ORIGINAL: S_Ellzey
I guess I’ll throw my two cents worth in here.
As many have pointed out, any where an AMA member flies, the AMA is insuring you. If you are flying your park flier at the park and take out the wind shield of a car, and you have no other insurance, the AMA will pay to fix it. Every Monday morning the AMA gets lots of these calls.
At one time the AMA insurance did have language that would invalidate the insurance if you where operating outside the safety code. But as I understand it, and for reasons I do not understand, an insurance company asked that that be removed. So the AMA does not have a really good way to get out of covering you.
And now to the real point:
As Dr. Sandy Frank put it, in an EC meeting, “The safety code is a gentlemen’s agreement”.
When you join the AMA you are entering into an agreement; in exchange for the benefits and coverage they provide, you will pay your dues and follow the safety code. If you are an honorable person you up hold your side of the agreement. If you can not agree to the terms, then you do not join. It is perfectly honorable to disagree, not join, and operate any model in any manner you like at any site that will accept your terms, and there are folks that do this all over the country.
In the end you can do pretty much anything you want. There are no police out there who will weight your model or check your speed out on the dry lake bed, the local school yard, or the local airport that lets you fly there. It is just between you and your conscience (what would Abraham Lincoln do?).
Steven Ellzey
President, Jet Pilot’s Organization
Steve
You make some valid points but I cant totaly agree with you, however the main
reason I joined the AMA was because I had to in order to have a place to fly
and i think that applies to many other members as well, that being said I see
no reason not to fly a certain type of plane just because the safety code says
otherwise.
The way i see it some who post here think the AMA should have its cake and eat
the cake too. But as long as what im doing is not hurting anyone I see no reason
not to and i consider myself to be honorable.
Now I understand that at a chartered field if the club tells you cant do somthing
its best not make waves and tell them will do as you please but elsewhere that
is a different story.
I would bet their are lot of AMA members that are in the military and work for
Nasa and Lockheed and such that fly UAV'S and other models that are outside
of the Scope of the AMA safety code all the time.
To make it plane and to the point it unreasonable for the AMA to think just because
you are a member there is no way you can do certain things at anytime or anyplace
especialy since 985% of the flying sites in the USA require you be an AMA member.