Originally Posted by Propworn

I have participated in a few international competitions and it is as far as I know mandatory to at least belong to the country of origin's modeling organization to be able to compete. Any events north or south of the border (US/Canada) require membership to participate. This results in invoking the reciprocal agreement where the country of origin's insurance coverage extends when flying out of country. As far as I know the US and Canada are the only ones to share this agreement. When flying in other countries at international competitions insurance coverage for overseas competitors has been extended by the host association. Even flying at a private competition (SAE Aerodesign) put on by Lockheed Martin there was a stipulation the pilots must be members of an official organization be it the country of origin or an assigned pilot with AMA affiliation. I believe this requirement was because the events were always hosted on an AMA field. That being said I cannot see how a non affiliated pilot from the US or another country could be allowed to compete at any AMA event. Only my opinion from what I have personaly observed I could be wrong but in Canada at least I know its manditory.

To practice any disipline outside of the AMA field of influence like your back yard would not require memebership in any organization as far as I have heard. If you show up at an AMA event or field I would think membership as above would be nessessary. I've been to publicly owned fields in the US where it definitly states AMA membership is manditory but club membership is not nessessarily a requirement due to it being public land.

Dennis