I think Ed Dupaquier's letter makes a lot of good points.

To illustrate, I'd like to tell the story of my sorriest day in this hobby. I was out at the field flying, and there weren't too many other guys around. A mom pulls up with a very enthusiastic teen (14 or 15), his brother and a couple of friends. The kid loves model airplanes, and is the very proud owner of a Firebird or some foam electric plane that he's been saving up for months to buy. The mom, bless her heart, knows nothing, but has driven them 30 miles or something because the kids heard of our field and talked her into it with their enthusiasm. They came over to introduce themselves, and I'll never forgive myself for this, but I was new to the hobby, and didn't know any better, and I told the group I was very sorry, but rules were rules, and they couldn't fly here, due to no AMA card.

As they were all sadly piling back into the car, one of the more experienced club members came over to me and asked what that was all about. I told him, and he started yelling at me, "You fool!", and ran after the group, and said of course you can fly here, and spent 1/2 hour or so helping them get the plane into the air. The plane was really underpowered, but the kids didn't seem to mind and they had a ball until after many crashes it would no longer fly.

While I'm still greatful for that club member that saved me from the meanest thing I've ever done in my life, I still think the AMA set me up for it. There are all these warnings and signs about AMA membership (I don't like the "license" term either) being required, and I didn't seen any exceptions for enthusiastic kids with a harmless plane and the best Mom in the state.

All that said, I still don't know what the answer is. If the kids had done a slight amount of research, they should have seen the "AMA required" notices. The AMA has junior and trial memberships, but it's not really the money. Probably the kids should have just flown the plane in their local park, but I think they wanted to be a part of the bigger club experience. They wanted to hang out with others who shared their excitement, and on paper, our club seemed like a hospitable place.

Maybe just "winking" at the rules is the best approach, but not everybody is wise enough to do that (I wasn't). This is why Dupaquier's letter resonates with me. It just seems that maybe there could be some exception for tiny planes that really have zero chance of injuring anybody. Do you really need additional insurance to fly a plane that can barely stay up in the air?