ORIGINAL: PilotFighter
If MA was worth a darn, they wouldn't need to force the subscription on us. They know it sucks and they fixed it by making us buy it. End of story. Time for new business.
Ding Ding Ding!! We have a winner!!
I was able to opt out of the magazine in 1999 and 2000 for some strange reason. They had an option to just pay for the coverage and get a $12 discount without the magazine. I did it. Now, that option is not available anymore.
I do understand the complaints about the magazine. I have my own agenda, and would rather see more Giant Scale aerobatic coverage. Anything 40--50cc and up thats a scale aerobat. I used to really enjoy Mike Hurleys articles, but haven't seen them as of late.
I've said it before-- Too much grey hair and rubber bands in the magazine for my taste. I don't give two flips about indoor rubber free-flight. Don't care about outdoor free-flight either. Or rockets, or helis, or electrics of any size, or, or , or, or...........
We all have our focused area of interest. What you have to do is find a different source of information. I view the MA magazine as garbage. Takes me all of 30 seconds to flip through it and say, "Yeah, more electric trainers. More Free Flight BS. More rubber band crud. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. More advertisements. Where's that trashcan?" My MA magazine literally hits the trashcan less than 5 minutes ater I receive it. Only occasionally will I find an articel worth taking a second look. I'll set that issue aside and read the article later. But, as soon as I'm done with it--trashcan.
Maybe we should all get together and start a campaign to force AMA to at least let us opt out of it again and take a small discount in our yearly dues. I'm not much of a politician and I don't have the time to organize such a large undertaking. But, if someone could put together a package and a plan -- maybe we could distribute a petition in every district and get people to sign it. I'd get actively involved in that if someone else could do the initial groundwork. I just don't know how and don't have the time to figure it out. But, come up with a plan and I'll push it as far as I can in my local area.
The way I see it, we have 2 options:
1 - Force AMA to let us opt out of the magazine and take a disounted rate on our dues
2 - Get the format of the magazine changed. Only way to do that is if more guys will submit articles about current interests, and force the old articles about the Daddy Rabbit to the back burner and eventually to the trashcan where they belong.