The AMA is the "crutch" for insurance now tho. When I first visited the local chartered AMA club the only thing I heard about the AMA was "insurance".

Now if the people on the ground are telling you as a beginer it's just for insurance - what does that say?

If you ask the old timers out there (we don't do any "sacntioned" events - it's just a fun fly field) you get insurance and insurance IS the reason to join the AMA. If my club/field could get insurance outside the AMA that is competitive I think they would jump on it.

Recently on the OLN channel they had a tour of the National flying field/musuem of the AMA. It looked really nice but I'll never go there - what amazed me was that it was 1,000 acres. Of course they had a lot of nice stuff inside and outside and it was open the day the camera was there but there were like 2 people there.

Unless there are going to be national type events like ToC/Top Gun there what's the point? So the people located nearby get the benefits of a world class flying field financed by everyone else outside the area?