Montague

I don't pay $15 to the RCCA so I can fly combat. You don't have to be an RCCA member to fly at any RCCA event. Any AMA member is welcome to any AMA sanctioned combat event. Never mind all the non-sanctioned combat that does on around the country. There's far more of that than AMA/RCCA combat events, that's for sure.

I pay the $15 for a handful of reasons that are good ones to me. GREAT BIG #1 ---> The size of the Special Interest Group and the attendance at Nats are the 2 ways the AMA judges how much interest in an activity. By being a member, and flying at Nats, I tell the AMA I exist and I fly combat.

Combat is actually flown all over the place, in all kinds of forms. Yet the AMA in the past, has done what it could to make it as hard as possible to do it. (the AMA is less antagonistic towards combat than it used to be, but I wouldn't call it "supportive"). And one justification is that there aren't many combat pilots out there. Well, there are TONS more guys out there who fly an occaional bit of combat, but have no interest in serious competition or joining the RCCA. That's fine. In fact, it's almost 100% exactly the same problem the AMA has with park flyers.

Reason #2 -- I'm an incredibly aggressive and competitive guy. I fly to win. And I like to see where I stack up head to head against the best in the country and in the national rankings. (I held on to the #1 slot in 2610 class scale combat for the majority of the year, 1 round at one contest in December by Lee pushed him ahead of me for the year). I drove from Maryland to sites including Texas, GA, IN (twice), Ohio, MI (twice) to go to competitions to fly against the best in the country and prove that I am one of the best in the country. That's me, that's my personality. And joining the RCCA makes sense for ME in that way. But most guys aren't like me, and that's cool.


Reason #3 -- the AMA rules, and rules changes come, in a large part, from the RCCA. So my voice is more heard by being in the RCCA and speaking my mind. Consdering that I spent a huge amount of time and money flying combat last year, that's important to me.

Reason #4 -- when you spend over $400/mo building combat planes and flying competitions (not counting hotel nights, road food, and gas), Really, $15/year is nothing. I burn more money in that in props in a single big contest. For me, it's a no brainer. But I'm not exactly "average" or "normal" either.