Originally Posted by
porcia83
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?
Porcia, I don't disagree that there will be an AMA for a while. Just as I agree that there will continue to be need for places to fly large aircraft. But I am trying to point out what I believe is a trend. Is it scientific? No. But just look at the ads you get in the mail from TH, HobbyKing, HH, etc. The number and different types of small things far outweigh the large stuff. I don't get as much value out of AMA as others, simply because I don't want to fly large stuff bad enough to spend an additional $100 a year for club membership.
I don't have any Freudian issues driving a need to fly large planes or look down my nose at those who fly small stuff. I can satisfy my flying requirements within 100 feet of my home, where I can put two or three batteries of flying in and be home before I'd have even gotten to the nearest flying field. To me it's about convenience. I argue a 22in ws model like Stevens Adrenaline Rush on a 3S traveling over 60mph or more, and all but disappears when wings level, is just as demanding as a much larger plane much further away.