ORIGINAL: airdogiam

I'm a renegade![>:] About one year ago I let my AMA membership expire. The day after, I went and flew at the local dry lake bed where other renegades and I gather. Believe it or not, after taking off the sky did not come crashing down and the world did not come to an end. It actually turned out to be uneventful. Where we fly we abide by gentleman's rules which revolves around common sense. It is not regulated and all know there is an element of risk ie. an errant plane into a car or finger prop strike or possibly even worse. We know that risk and assume responsiblity for our actions. For those of you that don't know it, that same risk is present at an AMA field, but with far greater regulatory rules to follow.

I'm now in the process of building a turbine powered job which leads me to the point I wanted to make. In my opinion, by putting more regulations in place for turbine guys does not increase safety. It only keeps new people out of that segment of the hobby or forces people to do as I do and be a renegade. I already disagree with the "turbine waiver" (my turbine waiver is on a square of Charmin toilet paper), but if I flew at a AMA field I would get one and renew my membership(against my rathers). However, with the new regulations being put into effect I would shy away from it and continue to be a renegade as I believe others will do (already three where I fly). This segment of the hobby is going to grow no matter what and the AMA can't stop it regardless of the restrictions. Simply put, people will make their own flying fields or break the rules.

Oh well, thought I would relate my opinion and watch the firestorm. Hehe