Rob2160

Thanks and Happy Holidays to you also. Ours is pretty long too but that is the part that separates Model aircraft from the UAVs.

Coming straight from a Sydney Summer (85-95 daily averages) it feels very cold in Denver tonight. Most of the time will be in Tucson though and the weather there is usually pretty nice.

CESSNA 421

My Feedback: (17)

Yes, we that are aware realize the AMA is useless.

tgreeng

I've been in the hobby for nearly 25 years and I've never been happy being told that I couldn't fly at a public club field or event held at a public field because I didn't have AMA membership. I chose not to pay membership to the AMA for the past 10 years. I've personally never heard of them supporting a claim based on damage from a remote control aircraft. I've only ever heard the response "file a claim with your homeowners policy first". Now that I'll be registered with the FAA and be required to follow government regulations in order to enjoy the hobby. My liability relative to the hobby is defined by the FAA. As I interpret things, I no longer need to worry about needing AMA. I would expect future fun fly events would require that all pilots follow FAA regulations. I believe this may be the start of the end of the road for the AMA. I can't really think of any benefits that I received as a member for the 15 years that I paid other than a magazine and an annual decal. My intention is not to bash the AMA. I've just never understood what their benefit to the "local pilot" was and how they came to be a requirement at nearly all events. Any opinions on what I may be missing here?

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

You are missing the big picture. The AMA is more than insurance and a mag, but if that's all the benefit you derive from it, than so be it. There is more, but if you don't avail yourself of it, then I don't think it's fair to label them as useless or redundant. That you haven't been personally involved in a claim, nor been updated or advised of the resolution of one doesn't mean the insurance didn't work as intended. It most certainly does, I assure you. Folks join the AMA to join a club and fly together. If you're lucky enough to be able to fly at a field with no AMA needed, more power to you, plenty of folks do that. I don't get the comment about your liability to the hobby being defined by the FAA. They require to register, it's as simple as that. Has nothing to do with liability or the AMA. I believe your interpretation of no longer needing the AMA is incorrect, at least in terms of flying at most clubs and events. Just because you might have to show FAA reg at an event doesn't negate the need for the AMA.

Since you've been away from the AMA for 10 years, you might want to reacquaint yourself with the organization and all they offer, things have changed.

kurt2022

My Feedback: (18)

I haven't paid my club dues and AMA and I"m glad I'm a procrastinator because I'm done with the hobby! The AMA should have embraced line of sight, fixed wing airplanes and that's it! That's $150 I will not have to dole out by the 1st of January! All AMA leadership 'scammer-ship' SHOULD BE FIRED for gross incompetence and theft!

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

bye bye,,,
It's our Government that keeps letting us down 95% of the guys that this affects don't fly drones, we fly line of sight, but they want our $5 for 3 years anyway,,, I have no doubt it will jump to $50 by the time the $5 expires,,, any for what?? another program that will achieve nothing but employing people to run the program,, This is what government does these days

tgreeng

Thanks for the reply. I understand your comments. However, I don't see any reference to the benefits that I'm missing. I'm still in the hobby and fly at a privately owned field with friends. Our club is not AMA sanctioned. It could be defined as unstructured. However, we fly often and enjoy the experience. Our local, community owned parks currently require an annual fee and "insurance", often assumed to be "AMA". As most fun fly events that I've attended are often held at publicly owned parks, the local club organizing the event normally requires AMA insurance. My suggestion is that with new FAA regulations there would be no benefit in requiring AMA. If an accident occurs during the event, liability can now be investigated by the FAA if necessary. The AMA has never had any enforcement capability. So if I'm organizing an event and coordinating with the local parks and recreation, I would simply suggest that the event will follow all applicable FAA rules and regulations now that they exist. I cant think of any reason or benefit for requiring AMA membership in order to attend the event. I'm certain that several lawyers along the way will guide interpretation of these new regulations.
In my opinion, the AMA has been very successful in creating a very large organization/membership. I have yet to understand what it is that they provide in addition to a magazine and decals. Although I am always willing to learn.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

wasn't really replying to you,,,

but ,, what you seem to miss is that at an "AMA sanctioned event" the property aka the "site" is covered under AMA insurance also, this protects the property owner,,, that's why membership is required at events.

If you don't need it,, you don't need it,, it's all good
good luck

rgburrill

The Annual Insurance Report on the AMA website (AMA Documents) shows they have paid out around $5,000,000 since 2001, mostly for injury. There have been 12 to 15 serious injjuries out of 400 claims. Not a lot but that could be because of the safety environment of AMA sanctioned fields.

rgburrill

More bashing. How long has the FAA charged full scale owners $5 for their planes? Perhaps someone can answer that.

Again, Congress is requiring this and the OMB is requiring the fee. The FAA has been happily ingoring the registration requirement for model aircraft for years. The FAA has consderably more issues to deal with that affect safety much more that us. Small things like laser pointers and GPS jammers. Big things like precision landing systems for bad weather to replace very old ILS systems. And lobbyists who are trying to breakout the ATOs and let them be more like our exceptionaly well run post office . This issue has been caused by careless and thoughtless modelers, some of whom are obvious on this forum.

tgreeng

According to the 2015 Park Pilot Insurance Summary as presented by AMA on their website, "AMA insurance is excess to any other applicable coverage, such as homeowner's." Although the legal interpretation can be argued in many ways, the assumed interpretation is that excess insurance is written to apply to an insured's loss after the primary policy obtained by an insured is exhausted. The limits of liability of the excess policy only cover a loss after the limits of the primary policy have been paid, either to settle the loss or to indemnify the insured as a result of an adverse judgment.
A friend who was flying at an AMA sanctioned club field a few years back had an accident with his aircraft that included damage to another pilots vehicle. When making the claim to the AMA, he was provided a far less legal interpretation of their coverage ....basically he was told to make the claim to his homeowners policy. That was the day that I chose to stop paying AMA membership. Do I miss the magazine ...not so much. Does the AMA pay out? I would assume that they have to in order to maintain the massive organization that it has become. Are they likely selective in paying those claims? What insurer wouldn't be? It's called business.

TLH101

My Feedback: (90)

Been a long time since one action has created so much mis-information in a thread. Here is the link to the FAQ: http://www.faa.gov/uas/registration/faqs/
Here is the actual document regarding registration and marking requirements: http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/media/20151213_IFR.pdf
People should read up before they speculate about what will or won't be law.

rcmiket

I have to agree wholeheartedly..
Mike

on_your_six

My Feedback: (11)

I think that a good deal of the blame needs to be heaped upon the TSA fear mongering. We all know that a plastic knife can be used as a shive... it is a wonder that we can still buy utensils to eat with. There is a distinct possibility of terrorists using an RC aircraft to attack Americans. I don't see Daesh Muslim members rushing to register themselves. So how will this registration prevent an attack.

I do see AMA taking a big beat down with this ruling. I have not renewed my AMA... waiting on sidelines for now. I am not happy with the $5 registration, but it is not the end of the world financially.

Perhaps the only real way of voicing your opinion is to slow down or stop buying RC equipment and let the retailers/web sites know why. $$$$$$

larry@coyotenet

My Feedback: (21)

After reading the many stupid comments on this forum and others it's a wonder the FAA hasn't stepped on us a long time ago.
Step back and think before committing your thoughts to the internet.

franklin_m

Porcia, I'm not unlike the writer above. For many, it's an issue of perceived value. The declining number of paying members may be demographics, may be changing nature of available time & interests, widespread availability of good parkfliers etc. that don't need an AMA field to fly, perceived value of membership, or all of the above. For me, it's a perceived value combined with change in habits. I flew larger airplanes for a while, but grew tired of the 13 mile one way trek to a rough grass field. Even once there, I became less happy about having 20cc and larger airplanes rocketing toward the flight line and pulling into maneuvers just feet from my face. Furthermore, when they're flying, it all but dominates the airspace, which meant I spent even more time sitting and not flying. Hardly a good "return" on my time "investment" to get to the field. On the other hand, if I merely switched to slightly smaller electrics, I could fly much more often less than 200 yards from my house. I'd rather be flying than driving, so I chose to alter my habits. Plus the added benefit of no missiles at my face, no domination of the flying space, and no triple digit club fee. I don't need the social aspects of it, and flying is actually my escape from it.

In terms of perceived value, as a homeowner the AMA insurance is last to pay anyway, so it's of nearly zero value. I enjoy the magazine, but the topics are somewhat repetitive over time. As for the list of other benefits the AMA lists, most are not "benefits", but rather of value to youth (I'm not one), competitions (dominated by sponsored pilots), Muncie (never been there, would require considerable travel expense even to visit), etc. And some of what AMA lists as a "benefit" to me, actually rub me the wrong way. I'm not happy about subsidizing youth memberships for kids appearing in the magazine flying $1000+ helicopters, planes, or MRs. I can't afford to spend that much on a plane, but they can, and yet I'm paying for part of their membership / insurance? It's the principle.

On top of that add the issues we've discussed, lost flying fields, lost opportunities to establish new ones, lack of transparency from AMA, clubs that you visit on a Saturday that don't even acknowledge your existence for over an hour, and at the one event you do attend, have AMA "royalty" talk down their nose at you because you don't fly a big warbird like they do.

I expect you'll find fault with this, but it's a from the heart honest and candid view from one member's perspective.

MTIPilot

My Feedback: (121)

Couldn't agree more. They had their chance to draw the distinction between model aircraft and drones and they royaly blew it.

Dokesflyer

And just where on the AMA website did you read this?

drifter

My Feedback: (53)

I don't know what's on the website.
The following is from the letter sent to the membership:
Quote We are still working out the logistics for this process. Some details are still being discussed, including:

We are seriously discussing with the FAA a system where your AMA number could be used as your federal registration number as well. At this point, this is only a proposal and details are not yet finalized. :end quote

Papa51

My Feedback: (3)

To take a few words from out Govt., "You have to register before you can see what's in it".

beepee

I am comforted to know that the web designers for Obama Care's site have a new site to work on. I really look forward to this!

Bedford

jwrich

My Feedback: (17)

I just got an email from AMA this in-part (Your auto insurance is supposed to guard you every mile you drive ... every day of the year. But what if you're paying too much for protection that stops short if you're in an accident?As an AMA member, it's easy to find out. Get your qualified quote now
[TABLE="width: 400, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]•[/TD]
[TD]You could pay less for every auto insurance bill with a special discount.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]•[/TD]
[TD]What if you could cut those bills while at the same time providing peace of mind for your loved ones when they're on the road?[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]•[/TD]
[TD]Vanishing Deductible[SUP]®[/SUP] - Add Vanishing Deductible and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. Your deductible could even go down to zero.*[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Because you are a member of AMA, Nationwide offers you a discount.)

What the hell, is AMA partnered with auto insurance companies now, how many of you received this email?

Rich

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

As I understand it, and I could be wrong, the registration fee can only be paid by credit card. So, even though only name, address and phone number are required to register, they now have a credit card number. Does anyone here think that the FCC does not have enough muscle to go to the credit card companies and pry all the pertinent information about me out of them? And then they refund my five bucks. How very generous of them!!!!!!!!

RC_Fanatic

My Feedback: (1)

Rich, these come through every few months. AMA is too busy taking kickbacks from insurance companies to protect our interests.

Gizmo-RCU

My Feedback: (27)

What a golden opportunity for a Pvt. insurance company or a competing organization...........

WONDER WHEN OUR DUES WILL INCREASE BECAUSE OF FPV-DRONE CLAIMS? Just a thought