Originally Posted by
Kelly Rohrbach
With all due respect we can agree to disagree but the AMA is not doing OUR side of the hobby a good service in the area of the quad/drones. I say this because you almost never see any of our efforts being show or even talked about on national news or local for that matter. However when I'm in a social setting and folks find out I fly model airplanes almost without fail they say, Oh those drone thingys, to which I have to clarify the difference and again without fail they say boy I sure hope they don't screw it up for you. Quads are a great tool, but that is exactly what they are, a tool. The idiots that don't give a damn about the ramifications of their actions also make them a tool.
The reality is that "our" side of the hobby includes everyone in the the AMA who flies. That won't change. The AMA can only do so much to "promote" in the hobby. So far, they are the only ones that partnered with the FAA to come up with the Know before you Fly campaign, the only ones who wrote the OP ED piece in the USA Today newspaper, the only ones who send people to industry meetings to talk about the issues, the only ones fighting to protect the hobby as we know it. The only other option they had was to completely ignore this new technology and bury their head in the sand, a completely unrealistic thing to have done. If one is not looking for the things they are doing because they dislike the method of flying, one probably wouldn't be aware of them, or one can just chose to ignore them.
I presume when you meet people and they ask about the drones, you talk about the safe operation of same? Do you think you are playing a role in the AMA's efforts to educate the public? I would hope so, because you are.
Drones are no more a tool than any other flying contraption we have at our disposal. In fact fixed wing aircraft were doing many of the things the "drones" are doing now, well before they came into fashion.
The problem isn't the technology, it's the people who don't use it wisely. imo..
