RCU Forums - View Single Post - STUPID QUESTION ON AMA AND WHY WE NEED IT TO FLY?
Old 01-14-2005, 07:24 PM
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abel_pranger
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Default RE: STUPID QUESTION ON AMA AND WHY WE NEED IT TO FLY?

ORIGINAL: hunter_alexander

Actually, can you expand on the chartered club? How is this different from a non chartered club? I guess I understand the insurance reason for a flying field, but cant a owner just have a insurance policy for the field (which a part of that being included in the dues) and not be part of the AMA?

I guess that part eludes me.

Thanks again
Hunter-
No disagreement with the other guys that replied - both are knowledgeable and have given good straight answers. I'll just try to reply to this specific question.
I'm sure that some insurance company could be found to provide insurance for the field (I presume you mean the owner of the field), but you would surely have to do some legwork to find it, and the cost would likely be high, not because of the risk, but because of the admin costs associated with putting together a specialized policy. Try an example: pick a number for the size of the group your field will accommodate, and multiply that by 60 bucks (just an estimate of $58 per member cost of individual AMA membership plus a couple of bucks each toward AMA charter and insurance for the owner of the field). Say it's 50 members - then your target is to get the required insurance for something less than $3000, hopefully substantially less as there would be no individual coverage provided for those that do not homeowner's and/or an umbrella policy. Doable? Probably so, but I like most haven't tried it, so you're on your own.
Of course you might find a flying site where the property owner doesn't require you to provide liability coverage for your activity. A lot of potential flying sites are on property owned by public entities, and some do not require you to have insurance to cover them. In CA for example, public entities can no longer be sued for liability by users of property under their domain, unless they allow themselves to be sued (though not all local agencies seem to be aware of this yet). The most visible impact of this change in law (it's a few years old now) is skateboard pools popping up all over the place in public parks - they totally passe when the public entities were the target of 'deep pocket' lawsuit vultures. I have flown in state and national parks and on BLM land under the watch of rangers, with no inquiries yet regarding insurance. Also belonged to a club on private property (a rock quarry) where the owner let be known off the record that he preferred deniability that we were using it to having us provide insurance. I have considered, but not actually done this: offer to pay the premium for an umbrella policy for say $2M as a condition for use of someone's property. It would give him the advantage of being covered for general liability rather just for what might be incurred as a result of a model flying incident, but then might be cancelled if the issuing company learned of our use of the property. Might work indefinitly if a low enough profile can be maintained. Dunno, as I said, haven't tried it yet.
There are opportunities to fly outside of the AMA chartered club venue. To give you an idea of how many such venues exist if you seek them out, consider this: about half of AMA's own members do not belong to a chartered club. Don't think they are all not flying.

Abel