Originally Posted by
speedracerntrixie
...average club cost $20 to $50 ...
Originally Posted by
franklin_m
(1) Please provide data source supporting the statement "average club cost $20 to $50"
Originally Posted by
speedracerntrixie
1. How many examples will it take?
Well, the math says 323 random samples are needed to get 95% confidence level and 5% chance of error assuming 2000 AMA clubs in existence. If there's 3000 clubs, it would require 341 samples.
Originally Posted by
speedracerntrixie
2. FT suggests the help of an experienced pilot/instructor for a minimum of 5 hours of flight time in their safety code.
Suggests is not a requirement.
Originally Posted by
speedracerntrixie
3. Travel to and from recreational activities is the norm. No need to address that hyperbole. Same goes for carbon footprint.
Perhaps. But consider little league baseball. Four sites withing 5 miles of where I sit, one within 200 yards. And even when they play kids from nearby towns, the distance is about the same as a trip to the flying site, but the travel frquency if far less. Similar for softball, soccer, and lacross in our area .. plenty of sites very close by. Additionally, our town is very bike friendly and lot of kids ride their bikes to practice etc., further reducing the travel costs & logistics burden. Hard to ride a bike to an AMA field 13 miles away and take all the stuff to participate.
Originally Posted by
speedracerntrixie
The FAA also prohibited drones from flying within a 5-mile radius of airports with control towers, such as the University Park Airport in Benner Township. The local no-fly zone covers all of Penn State’s campus, downtown State College, and nearby communities such as Houserville, Lemont, Park Forest, Unionville, and Julian. (Again, the FAA has a process for pilots to request waivers to fly in no-fly zones.)
Exactly the same situation as several hundred AMA clubs that exist inside class D or class E surface areas. Oh, and they didn't prohibit, they said you have to have permission. Again, JUST LIKE AMA clubs in similar situations.
Originally Posted by
speedracerntrixie
Back to flying without help, granted technology has improved but I have yet to see anyone self learn without destroying an airplane or three. Add that level of inexperience in a schoolyard and what is the incident potential? Not to mention the loss of a $250 BNF trainer. Having a club instructor greatly increases the odds of learning without the loss of aircraft.
Of course nobody says you need to buy $250 aircraft. The FT business model assumes crashes, that's whey the planes are light, made of foam, and easy to re-use the expensive bits with new foam structure.
Originally Posted by
speedracerntrixie
Of course FT offers no insurance so one would be relying on home owner’s insurance should a model crash into a home or a car. What would be the rate increase in the event of such an incident?
Please show us where FAA requires insurance.
Originally Posted by
speedracerntrixie
I will use an established safety line to separate all model aircraft operations from spectators and bystanders ... Just how are you establishing your safety line?
I think Mongo had a good response, the same way the club does where they fly over non-participants (who are on horseback - and at risk of being thrown if the horse is startled by toy planes).
Big picture, folks need to see through all the rhetoric from the acolytes and follow the money. I just got my copy of the AMA's 2021 taxes, and for yet another year, inflation adjusted membership revenue and club dues declined. The AMA is doing everything it can to try and make as many people as possible have no place to fly except for club fields. Why do you think they've said very little about the modules they're testing? People with modules don't need FRIAs, and therefore don't need AMA. Heck, look at the language of the amendment they pushed so hard. When you put that language into the bill as they would like it to be, it essentially makes it impossible to fly a recreational sUAS over 55lbs anywhere but an AMA field. Maybe that makes sense in NYC, NJ, or other cities, but in vast sections of rural America, it makes no sense. But that's what AMA pushed for.