Matt,
When I wrote that I was steamed. The open personal attacks are part of the problem as is those who have nothing to say except how much more they do, know, and deserve. I have been frustrated at the clear REFUSAL to accept that there IS a problem within the waiver holder community. Don't I get the chance to rant as everyone else does?

The direct answer to your question is no, I wouldn't bother to write letters because phone calls work so much better. Before I start that, I am looking for a solution that might work.

Here are the problems many (including some on the EC) see. Consider these issues and how their negative implications work against those interested in moving the turbine community forward. Better yet, figure out at way to get some of these loose cannon to consider the problem rather than their own instant gratifaction.

From conversations within this forum some of the loudest attackers against the attempts to clean up the waiver process claim to have lots of jet time and yet openly state that they have NO WAIVER. However, outsiders (lurkers) reading have noted the waiver status and the frequency with which he claims to fly jets.

Careful reading of the Jet forum indicates that the accepted procedure in that community is to do maiden flights at sanctioned events with turbines. That seems to mean that the turbine community is probably outside the AMA rules at every sanctioned event. There was some discussion about that this afternoon and we agreed that maiden flights at events is not just a turbine problem, but a hobby wide problem. However, as far as we know only the jet guys seem to brag about it in public.

This is just one example of rules not being followed by the same group that loudly claims to be safer than the average modeler. I guess that means that they can break any rule they want and still be the safest people in the hobby. Right? I cannot sell that idea to my club members, could you?

Current turbine rules are not being enforced. The entire waiver process was an attempt to allow the community to police itself and the speed limiter and t/w issues clearly indicate the failure of that process. What makes that bad is that everyone seems to have some grief about the costs, both in money and effort, to implement a new and better system that should benefit all. That could be (is?) viewed as an intentional breaking of the rules by the turbine community in its approach to the AMA.

As of this afternoon, both the TRC and the JPO have indicated that they will NOT participate in the presentation of the seminars on turbine rules in California this weekend although Carl Maroney invited them. I guess that pretty well describes the willingness to share information with the community from the current leadership of the waiver holders. I think that the no contact position being tacitly taken by the TRC and JPO is not good for the hobby, much less the turbine community.

The turbine community is asking us to trust them again when they have not even followed the rules they agreed to in the past. They tacitly violate the basic AMA Safety Code. The claims of safety from within the community are clearly flawed when we consider incidents like the crash into the impound at the Best of the West fly in April or the explosion on crash in New York as recounted by an e-mail from Dave Mathewson in the Jet forum. Of course these don't get counted as statistics since the pilots homeowners paid the claims rather than the AMA.

It is too bad that some small percentage of the turbine guys are messing things up for the entire community. The rest of the waiver holders need to get heavily involved with grabbing control of the loose cannon or the community will suffer more because of them.

Thank you for being a reasonable and intelligent modeler. Good luck.