 PM

Still, all in all, we c/l builders and flyers are a pretty small market segment. Looks to me like the c/l suppliers are doing it for the love of the sport not green stamps. I'm glad they are there.

Amen,
Especially folks like Tom Morris, Eric Rule, Walter Umland, Bob Hunt, John Brodak, and Mike Griffin. I doubt that they do much better than break even!

Control Line would be a much poorer place without them!

Randy Cuberly

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #21 on:** July 14, 2015, 09:10:16 PM »

Target · « **Reply #22 on:** July 14, 2015, 10:38:49 PM »

I missed it!

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #23 on:** July 15, 2015, 02:29:53 PM »

Quote from: Rusty Pieper on July 15, 2015, 02:15:04 PM

I made a statement to the affect that most R/C pilots now fly chinese ARFs. The context of the paragraph was that C/L pilots still build their planes whereas most R/C don't.

It was not a statement about the origin of ARFs, but I choose not to argue with people here, so I removed it.

You didn't miss much, really.

While there are a lot of CL people who build their own (and, in fact, I think it's one of the things that pulls people back into CL), there's a pretty healthy population of CL people who pretty much just fly ARFs. I'd guess it's around 50%, but I wouldn't be surprised at anywhere between 20% and 80%.

Sean McEntee · « **Reply #24 on:** July 17, 2015, 04:33:32 PM »

Quote from: Mike Griffin on July 14, 2015, 09:43:32 AM

....I just bought plans for a free flight.

Mike

Whatcha buildin?

When I was up at Ft Carson I linked up with the Magnificent Mountain Men and learned a thing or two about discus gliders. Once I get an FMC stunt fleet im going to shift my focus back to FF. Been working on a semi-builtup wing for a DLG. Weighs half of a sheet wing. It will be for crappy, overcast days with little to no lift. Also digging this new E36 class. I have plans for Don Deloach's E-Pearl, and it will be my entry into powered FF. Also got the itch to do some FAC scale rubber models. Cant wait to retire. 8 years left....

Mike Griffin · « **Reply #25 on:** July 17, 2015, 06:47:02 PM »

Quote from: Sean McEntee on July 17, 2015, 04:33:32 PM

Whatcha buildin?

When I was up at Ft Carson I linked up with the Magnificent Mountain Men and learned a thing or two about discus gliders. Once I get an FMC stunt fleet im going to shift my focus back to FF. Been working on a semi-builtup wing for a DLG. Weighs half of a sheet wing. It will be for crappy, overcast days with little to no lift. Also digging this new E36 class. I have plans for Don Deloach's E-Pearl, and it will be my entry into powered FF. Also got the itch to do some FAC scale rubber models. Cant wait to retire. 8 years left....

Sean it is the first model I ever built when I was 14. It is a a Veco Navajo. Nostalgic to me.

Mike