What makes the AMA cotroversial is the fact they have to much control over the hobby.
They do? What control do they have? They have 0 control over this hobby, that's just a perception. I thought our wives had control over how much we can be involved in this hobby? If anyone has control over this hobby it's the FAA as they regulate all airspace from the ground up.
you have to join the AMA to fly at 98% of the flying sites in the U.S. yet your insurance if you have any will be primary if you a accident that involves your model.
That's because the AMA is a backup for the people that don't have insurance and
it's priced accordingly. Where on earth do you find 2.5M liability insurance for $60 a year??? If they didn't have the backup insurance plan, do you think the rates would still be $60? What if you or your car got hit by a plane by a 19 year old kid living in an apartment who had $160 in his checking account, no insurance on anything, BUT he had an AMA card? Don't you feel a little better about flying at a club that has this kind of protection? Do you think you may have 1 or 2 kids like this at your field???? Pretty much every field does. Heck at some fields people with homeowners and renters is a minority.
Can you imagine flying at RC fields with no
guidance (not control) from the AMA and no insurance? The club board members and their members would literally be at war with each other fighting over the way the club should run. Not only that, do you think the FAA would allow uncontrolled RC flying with no "standards" of operations? Let's say that number of AMA fields went from 98% to 90% to 80% to 70% and so on, what do you think the FAA would do? They would jump right in and start setting the rules and guidelines, only they wouldn't be guidelines, they would be LAWS and instead of being kicked out of a club for doing something stupid, you could find your way into some serious federal fines and jail time.
Does anyone in this forum ever think outside the box?