Chris P. Bacon

My Feedback: (4)

The AMA is a membership organization. Direction and accountability is determined by the membership.

Hydro Junkie

That's not exactly true. The computer will tell you what SYSTEM OR SENSOR is giving a faulty input but it's only accurate part of the time. A faulty reading could be due to something else that is related. A misfire, for example, could be due to a bad spark plug, plug wire, ignition coil, fuel injector or, something most wouldn't expect, a camshaft, lifter, rocker or valve. A sticking valve, for example, wouldn't let the proper amount of air into the cylinder, exhaust out or hold compression, depending on which valve in the cylinder was sticking. The result could be(and has been, on one occasion) interpreted by the computer as a bad ignition circuit. Just a little FYI

Sport_Pilot

I said often not always or even most. Still with the right software you will know a lot more than a simple decoder will tell you. Cars will soon do away with the camshaft, and they should be able to tell you which valve is sticking. In time it could tell you everything you could possibly know, but I suspect we will be driving fuel cell cars before that.

Hydro Junkie

I've found the computer to be nothing more than a compass that directs you to a starting point. I've only had one instance in 40+ years working on cars where the computer actually sent me right to the actual source of the problem.

Sport_Pilot

Umm, you do know you can buy software that you load on your laptop and see all and change all on the OBD computer? Common tool at many shops. It will tell you a lot more than the 20 dollar decoders. More than a starting point, but doesn't tell you everything. You still have to figure some of it yourself.

Sport_Pilot

Also they have data loggers you plug into the computer IO. For those codes which pop up and go away or pop up but car checks out. You put the datalogger in the IO and it records what is happening on a real time basis. Pop it out and look at it on your laptop and you can see what was happening when the code popped up.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

I do what the service tech tells me I need to do....pay pay pay.

Chris P. Bacon

My Feedback: (4)

You can't log what you don't have a sensor for.

Not sure what this has to do with AMA finances, but there are plenty of car forums that would be more appropriate for this topic.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Actually drained quite a bit of a bottle of Crown Royal!!!!! Seriously, I get a lot of exercise from the AMA forums when I deal with situations such as that when I get upset at issues. What I usually do is first read the thread, and then walk away, then I come back and read it again when I cool off a bit. Then I form draft 1, walk away, come back, reread and make any changes, walk away if I'm upset again, and repeat until I can read my reply without getting upset. I do this to try and and stay level headed throughout anything I do with the AMA forum. This is part of what I do in order to stay perfectly neutral with anything and everything I do in moderating this forum

Actually there has a been a recent change that now we have exactly this here in the RCU AMA forums. RCU Member Barracuda Hockey is now an AMA AVP and recently elected member to the AMA Executive Council. And he spends quite a bit of time here in the AMA forum. So as we move forward you all should get a good voice to the AMA through him. I'm not speaking for him, I'm just hoping that is the way it will be. I'm going to shoot a PM to him and ask him to post here to clarify how he will represent the AMA in the forums here.

Ken

mongo

My Feedback: (15)

ken,

now that barracuda is an AMA rep, will he still be allowed to moderate here in the AMA forums?

and something else that i wanted to say.

ignore is a great idea, but poorly implemented. as long as others can quote the ignorees posts, those of us trying to ignore him, are doomed to seeing his posts anyway.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

Ok, let me take a second to explain the situation.

1, Mongo, you're correct and I've stepped away from moderating the AMA forums here several days ago.

2. I'm an AVP that was named first alternate to District V, due to our VP having to resign due to his work and personal commitment I was asked to fill in the remainder of the term.

3. I only speak for myself, not the EC, President, or Staff at HQ. If there's a question I know the answer to I'll be happy to answer it. If I don't know I'll try my best to find out or refer you to the proper person.

Quite honestly, I'm a modeler and as some of you know a writer. Any input I will have to the EC will be based on being a long time modeler and what is best for modeling. I fly everything. Jets, gliders, helis, whatever. I've tried FPV (with a spotter) but FPV and quads aren't my things though as a photographer I find MR's useful as a tool.

I will say this in closing. I won't be participating in any of the stuff that is responsible for the majority of my hair loss moderating in here so don't try to drag me into any petty fights/arguments/mud slinging

I was proud and honored to be asked to be part of the EC and to represent the modelers in my district and I never really pictured myself being in that position. I can only hope I don't break anything between now and when the election is over

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I made Andy a Community Moderator for RCU awhile back. Community Moderator means several things here at RCU. First, it means that their realm of power is all of the forums of RCU, they are here to assist the Moderators and move in and out of the forums of RCU looking for problems and help out when they can. Second, and this is more important than anything else, I can trust Andy to use the RCU Community Rules as his guidelines when he moderates. This means he will stay absolutely fair when he moderators, regardless of the forum that he is moderating in. So if it came down to it I would trust him to moderate in the AMA forum and still do it fairly and treat everybody equally.

Now with that being said. Both Andy and I have agreed that for the sake of how things look he will not be doing any moderating in the AMA forums. While he and I both know he can be fair, we don't want it to look like to the members that he may be moderating to back up his position in a discussion he may be having. This is the same reason why I will not participate in any discussion in the AMA forum, because I don't want anybody thinking like I can moderate my position.

So the simple answer to your question is, yes he is allowed but no he will not be moderating here in the AMA forums.

Ken

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

I don't see any place on the IRS 990 form for the AMA to enter "bribes and kickbacks" from the drone manufacturers...?

mr_matt

My Feedback: (10)

+1000

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I have been a member of RCU for almost as long as RCU has been around and one thing has always amazed me, that people can't read a post and simply ignore it or not respond to it. I tell you all to put the people on your ignore list and your reply to me is that you will still their posts if anybody quotes what they posted. They way you say that it sounds like once you see it then you have no control over yourself and you have to reply to them and start, or escalate, a fight. Come on now, we're all supposed to be adults here. If you can't read a person's post, whether it's the direct post in the forum or if it's been quoted by somebody else, and just ignore it yourself then there is something serious wrong with that person. It's not that hard to just put that person out of your mind.

But for the ones that can't even control themselves even if they see the posts in a quote by another member, I have a fix for that. Usually those people will get into a fight with that person. We all know who those people are here. And here's the deal, if these fights don't stop I'm going to start banning people from RCU, PERIOD. For a long time things were calm. When all of this crap from the FAA first came down on us we all united and the childish petty bickering stopped for a while. But now you all are back to it. So here is the deal, I will be the calming influence. If you all can't find a way to quit this childish petty bickering then I will. I'm going to start using more Administrative Actions including Moderated Status and Banning for those that just can't seem to control them self and want to fight whenever they read a post from somebody they don't like. So you pick what you want to do, it's entirely up to you. But you have been warned as to what I will do.

Ken

init4fun

Psst , slip it in there with the advertising revenue , no one will ever notice ......

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Init, in order to answer the original question in your thread title, do you want to base the answer on what has been considered customary and traditional reporting that dates back to any certain milestone..?

F-16 viperman

For what it's worth, I'd happily pay way more than They ask, and not ask where the money goes. If They just had hat least half the lobbying influence the NRA has with the government. We would all know then, where the money goes! LOL

rcmiket

They don't but would like us to believe that they do and that's the problem.

Mike

Hydro Junkie

The way I see it, they probably could, if they wanted to spend money like the NRA does. Then again, depending on the source and who you believe, the NRA has between 3.1 and 4.5 MILLION MEMBERS. Just like some R/C flyers that don't belong to the AMA, that is drop in the bucket compared to the 70+ million that claim to own firearms. It still comes down to the AMA's $11,000,000 as compared to the NRA's $124,000,000 annual budget, basing the NRA on $40 per year(one year subscription per the NRA website, longer ones are less expensive) at 3.1 million members.

Note to Ken:
You should feel free to add to any discussion you want. If two(or more) people are obviously at each other, you do what you have to as I doubt anyone would accuse you of underhanded methods of posting on that basis. Just like the rest of us, you adding input is a right as a forum member, regardless of your position as a moderator, in my opinion.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

We have always avoided discussion in threads we moderate. I'm sure you can see the allure of having a delete key for posts you don't like or that are contrary to your position. It happens sometimes, moderators are humans after all and we can get offended or mad.

The best way to avoid that is to not moderate a discussion you're participating in. If we feel we need that we just call in another mod for a neutral opinion. Kind of like I would never ref my own kids hockey games despite being asked to ref more important games even by the opposing coach because apparently I was a decent ref, I just wouldn't do it because that way there was no question.

Hydro Junkie

Err on the side of caution, I can deal with that. I just think moderators shouldn't be restricted from commenting where they want is all

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

They aren't. In all the rest of the forums of RCU the Moderators a healthy part of the conversations that go on in the threads in those forums. But the AMA forum is a little bit of a different animal than the rest of RCU. If you have a little bit of time let me share you with a little history of RCU.

Way back in the early days of RCU there was a forum that had HUGE problems and was nothing but headaches and troubles. There was endless bickering, fighting, attacking on each other, and no matter what the moderators or Forum Managers tried would not calm down. Sound familiar?? It should, it was our own beloved AMA forum. At that time Marc Vigod and Michael and Kranitz (owners of RCU at that time) were considering simply shutting down the AMA forum because it was such a hassle. Well, at that time I was on the move up as a Moderator and had been cutting my teeth as a moderator. I had just spent a good amount of time saving the RC Tank Forum that was in the same boat (on the verge of getting shut down) and had cleaned up that forum. I told Marc that I would take over the AMA forum and clean it up as well if he would like me too. He said that would rather have the forum cleaned up than to remove it for sure. So at that time he made me a Community Moderator.

Now when I came into the AMA forum I started looking at the problems that were ongoing in that old forum and one of the biggest problems that was ongoing there was that they old Moderators were also major contributors in the discussions and members felt that their posts were being deleted if the Moderators didn't agree with what was being posted. So one of my first guidelines that I put out was that I self imposed a rule that I would not participate in any discussions as long as I was moderating the AMA forum. Now there was something simple like getting a phone number to the AMA or something easy like that I would do that, but anything that was posting a point of view then I was going to stay out of it. PERIOD. And I did that because I didn't not want anybody EVER to thing that I was moderating to exercise my viewpoint. It's just that simple. It's not a rule of RCU. It's not a rule that I put on my Moderators. It's a rule that I put on myself to keep the AMA Forum fairly moderated. And up to now it has for the most it has worked. There has been very little accusations that RCU's moderation of the AMA forums are unfair. They will stay fair as long as I am the Forum Manager. Always.

I hope that clears it all up for you. If now please feel free to ask any more questions, I'll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Ken

mongo

My Feedback: (15)

i remember all that, k, you have stood good to yer word all this time.

thanks.

Hydro Junkie

Ken, To be honest I remember some of that as well. For a while, every time I came into the aircraft forum, there was someone calling out or attacking others due to whatever. I ended up staying out of this part or the forum for several years because of it. I also remember a moderator in a different part of the forums stepping down because he wanted to post his thoughts and ideas in the threads and was called out for it every time he took "corrective" action as he was deemed to be "self serving". I do understand your point and agree with your reasoning but, at the same time, I think there are times when your thoughts would be better actually put in a thread than left out. Just my opinion in this case.