Originally Posted by
franklin_m
Exactly why I think AMA is gonna lose the court case. We have to ask ourselves what happens to AMA if they do? With membership revenue already on a downward trend since 2007 (based on constant 2014 dollars of AMA membership revenue from AMA 990 tax forms), and not necessarily needing an AMA field to fly MRs, not necessarily needing an AMA field to fly the growing number of foam aircraft, and not necessarily needing an AMA field to fly every more types of electric aircraft, to me I see less need for the AMA over time. If insurance is already secondary for members, why continue paying $75 a year when I can pay FAA $5 for three and take my chances on something that invokes my homeowners?
Again with the foamies....lol know many parks that can deal with the giant scale T-28 out now? They are getting bigger and bigger. Check out page 115 in the Dec AMA mag...Max Moxey's 210 inch B-17 built from....foam! People keep conflating the FAA reg with the AMA membership, and in the process significantly diminish the value of an AMA membership, it's usually reduced to a magazine and secondary insurance. And yes, I realize the membership "value" is very different from person to person. If you think it's bad now with people flying all over the place, do away with the AMA and chartered fields to fly at (ie SAFE) and consider what could happen there.
The AMA isn't going anywhere anytime soon, membership ebbs and flows, like any other org. If anything there will be an influx of MR pilots, it's the single biggest booming discipline this hobby has seen in years. But what would happen if the AMA did disappear...are you thinking the FAA is somehow going to take over where the AMA left off? A $5.00 registration with the feds isn't even remotely similar to the AMA membership. Are they going to be helping any club or member in any way?
