RE: Why do you belong to the AMA? Poll
O.K. Here goes. I joined the AMA in 1941 at age eleven (11). I am now seventy-seven (77). I have had the same license number for 66 years. Model airplanes have always been a big part of my life, and that was only made possible by belonging to the AMA.
I built my first gas model, a Comet Zipper, powered by an Ohlsson 23 engine in 1941, and attended my first Nats that year in Chicago. How proud I was - to be a part of the AMA, and to be able to pull out my "license to fly" out of my pocket and show it to my other friends not in the hobby. How many other kids at age eleven had a license to do anything? That license meant more to me than anything else that I owned at the time.
I didn't win a first prize in free-flight competition until 1945, and from then on, I won hundreds of good useful prizes at the many free-flight contests that I attended all over the north-east. Guys like Harold deBolt and Ed Keck were weekly competitors, but I won my share of prizes competing against them.
Then, beginning in 1943 we started into U-control competition as well, and by the time I graduated high school in 1947 I was competing in Class C U-control with H. deBolt, using one of his designed Speedwagons powered by a Hornet 60. Of course, he always flew faster than me, but we became good friends.
I attended the NY Mirror meet in 1946 where 150,000 spectators turned out to watch. My brother Bill lost his free-flight airplane that landed in the crowd of people, never to be seen again. Guys like Carl Goldberg, Harold deBolt, Dick Korda, Ernie Babcock, Chester Lanzo, Ed Lorenz, Frank McElwee, John Byrne, and Norm Rosenstock were also attendees, close to 1200 in all.
In 1948 I was invited to the 2nd. International Contest sponsored by the Plymouth Motor Corp., in Detroit, MI, where I flew a free-flight airplane. I saw Bill & Walt Good fly a radio control airplane there for the first time. Boy - was I impressed!
Over the years, I attended all of the Nats that were held at Glenview (Chicago), and at Philadelphia (Willow Grove), all sponsored by the US Navy. Those weeks were something I wish that every modeler could experience. Associating with hundreds of other modelers in the hangers, and competiting against the best there was, was only made possible by the AMA. I met Carl Goldberg, my longtime mentor, and thrilled him with a Zipper gas model powered by a K&B 40 in the Old Timers event, that went straight up like a scalding dog. We became friends and looked forward to greeting each other at every Nats. I have a nice photo of Carl with his 1/2A Viking that I took while standing in line with him at the last Nats he was able to attend.
At one of the Nats in Phila. I met Dave Platt for the first time, and marveled at his scale model Douglas Dauntless that won a perfect score. I was in awe at such an accomplishment.
In the mid fifties I got into radio control, and worked along side of Harold deBolt who was in it for a living. He taught me a lot. I also made friends with Vern Kriehbiel who owned VK Products, and between those two I learned to design all my own R/C planes from then on.
In 1976 I put the first gas engine on the US market for giant scale, the Quadra 35. In 1978 I had the only two gasoline powered airplanes at the Toledo show, my Bristol Scout and my Ercoupe. The Quadra business flourished, and it allowed me to retire from my full time engineering job about ten years earlier than expected.
I tell you all this, because none of it would have been possible, had it not been for the AMA. I have gotten so much out of the AMA over my lifetime, I feel bad when I see some of you guys bashing the AMA for no good reason. If you would just look at the good that AMA has done in the past, and what they will do for modelers in the future, and take advantage of what they have to offer, then you too can look at the dues as a real bargain. If you like to fly R/C airplanes, then you can thank the AMA. They, and they alone, have made it all possible.
Although I am not a lifetime member like "Hoss", I intend to be a lifetime member in another sense - I shall keep my AMA #11691 until the day I die.