DocYates
Posts: 2631
Joined: 1/2/2002
From: Killen, AL, USA
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: P-51B
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ORIGINAL: ElectricFlyGuy
I like this alot!!!!!!! I would choose standard. Fair pricing for what you choose to fly. If you want to buy and fly huge gassers, you pay the price. The difference between electric and gas/nitro in all about enviromental!!!!!! I can't even use my nitro boat on my local city lake. I believe that AMA is trying to bring in the folks that would otherwise fly in their own yard or on some private field. Can't blame them though. Membership is declining. Did anyone answer my comment on initiation fees at local flying clubs on county property? Is that fee just so you have a free pass to fly there? Maybe just being an AMA member doesn't give you a right to just pop in any club field and fly at will. AMA looks to be structuring just as the auto racing world is. You play, you pay. Depending on what you play with, beit a CUP car or a sportsman series car. OK, wanna know what percentage of members the AMA stands to gain? Just look at the pole at the top of the page! 38% so far! That adds up to alot of lost dollars from not doing this system sooner. NITRO/GAS only clubs???? Prejudice? Looks like it. The club I visit flys both nitro/gas and electric and they get along just fine. I have found that the older generations are having an EXTREMELY hard time accepting the newer generations. To those that fall into that catagory, TUFF!!!!!! Get used to it. Scott
This to me is a classic demonstration of a two-faced view. You talk about nitro/gas only clubs being predudice, but its ok for the AMA to promote electric only through the PPP.
If the rationality you cite from the auto racing world is accurate, and it is transferred over to AMA then the electric guys should be paying the highest rates based on a number of factors. It costs me MUCH more to outfit and fly my axi 4130-16 plane than the same plane on an OS 61, so the cost is higher for one class than the other (like your car class example). Or, it could be based on hazard. Lets see, how many jets have crashed and caused other than a hole in the grass compared to how many cars and houses have been documented to have been burned up because of a LiPO battery. Looks like electric pays more on that one.
Then your statement about the difference between gas/glow and electric being environmental is just over the top. Many people are out there touting that electric is so environmentally friendly. What the final end user sees in AIR emmissions may incorrectly support that belief. UNFORTUNATELY when one looks at the environmental hazards generated in the production of the electronic controllers, the electric motors, and the batteries, and then takes into consideration that end products typically end up in a landfill where they present generations of potential hazard, it quickly becomes apparent that over the LIFE CYCLE of the products, the electrics typically end up being far less environmentally friendly than their counterparts. But, hey, the guy at the field doesn't see a smoke trail...and it sounds a little quieter than the gasser...so it must be better... 
BINGO...give that man a cigar. It is always about perceived costs and there are many out there, including some electric guys, who think that their facet of the hobby should be "penalized" less because it is supposedly cheaper or cleaner, when it reality when it all comes down to it, they are all about the same, and it comes down to priorities and how you want to spend your money. I have seen some EDF jets fly that have good performance, but the costs alone in outfitting those jets is not too dissimilar to a full turbine model. Ironically the AMA does not require a waiver for their flight, and they are not required or limited to a certain speed yet, the large number of lipo batteries on board represent as much of a fire hazard as a tank of kerosene.
I have no real problems with the PPP program, I don't think the AMA is seeing an explosive growth as they would have wanted, and I could be wrong. It will be interesting to see what the numbers bear out. I however hope this is not the first step on to a tiered membership, although if it is I think it will not be long in the future before the AMA sees some competition, and this time it might be more successful than the previous attempts.
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"Those who beat their swords into plowshares, will plow for those who did not".
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RE: Is the cost of the PPP membership fair to oth... - 
