Bob
Beyond that, IMO the real meat of the discussion should concern what AMA's goal is with their plans program. Has it been designed as a revenue stream, or a break even prospect, or a "loss leader" to encourage more building? What are they trying to accomplish?
Although I'm not a builder (yet, anyway) it seems to me that given the overall mission that AMA has stated as their goal, encouraging people to build by making plans available at the best possible price, without undercuting the development process is the way for them to go. If that means that some of my dues is subsidizing the overall distribution process, then so be it. I'm a sport flyer.....my dues are "subsidizing" many aspects of AMA activities.
Yup.
Is it supposed to be something that help pay for member services,
or is it a member service that needs to have dues spent on it.
They sell Tshirts & mugs as a revenue stream,
but they subsidize site assistance and yute tier cause that is for promoting aeromodeling.
Is fostering folks to 'get into' plans building something AMA does,
or is it some revenue stream that just pays for the other stuff AMA does.
We gotta know what the goal is before we can say if it meets goals.
Hoss/CP
Regarding refining how a MA Free Plan could work:
What about a standard MA page that is high enough res to have Kinkos 3x it?
If done as a build along, the usual type of plan we see in a build article could start things rolling as the overview, and each 'session' could have a 1 page 25%-33% sheet to have Kinkos blow up... 33% for a 40size wing panel, 25% for the fuse, and just print the scale factor kinkos should use on the page. The restrictions I see right off are the standard paper sizes..... I inflated a low res plan at home and ended up running hole-less tractor feed paper thru my inkject as Custom 8.5 x 33" to fit a wing panel
Lots of places online have 100% plans for Spad or Foamie in DFX or PDF format... ready to take to kinkos.
AMA already is serving archived AMAInsider pdfs and AMADocument pdfs, just put the annual BuildAlong plan as PDF so folks that want the plan can Kinkos it and the rest can just look at the standard MA res pic of the plan in the magazine.
Americans used to say If there's a will, theres a way.
If we wanted to get a free plan to the members without costing AMA a lot, we can find a way to make that happen.