Sport_Pilot

That is somewhat limited by the first word of the whole section "Notwithstanding" and by the Savings clause.

‘‘(3) SAVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this subsection shall be construed as expanding the authority of the Administrator to require operators of model aircraft under the exemption of this subsection to be required to seek permissive authority of the Administrator prior to operation in the national airspace system."

cj_rumley

Good point. It's a set up for another encore of what happened at the sUAS ARC where AMA stumbled into the trap that started the MA regulation mess, to be repeated every time Congress periodically deals with FAA funding.

RichardGee

My Feedback: (156)

I keep wondering WHEN the American people will come to realize that GOVERNMENT is not our friend? It does not have our best interests in mind; it does not handle our hard-earned tax money with care and respect; and despite most bureaucracy mission statements, it cares NOT AT ALL about what we think. And with each passing year I watch as government gobbles up more and more of our gross domestic product, while going deeper into debt, and I survey the lands that were once free and see endless government restrictions, regulations, taxes, fees, assessments, and bonds on every square inch.... I see a government supposedly composed of people who purportedly "represent" us (i.e. House of Representatives) doing absolutely NOTHING to preserve and protect our liberties, protect our borders, protect our tax dollars, or protect free enterprise, while they seem to have endless amounts of energy to restrict our proverbial sliver of airspace OR debate which bathroom a mentally-ill person should be allowed to use on any given day OR provide subsidies for a Cowboy Poetry Festival in Elko, Nevada... and I see a nation in serious decline, being hollowed out by power-mad scoundrels at the top, ignorant and apathetic weaklings from the bottom, and thousands of faceless unaccountable bureaucrats throughout.
Perhaps America's best days are behind her.
We have legislated ourselves into paralysis.
We will do whatever the FAA tells us to do because it's easier than fighting for and preserving our liberties as (once) free peoples.
If we won't stand up and say NO when a harmless activity like flying RC airplanes is threatened, what will we stand up for?
Eventually, we will be indistinguishable from Europe.

Sport_Pilot

Three timeless truth's.

1. Everything comes to an end.
2. History repeats itself.
3. Never say never, given enough time it will happen.

RichardGee

My Feedback: (156)

"Those who do not learn (from) history are doomed to repeat it." ~ George Santayana

Chris P. Bacon

My Feedback: (4)

Where's the surprise?

Just check the number of people in this country turning 65 everyday from this article back in 2010.

http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-num...oomers-retire/

Considering the aging AMA membership, long term impact of the economy and flat salaries, ever growing options for people to spend their time and money on and it's no surprise club participation has declined to its current state.

Also, look closely at all the companies adjusting their marketing and recruiting plans to address the millennials from purchasing to recruiting. They are a different breed and many companies realize this. Whether they like it not, they realize they need to adjust their strategy to hire millennials for their own aging workforce as well as get their spending dollars.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

Another interesting admission on the AMA website:

http://amafoundation.modelaircraft.o...hip-milestone/

Over a million dollars to date, and $48,000 this year alone in scholarships. Guess the AMA is just a little bit more than a magazine and "an insurance company".

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

And yet more news....another $1,000 of our membership dollars handed out to a US based hobby supplier!

http://amablog.modelaircraft.org/ama...1000-from-ama/

franklin_m

Not saying these are bad things, just that when you look at them compared to what's coming in and what else is going out, would prefer a different balance.

Sport_Pilot

They need more promotion like that. Better yet give away a drone to one of the new members to attract membership.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

The AMA isn't a charity, there is no perfect balance that anyone can assign that would make everyone happy. Between scholarships and grants, they are closing in on 100k given away. Although I haven't really seen a big outcry for the amounts they have handed out in the past, given the comments over the past year I could certainly see complaints start rolling in from folks if they started giving away even more. Of course they take in much more, but again, they aren't the Red Cross or United Way, they don't ask for money to give it away. They have overhead, and salaries, etc etc. If they upped the give-aways, the money would have to be taken from somewhere.
I referenced a club in another thread that just got $300.00 for damage to their club. They had damages far in excess of that and of course would have been thrilled to get more, but their request was reasonable. Something was better than nothing.
I think they can get more creative with marketing, perhaps use more viral or social media methods (most of which I know little about, so...). Again, this is just me, but I would rather see them putting money into signing up kids and families (moms and daughters too!) than give it to clubs for repairs. The new techy stuff certainly is attractive to the younger kids who have grown up with unbelievably fast and realistic video games. I'm old enough to remember the awe of playing Atari Pong for the first time....

Chris P. Bacon

My Feedback: (4)

That's awesome news! Certainly worthy of it's own thread! I'm glad my heard earned money is going to support someone's education, especially with what college costs today.

init4fun

Very well said . In fact , this should be posted at the top of the AMA subforum front page ......

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

and yet.......

Chris P. Bacon

My Feedback: (4)

Seems like the sub-forum page (http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/ama-discussions-74/) just contains the subject line for each thread in the sub-forum. But who knows, contact the the admins, and see they can add it, maybe as a thread sticky.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

Yet another story in the "mainstream" media on the "drone" issue.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...eryone-thinks/

Of course one of the reasons it may not be as bad as it seems is that some of these sightings might be ya know, plastic grocery bags.

Chris P. Bacon

My Feedback: (4)

Great article, thanks for sharing.

LJE4357

My Feedback: (74)

I haven't been on the website all that much, but I been following a lot that's been going on. It's a lot better than RCG. It seems that's are a lot of idiots there. Here is some information I got directly from the FCC. Do you know the difference of " Type Approved " or " Type Accepted" I'm a retired BSEE, and I have General Class Radiotelephone License with Radar Endorsement. In my carrer as a design engineer, I have several times applied for FCC certifications. " Type Approved " means a piece of equipment with an RF output has to be tested and meet certain regulations made by the FCC. The FCC uses there own labs for this certification, and it cost money. The applications, it's determined by the frequency location in a band and the power output, the modulation, and bandwidth used. "Type Accepted" is similar, except, as the designer, he can submit the information the FCC is asking for, and as long as it meet the requirements. It get's FCC approval. In our case we started out on 27 Mhz Citizen Band, the max power was 5 Watts input ( Not Output) When the Walkie Talkies came out, they were 100 mw. then went to 1 watt. When RC radio' first came out they were limited to 1 watt, input, the output was about 750 mw. That was enough to fly an RC model about 1000 ft. depending on the antennas used on the plane. When the FCC allowed us to go to 72 Mhz. we had about 12 channels, and we had to share with other users, when the channels were increased, the FCC assigned them to us but still had some problems with other users, mainly pagers. The radios really advanced in ability's. But everything was done as " Type Accepted" Now we have the 2.4 Ghz band. When the FCC approved this band which goes for 2.40 Ghz to 2.485 Ghz. or 85 mhz of bandwidth. The band was primarily to be used for BlueTooth, and wireless modem's. The modulation can be anything, as long as it meets bandwidth requirements. Most Blue Tooth equipment uses from 10 to 100 mw of power, it's meant to be short range. BUT, it can go to 1 watt output. Spectrum was the first to make an RC radio using that frequency. They used there technology from there Blue Tooth development to make the first radios. The transmitter output was about 100 mw. the range was about 1000 ft. But they worked. You could never get 1000 ft range at 27 mhz or 72 mhz, with 100 mw. The reason, it's called " Signal to Noise" it's all in the receiver. The higher the frequency the lower the noise. As the market started to grow, so did the technology, but no company ever went to the 1 watt power level. It come's down to cost. The transistors needed to go to 1 watt, cost more than 350 mw. It was also less cost to increase the gain in the receiver's. But we had no problems flying, because there weren't 170 planes flying at or field. Well now we have a problem, It's called Quad copters, and if there flying on 2.4, how far and how many can we share with. If it get's to many there's not enough bandwidth to share to get data through. Another problem, If RF amplifer's come out to attach to an RC transmitter to increase the power to 1 watt, it will work for a while, but the more that do it, the more the problem with the receivers. The front end RF amp, saturate. Now no data get's through, no matter what type of modulation you use. If that happens, new receivers will be needed that have lower sensitivity. What we really need, is a frequency band devoted entirely to the use of models. Go to the FCC website and look up Part 95. There are other issues that affect the use of the 2.4 Ghz band. I heard that a field in the LA area has problems. A fixed frequency can have a max output of 250 Watts.

I also read a post on here about AMA membership reducing and losing fields. The lose of fields is definitely happening. But I have seen here in Fla where 7 clubs got together and opened a new field with 750 members. Lost there old fields, but the members are still there. But we are losing modelers, and there not being replaced. Here in Orlando we have lost about 4 fields with only 2 left, 1 is now next to a major highway. They keep building houses here, some day were going to have a major problem, what to do with the toilet flushing, and were we get our water to drink.

Just went through and fixed a bunch of Typo's. If anybody see's anymore, let me know and I'll fix them. Time to get a new laptop, over 1/2 the letters on the key's are worn away.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

LJE, thanks for that great explanation / history lesson about our technical challenges.!

LJE4357

My Feedback: (74)

Anybody heard anything new on here lately?