porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

I thought tomorrow was filet mignon day...lol

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

Well.... that's a miss on your club's leadership part.

Rafael23cc

My Feedback: (6)

Well, I may have to eat my words and I accept it. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but AOPA is now open for Drone memberships.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/...n=170223epilot

Rafael

rcmiket

Interesting since the AMA was touting them as a "partner" a year ago. Looks like now they may just be competing with them for membership. The AMA also signed up a bunch of youth members though the AOPA,

Mike

franklin_m

Wow! They're not even hiding their effort to be an alternative. Even offering insurance for recreational and commercial. Not to mention the built in credibility of AOPA when engaging in lobbying efforts. AMA spent a ton of money and got language that really didn't do that much in the end. AOPA lobbied and got a major revision to medical requirements. Gee....which organization has more "stroke" with lawmakers?

"Insurance—Insurance is another important aspect of protection for pilots, and AOPA has long provided affordable aircraft insurance. As underwriters create new policies for unmanned operations in growing numbers, AOPA Insurance has begun serving customers seeking protection for recreational and commercial drone operations. There, too, the expertise of a staff with a long history serving aviation is no small advantage."

franklin_m

Did some more digging. Boy oh boy is AOPA trying to muscle in on AMA's turf. Especially if you don't fly at AMA chartered club:

AOPA membership = $69, AMA = $75

AOPA offering insurance for recreational AND commercial drone ops, as well as injury coverage and damage to drone coverage.

AOPA "programming" includes Free Air Safety Institute online education courses, quizzes and videos...genuine safety related content. And more than just pencil whipped content at that.

AOPA "programming" includes real time "Pilot Hotline"

AOPA also gets deals on car insurance, rental cars, etc.

rcmiket

Wow. Very interesting. Love to be a fly on the wall at the next EC meeting. It will be really interesting to see the spin they put on this.

Mike

franklin_m

We used to call that "Trying to put a shine on a tu*d" - Where the * is first letter in Shakespeare's Play "__________" & Juliet"

ira d

I think the AOPA will have to charter some clubs for their members to fly at if they intend to be a serious contender for recreational RC flyers.

cj_rumley

To 'charter' a club in AMA-speak (sans the fluff) is to provide liability insurance coverage to the owner of a flying site, period. Shouldn't be any more effort for AOPA to do that than it is for insuring individuals that are doing the flying, and they appear to be ready and able to do that.

init4fun

Hi Ira ,

My thought here is that since a bit under 200K of us weren't worth it before for the AOPA to go creating a new membership category for , that they only included recreational drone use now so as to be seen as being all inclusive , but the real prize for the AOPA will be the millions of both hobby (far less) and commercial (far more) members the future will hold for them . Just like any monopoly , which as we all know is what our organization tried to position itself to be with the CBO crap , a little healthy competition is good for those of us who will be presented with a choice of organizations to belong to .

Well played on AOPA's part , wait for the dust to settle and then offer up some serious competition to the "only" CBO in the hobby world .....

franklin_m

Or, AOPA reps say to AMA....
"If you want our continued support in your efforts, then we want our members to be able to be able to fly at your clubs and events."

Granted, that's the "hard ball" approach. But, AMA spent a ton of effort and got language into law that turned out to be not all that powerful. AOPA got a major change to FARs with respect to medical for private and recreational pilots. I know which group I'd rather have on my side...

franklin_m

Excellent point. AOPA is the big dog of the two. If the insurance turns out to be primary for both recreational and commercial, and it's reasonable, AOPA will be a powerful force competing for the unaffiliated drone market - which we know is at least double the size of the AMA (at least just based on registrations).

Very well played by AOPA. Very well indeed.

Hydro Junkie

Maybe this is a good thing. It might get the EC to wake up and smell something besides the coffee brewing in their capitol's kitchen. Obviously, they have been sleep walking through this whole drone deal so, like any other business(and yes, the AMA is a business) competition might be a good thing

rcmiket

Honestly it looks like they are as of right now looking to attract the "professional droner" the Part 107 group over the hobbyist. I may be wrong but that's how it looks to me. Now something else that must be looked at if they are looking for the hobbyist would be site owner ( flying field) insurance.
Feel free to correct me if I'm missing something as I'm looking at this from the Hobbyist point of view..
Mike

franklin_m

If I had to pick one or the other, I'd say that I'd tend to agree...that their primary goal is to sweep up the professional fliers first. That said, they say the insurance coverage is available for both, so perhaps they're thinking of giving folks the convenience of one stop shopping so to speak for CBO type stuff when flying recreationally and for professional stuff when flying professionally.

When you compare AOPA "programming" with AMA stuff of the same name, one is genuine flight safety related stuff, the other is ads and stories about themselves.