ORIGINAL: WingShot
I would say the AMA hasn't changed with the times and has done miserably at reaching out to younger pilots, hence the average of age of nearly 60.
The perception is the AMA is close minded...that lot of the old guys you find in clubs right on up through the ranks of the AMA are close minded. 3d flying, sonny that's not the way an airplane is supposed to fly. Electric, what the--dang sonny what is that a lipoly. Foamy, that's not a real plane. Slow, set in their ways, sluggish, dreaming of yesteryear, average age of 60, when ARF is what a dog barked (not a plane ya bought) and you stick built a plane right. A dying organization.
Increasingly, I see (I'm 30), people my age and younger tending just to fly informally in groups (gas, glow, electric whatever).
I'm over 60, and I still do stickbuild (hence the signature) because I can. I choose not to fly EP, because I have the ability to fly gas. I don't consider myself slow, I build yesteryear's type of airplane, mainly because thay exhibit something that you can't get from a foamy, park flyer or any other ARF. It's called character. And by the way, only Little Orphan Annie's dog, Sandy said ARF. If this makes me part of a dying breed, then, Sonny, you are going to miss out on a lot. There is a tremendous difference in flying something that you have created, and something that you partially assembled. So don't say that you are going out to fly your plane. Just say I'm going out to fly Nguyen Schwartz' plane that he built, and I bought. Those who can, Do. Those who cannot, rationalize.
Bill, AMA 4720