ORIGINAL: Hossfly
ORIGINAL: combatpigg
Without the AMA becoming the one and only organization of it's kind in this land, you would have a scattering of smaller organizations here and there, each with their own sets of rules, coverages and fees.
IMO, CP you are right-on 100%. While aeromodeling would probably never have totally disappeared, I strongly suspect RC would have basically died out had not AMA been there in the 1960-1981 period to lead the fight for frequencies and provide the leadership for maintaining a focus on that need.
While there would always have been some activity continuing on, the customer base would not have existed to sustain the industry needed to supply adequate supplies for growth. AMA's continuous struggle for frequency use was a main factor in keeping RC growing. In that time period AMA consisted of probably less than 1 or 2% of the available modelers. All others profited from the very few.
In today's very different aeromodeling world, there are still many individuals profiting from the very few AMA members. So if you are a newcomer or an oldcomer and you are involved in aeromodeling, may I please beg of you: Don't pay much attention to all this rubbish here in this forum from a few of us wasting our time bickering.
OTOH, do become a member, a partner, and a part of the only organization holding aeromodeling together. Without AMA the sport will become totally unorganized, and our need for facilities will have no base from which to operate.
Check in at http://www.modelaircraft.org/ today if you are not yet a member.
