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AMA and Multirotors

WoodisGood

WoodisGood

30cc
I just got back from the AMA trade show in Ontario this past weekend. I have to say Im a bit disappointed and a bit nervous about the direction our hobby is going and the stance the AMA seems to be taking towards multirotors. A good majority of the booths were multirotors. There were very few booths that actually had much of anything to do with IMAC planes or giant scale planes. Maybe I’m wrong but it seems that the ama thinks that they can get all these multi rotor fliers to join ama and get them to follow the ama guidelines. If this is their belief I think they are dreaming. There are way too many out there and multirotors are being sold everywhere. I have even seen them sold at Walmart and sold at kiosks in the mall with no mention of joining the AMA at time of sale. It seems the FAA wants to put us all in one group and the AMA from what I see is supporting it. I would think the better approach would be to distance ourselves from multirotors. Do they really have anything to do with model aviation? I believe we are one serious incident away ( such as an airliner crash caused by one of these idiots flying where they shouldn’t be) from being heavily regulated if not completely grounded from flying our models that we have operated safely under the AMA guidelines for over 70 years. A couple weeks ago a gentleman posted a video on facebook and was launching bottle rockets and roman candles from a blade 350. From the video it looked like they were being fired at people’s houses. I was not really concerned that they were hitting houses or that they would cause a fire as he was pretty high up when launched but the perception of the general public could be that some jack wagon is firing rockets from a flying object. After myself and a few others telling this guy how irresponsible it was to do that he pulled the video down. Looking through this guys profile on Facebook I could not find any evidence that he participates in any other kind of model aviation activities and in talking to him through Facebook had no idea what AMA was or there guidelines. Im curious what others think on this matter? If the FAA gets there way where does that leave my business and many others for that matter? Am I just being paranoid or maybe its time I join the UAV side of the hobby?
 
Spats

Spats

100cc
The vendors sold to what was the most in demand in order to receive the most profits. Most of AMA is so outdated starting with their website which is a joke if you've ever tried to do anything on it as a club officer. No denying the huge market demand for the multirotor thing and I 100% agree with you. AMA has become similar to companies like AARP. Just collect all the money they can at any costs. I think they really believe they can get all the yahoo's on the street buying them to join. Not going to happen. I don't think you are paranoid, but I don't think the FAA wants to totally ground us, I think they want control and money. The FAA wants to grow bigger and more employees to over see another part of the airspace means more tax dollars for them. I think we need another AMA one just for airplanes maybe but one that does separate itself from the "Drone" stigma.
 
ChickenBalls

ChickenBalls

"Cool Guy"
Spats said:
The vendors sold to what was the most in demand in order to receive the most profits. Most of AMA is so outdated starting with their website which is a joke if you've ever tried to do anything on it as a club officer. No denying the huge market demand for the multirotor thing and I 100% agree with you. AMA has become similar to companies like AARP. Just collect all the money they can at any costs. I think they really believe they can get all the yahoo's on the street buying them to join. Not going to happen. I don't think you are paranoid, but I don't think the FAA wants to totally ground us, I think they want control and money. The FAA wants to grow bigger and more employees to over see another part of the airspace means more tax dollars for them. I think we need another AMA one just for airplanes maybe but one that does separate itself from the "Drone" stigma.
Click to expand...

Randy your post renews my faith in the fact that there still are good, rational, smart thinking Americans, still out there. I give you +100000000000000000000 , and couldn't agree with you more on your post Sir.
 
BarracudaHockey

BarracudaHockey

70cc twin V2
Sorry, I don't know the answer to that.

I have seen the schema for the old database so I know why it would be a nightmare to move up to something current. I'm excited about it as well, I hope the roll out goes smoothly.
 
Bartman

Bartman

Defender of the Noob!
BarracudaHockey said:
The new web site when they roll it out will be a lot better.
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you know for a fact that they're actively working on a new site?

regarding multi-rotor helicopters.....yes, there is a problem but it's not the vehicles and it's not the responsible owners that are making trouble for everyone else. there are people buying them with no experience flying anything RC and no knowledge of RC safety codes so they go out and do stupid things making the rest of us look bad.

if it's not guns that kill people then multi-rotor helicopters aren't killing RC, dumb people are.

The AMA is in a weird spot, they've collected dues for years and mostly ran contests. Now they're challenged to represent their members but they're not being treated as equals in the process and there's a lot of money flowing to competing organizations. It's good that the AMA is still involved but I doubt they have any leverage to fight stuff that they don't like. So on one hand we're not likely to see a complete ban on RC flying but there will probably be guidelines that will make it hard for some clubs to continue . Very sad but there aren't too many options at the moment.
 
Spats

Spats

100cc
Bartman said:
you know for a fact that they're actively working on a new site?

regarding multi-rotor helicopters.....yes, there is a problem but it's not the vehicles and it's not the responsible owners that are making trouble for everyone else. there are people buying them with no experience flying anything RC and no knowledge of RC safety codes so they go out and do stupid things making the rest of us look bad.

if it's not guns that kill people then multi-rotor helicopters aren't killing RC, dumb people are.

The AMA is in a weird spot, they've collected dues for years and mostly ran contests. Now they're challenged to represent their members but they're not being treated as equals in the process and there's a lot of money flowing to competing organizations. It's good that the AMA is still involved but I doubt they have any leverage to fight stuff that they don't like. So on one hand we're not likely to see a complete ban on RC flying but there will probably be guidelines that will make it hard for some clubs to continue . Very sad but there aren't too many options at the moment.
Click to expand...

I mostly agree with you however, You need a permit to buy a gun and 99% of people understand that a gun IS dangerous. Most idiots buy the quads think of them as they are marketed, a "toy".
 
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