I have started this thread to separate the AMA controversey and give a little background on the SFA situation.

1) The SFA initiated the litigation.

No 92-10412
In the District Court of Dallas County Texas

SPORT FLYERS ASSOCIATION, INC.
Plaintiff,

v

ACADEMY OF MODEL AERONAUTICS, INC.,
VINCE MANKOWSKI,
CARL MARONEY,
GEOFFREY STYLES,
DAVE BROWN,
HOWARD CRISPIN
AND GENE HEMPEL,

Should anyone want the complete petition please e-mail me back channel. It is to long (10 pages)to take up space here.

Here are the words of an insider at the time.

From June of 1992 until about April 1994 I worked extensively with Al Zlogar and his strange little spinoff of SFA that he called HobbyLab. I worked less extensively with the SFA itself, although I did a good bit of volunteer work
and edited a couple of the SFA newsletters that appeared in RCM about then. I spent hundreds of hours working directly with Al Zlogar and Marsha Howard at two of the Dallas area SFA headquarters locations. I was a member of the SFA while I worked with the organization

Before I began, let me mention that I felt that the SFA was a grand idea. It would (and did) put pressure on the AMA to be a little more customer service oriented towards it's lifeblood, the average R/C modeler. It offered people a choice and a bargain for insurance coverage while pursuing their model aviation hobby. I know that Marsha and Al did much yeoman work towards helping these same folks with the SFA, especially in the area of flying site insurance and retention. (Perhaps not as much as the legends have it, though) However, the SFA had a much darker side few were aware of in the early days. I was there, I spent many, many hours in the SFA/HobbyLab offices and I witnessed it first hand.

I have no knowledge of the current management of the SFA under Mr. Janss. I am speaking only of the early SFA under Al Zlogar and Marsha Howard.

Simply put, based on conversations I had with Al Zlogar directly, the lawsuit with the AMA appeared to be part of his business plan *even before* the SFA opened its doors for business. Al had plans to expand the SFA from *before* day one with the proceeds of the lawsuit that he felt that he knew he was going to win. He provoked the lawsuit on purpose, to meet his plan.

As the games began, Al would spin convoluted tales of how the AMA was systematically harassing SFA members at various flying sites. This was at the core of his lawsuit with the AMA. Any reasonable person (especially one well
versed in model club politics) could tell from these stories that if anything at all was actually happening, it was nothing more than overzealous model club members (every club seems to have one or two, at least) that, ndependent of AMA management, were trying to enforce club rules regarding AMA membership. Al took these simple, intra club disagreements, mixed them with some AMA remarks he regarded as libel, added a dash of conspiracy (always spicy) and charged into the lawsuit as planned. It always seemed to me he was trying to make 5
gallons of guacamole out of a few very small avocados.....<G> IMHO, this action negated the good being accomplished by the SFA. Who needs frivolous lawsuits besides lawyers? Certainly not our hobby.

As this began, I was also troubled by the business and management practices at SFA headquarters. Any employee who began to have a clue as to what the SFA was really up to behind the scenes did not have long to survive. The tenure of receptionists, assistants and the like was usually measured in weeks at best. There is something wrong at the very core of an organization that has this kind of turnover. Many bills were not paid (not from lack of funds) and at least one person was fired for paying an overdue bill without permission. I have first hand knowledge of this.

One of Al's other grand plans for the SFA was not illegal, but always made me a little uncomfortable. He viewed the ultimate purpose of the SFA not as a model fraternity supplying benefits to it's members, but as helping to create
a ready pool of customers for whatever model related marketing scheme he was focused on at the moment. (Complete vertical integration of customer, product and supplier) Early on, he attempted to buy a number of well known model companies, such as Sig Mfg., in hopes of pursuing this goal. He later created HobbyLab as his personal tool to do this with. Ever notice how SFA newsletters became extensive commercials for HobbyLab products that were barely under development, much less ready to ship? I thought you might have........<G>

I will not speak much of HobbyLab, as it is not not the subject under discussion here. I worked as a product designer while Al was firmly in charge of the management, the marketing and the money (much of which came from the
SFA). It became a morass of good ideas and intentions never realized, too much marketing and not enough substance, broken agreements and commitments and fingerprinting. We did invent some fun models and I view the experience as: "That which does not destroy you, makes you stronger".....<G>. Others involved lost more than me, to be sure.

Troubled by the mismanagement and many other issues, I severed my contacts with SFA and HobbyLab completely in late 1994. After the smoke had cleared, more than one person has noticed that the whole HobbyLab deal (and to a lesser extent, SFA) had an amazing resemblance to the plot of that classic Mel Brooks movie, "The Producers".

SFA...a great idea, poorly executed in many ways in the early years, but with too much attendant baggage to survive in its original form.

******* end of testimony ********

More to follow if anyone is interested. Next - Elliott Janss, how did he fit into the picture?

Red Scholefield
AMA 951 Leader Member/CD