Guys,
There is another thread regarding the latest issue of Model Aviation.
Some of you commented about the articles, expressing your approval. I checked out the author.
He might be a very nice person, and I will state at the outset, I have no ill feelings for him. Keep on reading.

I looked at AMA PDF document 510M, as I had never heard of the author, Pete Oochroma, and was amazed when I did not find his name on the list of turbine waiver holders.
After checking and re-checking, I called Illona Maine at AMA headquarters, who verified that Pete Oochroma is NOT an AMA menber, and of course, does NOT hold a turbine waiver.

She suggested that I send an e-mail to two people...one of them, Michael Ramsey, the Editor, and to Rob Kurek, the Director of Publications.

Here' a copy of my letter to them:

Gentlemen,
I am writing this e-mail after reading a pair of articles appearing in the August 2008 issue of Model Aviation.
I was initially quite happy to see the turbine related articles authored by Mr. Pete Oochroma.
After reading both articles, I was amazed to find out that your contributing author is not an AMA member and turbine waiver holder. If he is a member of a similar group in England, Canada or elsewhere, and is turbine qualified, that fact should have been mentioned in the magazine.
Today, these facts were confirmed to me by an AMA headquarters staff member. I was curious about his qulifications because of some of the innacuracies in one of his articles. After searching AMA PDF document 510M, I did not find his name. I then called AMA headquarters for confirmation.
From this months editirial page: "The builder had the model framed up in no time, and has since logged many flight hours on it".
My question: With, or without a waiver? AMA legal...or does he fly on private property without AMA coverage?
Am I on target, or do I have some bad info?

Every AMA turbine waiver holder feels that he or she has jumped through some hoops in order to initially obtain and then maintain the waiver, so we are rather protective of it. The turbine waiver represents much personal desire and devotion to the sport. It is very meaningful to most of us. As the AMA rules require turbine flyers top pass certain qualification tests in order to possess a turbine waiver, I would expect the AMA magazine to make sure contributing authors of turbine related articles to do no less.

I have been an active RC jet pilot since 1999, and participate in the hobby industry as a BVM Jets field representative, a JetCat USA field representative and own seven BVM Jets, with several hundred turbine flights in my logbook.

I will anxiously awate your reply,

Sincerely,


Harley Condra.


Here's the reply from Rob Kurek, Director of Publications.
Harley,
Thank you very much for bringing your concerns to my attention. I have asked the editorial staff to look into this matter and respond.

Certainly we want to make certain MA reflects accurate information. If need be, we will run a correction in the next available issue. Your points are well taken, and will strive to be more careful and clear in presenting this type of information in the future.

Thank you,

Rob Kurek
Director of Publications

Well, his reply seemed okay, but I wasn't convinced.

Here's the reply from Michael Ramsey, the Editor.

"Mr. Condra
Our contributor is a private individual who happens to fly his turbine powered models at a personal airfield. Your concern is interesting (and initial part of the evaluation process), however, the editorial staff found the contributing author in question to be the most relevant and well written article that best adhered to the purpose of the article-to introduce and explain the modern turbine powerplant. If his article is correct and serves the purpose of helping the membership understand the Jet special interest and get more involved and well as supportive, then I fail to see a serious greivance.

I'm curious as to what errors you've found as we'd like to mend any issue of that kind as soon as posssible.

We applaud the efforts of the Turbine Waver holder community and of course we recommended sand outlined the waver process in the article as you will note..

Sincerely,
Michael Ramsey
Editor MA", blah blah, blah

I think he should learn to spell Waiver! He said it twice, and misspelled it twice!

I think that his reply was arrogant.
I wrote a reply, but haven't sent it, as my e-mail program started acting up. I will send it as soon as I can. Here it is:

Michael,
Thank you for your explanation, however it is very weak, and does not speak well for the AMA headquarters staff.
Within our turbine community is a constellation of more experienced jet flyers than your contributor, including AMA Hall of Fame members that are active participants in the hobby industry.
Many of these individuals have forgotton more than your contibutor has learned with his short excursion into jets, and many of these industry members are capable of far better explanations of the fine points of turbine modeling. Sorry you elected to publish an article written by a friend that does not represent our special interest group.
If your editorial staff found your non-member contributor's offering to be more relevant, then it is obvious that you and the editorial staff do not in any way represent the special interest group. If you would rather rely on "non AMA member private airfield lone wolves" to help the dues paying membership understand the Jet special interest, then you must be more interested in selling magazines than in serving the AMA membership.
It is obvious that your mind is made up. I will not correct his errors, except to say that your "more relevant" contributor's knowledge about the waiver process was not learned from personal experience, since he doesn't qualify for one.

Sorry if I seem critical, but as I stated, we guys that have been around since the beginning of turbines worked hard for, and are protective of our waivers.
I'm sorry that you are not.
Your reply has raised my blood pressure slightly. I have decided to forward these communications to the JPO and others. I think our SIG should know who is representing us in print.

Sincerely,

Harley Condra
AMA 2045
Waiver 2290
JPO 1033
BVM REP
JetCat REP

What do you guys think?