Originally posted by F4u5
I see the AMA as a business...they want to make as much money as possible. If we stick with park flyers and trainers, as I think DB wants, I see an opportunity for the AMA to shell out less money is claims (hard to get anyway), making for more green in their pocket. As in life, it all come down to the scratch, greenbacks, los dolares, moolah, whatever you want to call it. AMA is out ated. EOS. When I went to the rally of giants in 2001, I saw 3 board members on oxygen tanks at the table. That kinda tells me how stale the AMA is. Nothing aginst those folks, but we need new blood in there. That's why I voted for Frank Tiano last election.......So tired of the AMA lack of adaptation of newer technology.
Lets get a couple of data points well defined. The Rally of The Giants is an I*M*A*A event and the folks you saw were IMAA Board of Directors,
NOT AMA EC MEMBERS ! Please do not confuse the two because that is a misdirection and should be beneath you.
The AMA clearly has a very large cash flow that I have been unable to understand. We clearly need a headquarters and staff, which seem to account for a lot of the extra (above magazine and insurance costs), but not all. I am fairly sure we are paying a lot for the Muncie facility and that is largely what is 'hurting' us.
Now as for the weight increase, why would you allow someone to carry a 5 galleon gas can into your home when you can limit them to one galleon? If we increase the weight by calling the limit DRY, the HOT section of the turbine just has more fuel available at the crash site. Not what we intended, but it WILL happen.
The real problem *I* see with increased weights are very serious not trivial structural issues. We have and will continue to grow in the area of the checkbook modelers do not have the understanding of forces, vibration, wing loads, and other things that make planes come a part in the air. We constantly see stupid things like the check book modelers trashing their ARF's because of failure to beef up the model when they install an engine bigger than the manufacturer recommended. Not the same you say? Wanna bet?
How we address those structural problems with our checkbook modelers is probably going to drive any weight limit decision more than your angst or my desire. More rules is one very viable way to get to higher weights. More rules will not stop crashes, but they will help insure that the planes are more sound and the general hope is that the improvement will transfer to safer flying.