Originally Posted by
init4fun
Mike , I hate like Hell to believe this , but here goes ;
I have come to the belief that the AMA sees it's only future in two things , #1 being Drones and #2 being the ability to get itself positioned as the only authority over ALL non commercial UAS flight . It is also my belief that they are perfectly willing to gamble us "traditional" LOS RC flyers rights away to get what they think they need to survive , a monopoly on all non commercial UAS . We "traditional" RCers are not seen as the AMA's future , we're already seen as it's past , and that's the reason the AMA never came right out and made the distinction between RC LOS and BLOS , cause they are banking on their being NO distinction between the two and in fact want to be in control of all of both !
It never has been about "saving" the "traditional" LOS flyer from excessive regulation , It's about the AMA insuring IT'S survival , whether our part of the hobby survives or not ! In the future , if AMA membership isn't somehow mandated by the FAA , The AMA will cease to exist as it's quite obvious where the hobby is headed and folks who need no club fields really won't have much need of clubs , including right on up to the biggest club , the AMA .
I think you're absolutely correct. The problem will be that in the end, the Congress will not tolerate AMA requiring membership. Now, that doesn't mean the AMA won't try it anyway (survival instinct). And they may well succeed for a while. But then someone in government will put 2 & 2 together and yank that special status out from under them. Unfortunately, by that time all those traditional folks will have left, or will just fly smaller stuff. I'm already moving in that direction myself, mostly because I can fly within 200 yards of my house, vice packing up all my stuff, schlepping 13 miles one way to the field -- just to fly nitro? Just to fly big stuff? Not worth it. Even accounting for the larger planes being better in wind, I still fly much more often smaller stuff close to home than I ever flew going to the flying field.