Granpooba

My Feedback: (5)

Just returned home after attending a monthly meeting at one of the local RC clubs that I belong to.

One subject on the agenda was new memberships, ways to retain memberships and promote the RC hobby. BUT ! One remark was made and I " Personally " can not confirm / authenticate , or disprove the subject. The point was made that " FOUR HUNDRED RC CLUBS HAVE NOT RENEWED THEIR AMA CHARTERS ". Their was an AMA district rep at our meeting and he made no comment on this subject.

If this is true, to me it sounds very questionable as to whether or not the RC Model Airplane Hobby will survive.

init4fun

Hi Granpooba ,

This naturally leaves the question of why to be examined since it was not mentioned by the AMA district rep you quoted . I am really curious why the 400 clubs chose to end their charters ? Did the clubs disband ? Is this a protest and punishment for the AMA "romancing the drone" ? Are these clubs that for whatever reason don't need the AMA insurance ? 400 clubs does sound like an awful lot of ended charters in a year's time but the reasons why would sure help put into focus what the future actually holds .

Granpooba

My Feedback: (5)

The remark was made by the clubs Secretary. For the life of me, I do not know where or how he obtained this information. But, the AMA District Rep did not respond nor make a remark in regards to this subject. Perhaps it came as much as a surprise to him as it did to other club members. Our Secretary held up the clubs certificate to show that we were still an AMA Chartered Club.

On another note, some members did state that their models were on their Home Owners Insurance Policy and that AMA insurance was secondary.

Do not often admit this but I left the meeting in somewhat of a fog. " LOL " Wondering what is actually going on with the AMA and other clubs across our country.

da Rock

Got it........... from the AMA website


And there appear to be over 2500 chartered clubs. Wonder how many are usually late paying their renewal? Wonder how long they have to do so?

init4fun

Thank You for the response Granpooba .

I believe we old relics who love airplanes are being replaced by folks more enthralled with the new technology than with the flying itself . The AMA sees drone/FPV as being it's financial future and us "traditional fixed wing" and "traditional helicopter" RC flyers as being something for the hobby to evolve away from in the rush to cash in on the so called "drone revolution" .

Thank You da Rock , I appreciate the info . I will say that 400 out of only 2500 is a fairly alarming number , if those 400 never renewed and were gone for good that would be a serious blow to our collective "voice" in any of this future FAA business . Hopefully it IS only procrastination on their part but again like you say this brings the question of how long of a grace period do these clubs have to pay before the charter ends for good ?

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

Clubs are no different the the members of said clubs...some pay early, some pay on time, some pay a little late. This is no different. Rather than give a statement with no context, he/she should have given the full picture. There was an issue early on where incorrect charter paperwork was being sent out to a small population of clubs, the AMA sent out a notice almost immediately indicating they were correcting the error.

The issue of primary/excess insurance (via homeowners or other coverages) would literally be irrelevant to most land/property owners. The majority of clubs are based on or in government owned property (State, City,Town). The coverage they all want and insist upon would be from a policy in the clubs name, not a bunch of individual policies from members. Private ownership of the property may accept something different, but I would guess less than .001% of them would accept anything less than the AMA coverage. Given the exposure they would be crazy not to want as much coverage as possible, at this point I haven't seen anyone that can provide the coverage that the AMA does. Doubtful that 400 clubs just decided to call it quits for AMA coverage.

rcmiket

Interesting since the AMA had a price increase this year on charter renewal and offered all clubs to renew charters "early" for the old price. Seems like most clubs would have taken care of it to save a few bucks, I know we did.

Mike

Granpooba

My Feedback: (5)

Starting to believe that it is just new technology & cash that keeps marching on, while the staple that has maintained the RC Model Airplane Hobby for generations is just being swept into the gutter.

Now what really worries me is when will they deface MT. Rushmore and carve Trumps image up there ? LOL

Sport_Pilot

I suspect a lot of clubs are late each year, one local club I know of did not have a charter last fall but did at the beginning of this year. So they may have been 7 to 9 months late.

757jonp

My Feedback: (48)

I suspect there are many clubs not as well organized as the one we belong to.... "John, did you send in the renewal?" "No I didn't... I thought you did it. It's your turn this year isn't it?" "Nah, I do the even years, you do the odd years. Or is it the other way around?"

While they (the AMA mentioned about 400 clubs were late, they didn't mention how many new ones applied either. One has to wonder how many new ones applied also.

rcmiket

Renewals notices go to the Cub Contact /Secretary and are mailed to that individual ( or in my case I received the email) not just anyone.

Mike

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

People are slackers. I have club member "renewals" still coming in when October to Jan 1st is the "renewal" period.

I suspect if we went back to charging the initiation fee after the January meeting it would pick back up but that practice always bothered me so I made sure it went away when I became part of the decision.

init4fun

I agree 100% with the notion that it is money driving the AMA rush to be "Romancing the Drone" , the days of thousands of us all building Sig kits are over and the industry always follows the next hottest selling trend . Since our AMA is now an industry in itself , with it's own best interests at heart ahead of even that of the "traditional" rc flyer (be that "traditional" fixed wing , helicopter , or whatever) , it needs to follow this money trail hoping to cash in somehow on this "Drone Revolution" or face , fear of all fears , to be seen as not growing because it's trying to attract a group of people who will have no use of it in the first place . A stable organization serving 175K people would be far preferable to me than an organization alienating those who DO want to be a part of what we created , by chasing people who obviously don't want to be members . This was the main theme that prompted my poll thread about the AMA & drones . A full 76% of us still think it was a bad idea ......

When the member discount for early/multiple year renewal was offered I jumped on it like Yogi jumping on a picnic basket !

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Or, they are trying to bring these guys on board, teach them about the safety code and safe operations in the NAS and make them less dangerous which will benefit everyone no matter what they fly.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

Well said. We actually did that, made anyone rejoining who was late pay a new member fee of $15.00. It's not much, but enough to get them going.

Again, well said. It makes no sense whatsoever to have shunned this segment of the hobby, none. Regulation of the hobby to some degree was destined, regardless of AMA embracing this technology or not.

init4fun

A noble goal indeed ....

How's it worked out so far ? Have this years membership #s shown the huge increase that would justify such expenditure and effort ?

Or has it all been "playing to an empty house" , trying to sell someone on something that they feel they have no need of ?

True aircraft hobbyists ALREADY belong , and they fly even their #550 quads under the auspices of our safety code . Anyone else who needs to somehow be "attracted" or "courted" are the folks flying hobby equipment BLOS and those folks are about as likely to join the French Foreign Legion as they are to join the AMA !

When all us old guys are gone , if the AMA hasn't found some way to force membership by then , the numbers of BLOS drone flying non members VS #550 adhering drone flyers who will actually join and support it , will be enough to end the AMA as we know it , and then you'll see if the drone folks support it like we did .

I have my doubts ........

ron ward

I would assume some of the 400 clubs closed their charter, but it's very possible that these clubs secured their own liability insurance. it's not that expensive for a "club" to do. I belonged to an archery club and the club liability isn't all that expensive. I would think liability would be reasonably comparative between clubs of this nature.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

I would guess that some might have dropped the charter, just as some might have started new ones. In terms of clubs finding their own liability insurance, while not impossible, it's extremely doubtful. There might be a carrier out there providing similar coverage, but I've been searching for 3 plus months, and haven't found one. A few agents wouldn't even quote it, to many variables and unknowns, primary of which is no data on loss history. Ballpark quote from one agent was $12,000 for 1 million in coverage. No way clubs clubs could deal with that premium. Other than the SFA from 20 plus years ago, I've yet to see any other organization that can provides what the AMA does for coverage, at the price they do (ask yourself what the clubs pay for the limits they are afforded).

There was one member here who alluded to a select, secretive "invite only" program starting up....but obvious red flags are flying on that. Sounds like a scheme, and the fact that it is secrettive makes it even more doubtful that it's legit.

rgburrill

Assume. Ass U Me.
It's not even 2 weeks past the due date - many people are too lazy to file the paperwork. And the notices were mailed to last year's club secretary who may have been replaced already and just doesn't care to send it to the new one.

Sport_Pilot

There are young members at the local club who fly the racing drones. that by nature us flying FPV under #550 rules because they fly a course that is right in front of them. I think they would see benefits of joining the AMA. Local governments may actually require insurance for those starting drone racing clubs, then the AMA would be a very viable option for them.

Oh BTW some of the drone racing crowd has become interested in "traditional modeling". Well not traditional for me cause they are those boring electric models.

rcmiket

True and time will tell just how this pans out. Bottom line the even if the AMA lost just 1/2 of that 400 this year it would not be a good thing for them or the hobby.

Mike

Sport_Pilot

I suspect the loss is more like 1% not 50%.

RCFlyerDan

My Feedback: (54)

If it has only been two weeks over due, I wouldn't worry about it. Just telling those Clubs to get off their ***** and get their money turned in. Like BarracudaHockey said, members are slackers! And, when I was Secretary, I made sure those slackers didn't fly, until they renewed.

IMHO, traditional r/c plane flying started to go away with the introduction of "foamies and electric planes". Everyone at the field was flying glow, gas, and turbines, then along comes the Foamy! Since that time, AMA has tried to increase the membership with the "Park Flyer Program" and the "Few months of Membership" for $20! I haven't been an Officer or Secretary for awhile to keep track if those programs really helped or not. I don't think they did. Today, at our Jet/IMAC flying field, we have EFlite Micro Beast flying over the runways and occupying a pilot station, when there are only 4 to start with, on busy days, when in truth, IMHO, they shouldn't even be flown at the flying field. That is all I need to do is to hit a micro foamy with my 35# jet or my 3.2M(124"ws) IMAC Extra, or my Ziroli 98" ws P-51 and bring down my planes worth thousands over a damn $100 foamy!
So, again, IMHO, the decline of AMA started with the foamy and electrics, and now, the AMA is just trying to get ahead of the quadcopter race! I actually like and learning to fly quads, but I don't and won't fly them at the flying field, where they aren't liked. Our Club is lucky enough to have a separate heli field with a couple pads, and the quads are flown on that side of the field. But, again, are still looked down at for flying them.

CESSNA 421

My Feedback: (17)

Just a thought....since we all don't think very highly of drones or foamy models why not change the club rules to ban foamy models and drones at your field?

RCFlyerDan

My Feedback: (54)

Because I am becoming the one who is a minority at the field flying gas and turbines. Foamies are becoming the primary planes flown at the field.