Yeah Harley, I wish you would have taken a little different direction with your response, and taken your own advice and not be too confrontational.

I'm a relative newcomer to turbines, but went through the waiver process just like you. I was quite pleased with the attention to turbines in this month's issue, and I'm disappointed to learn that it wasn't written by one of the many outstanding modelers that currently fly turbines with a waiver. On the other hand, I can see the value of getting a newbie to write the article because he/she would approach it the same as somebody else that's just getting started, and that's what this article was about, getting started with turbines.

In my opinion, you have some legitimate gripes, but you come off sounding like one of the old farts that aren't open minded enough to understand turbines and ban them from your local field in a knee-jerk reaction...except you're one of the turbine guys who sounds a bit elitist and looks down his nose at the un-waivered masses...lighten up!

It was fantastic that MA gave us some great exposure, and somebody wrote a decent article that explained turbines to a lay person. After your letter, and the ensuing wave of letters that others will write after you have incited them, do you think they will be encouraged to give us more coverage in the future? Or do you think they'll come to the conculsion that it might not be worth the trouble?..."Jeez, those turbine guys are a touchy bunch, let's leave 'em alone".

I think it would have been better to raise your concerns, and give some reasons why you felt it would have been better to have a waivered pilot write the article, or better yet, ask that a follow up article be written by the same pilot detailing the process of getting his waiver...as he actually gets the waiver! I think it would have been also beneficial for you to better explain why we take the waiver seriously...One good reason is that people flying turbines without a waiver are more likely to make a mistake, cause an incident, and create bad feelings, bad press, and ill will to us waivered pilots. We then often have to deal with the ramifications such as turbine banned club fields, and a bunch of misconceptions that we have to overcome...By publishing this article by a non-waivered pilot, the AMA/MA is basically sanctioning his actions and making life more difficult for us....

Instead you just said that we take our waivers seriously, and we've been around since the beginning, and we paid our dues and he didn't...not very compelling. Then you refused to point out any errors in his article with an attitude of "I'm taking my ball and going home"...It would have been better to take the high road and constructively correct the errors, and maybe volunteer to write an article yourself.

Unfortunately, your response is off to the ether, but hopefully you and others will think twice before speaking once the next time this comes up. Maybe some others can write a response that expresses their concerns and is constructive and appreciative at the same time...

You said it best Harley...You get more flies with honey than vinegar...

KennyMac