I just started to fly r/c planes here in NC. I have built and raced rc nitro cars/trucks for years prior but have recently decided to take to the air. I bought a Hobbyzone Champ (to train with, which is tons of fun) and also a Stinson Reliant SR10 as my newest addition. I fly these in local parks and am getting good at the techniques. My local hobby shop owner recommended I join AMA if I wanted to ever fly nitro.

Sorry for the basic questions here, but what exactly is AMA about and can I join if I am still flying electric? And also why do people say it is "mandatory" if I want to fly nitro (as I would like to do one day). Is it legal to fly nitro planes in a park??

Thanks Joe

1 - Check out their website www.modelaircraft.org/ Yes, you can join no matter what you fly or don't fly. The have a less expensive program for electric park flyers.

2 - Membership is recommended for all model aviators because of the many benefits, but not mandatory.

3 - Check with your local law makers. Nitro planes can be very dangerous and are noisy. Which is not to say that electric planes are risk free. The AMAhas a park flyer program for electrics under 2 pounds. Don't attempt to fly without approval from the park management or local constabulary.

Cool! I just went to the website and got some more info. I will call them tomorrow when they open up again and get some more specific questions answered then. Thank you for the quick reply. - Joe

Joe
A) AMA is a member organization for model aviation enthusiasts. Its members range from the young to the ancient, men & women that share a love of the hobby. Ini ts latter half of existence, it has expanded its member services to offer magazines, insurance, and even has started doing congressional lobbying for (itself / the hobby)

B) AMA was built on, and relied some decades on, the belief that all modeling is the same and we all pay the same.. from quarterpound Rubber FreeFlight , to 100lb giant models, rubber / electric / nitro / Turbines and gliders... we are all just the same AMA member. Recently AMA started offering a discount membership tier with less service and features and magazine, expressly for small slow electrics for almost half the regular AMA price: 2lb <60mph, <200' alt and cutrate insurance far FAR below AMA standard insurance.

C) The reason people say its mandatory are usually of two camps: Many times, local AMA clubs have entered lease agreemenst with landowners and have put a requirement to have all flyers be AMA members. Also many times clubs are mistakenly believing AMA requires all flyers at the club be AMA members. The other camp is just members trying to sell more AMA memberships by telling folks its mandatory.

D) Legal? There is no federal ban on flying model airplanes. There are no state bans on flying model airplanes. Many cities/countys have adopted local laws restricting modeling on city/county property (like say a park [:@]) . If you got the moxie, ask the local parks department what the rules are to use the park. Do NOT ask if XXXX is forbidden, cause the easy thing for some lazy public worker to do is just make up an answer like NO, and you are hosed. Heck, we even saw an electric club claim a schoolyard was electric only, but when I asked the school they didnt say that. Ask the city what the rules are, and if they dont tell show you a rule against it, then you are golden. Also, do not ask if "Nitro Airplanes" are allowed, you want to know if flying models is allowed, and if they have a rule against nitro then they should show it to you when you ask for all the rules.

I say 'if you got the moxie',
cause what are you going to do if you find out the parks have been No Model Airplanes this whole time?

KidEpoxy response = awesomeness! Lol. Ty man. :-)

If you don't tell the park manager or the law enforcement agents exactly what you plan to do, the consequences could be extremely unpleasant. KidEpoxy is not a lawyer, he doesn't know his rectum from an excavation. His ad vice could put you on serious trouble. I am not a lawyer either and I don't know the law much better than KidEpoxy does, but I do know this. A nitro plane can appear quite threatening and intimidating to the uninitiated and they very well may perceive that you are operating an unapproved hazardous device in a public place.

When you talk to the AMAtomorrow, they will tell you the same thing. The can also help you find a safe flying field and flight instruction for flying a nitro plane safely and you will have fun at the same time.

dangerous?? Funny someone would have such an ignorant bias. FWIW electric is far more dangerous given similar size and power capabilities. Heck, you can’t even here them coming...LOL

Not even close. If you fly over anybody's property other than your own without permission, you are trespassing. You also have to worry about zoning laws, rules (common law, not written down anywhere, typically) against "nuisances" (basically, any activity that might annoy someone), and noise ordinances. Furthermore, there is no way to "ask a city" anything. They aren't going to do legal research for you. The opinion of some clerk in a city office is worthless.

Find a club that has a flying field.

Your reply seems to be from my post but I think you have just shotgunned the issue...so I’ll offer up something a wise man told me once as it applies here so very well; it is far easier to get forgiveness than permission...LOL. This will be the case more often than not when dealing with public property use...


Use your head, don’t do stupid things and you might find more flying sites than you could ever imagine... Flying a 40% Extra on a frequently used baseball field probably won’t work...but flying a control line airplane in a schoolyard after school hours may actually be well received... We live in an infinitely variable world and that is the true reality... Its easy to hypothesize whatever but reality is not hypothetical...

Topgun
Holy Recreational Argument Soundbite Batman.

Not even close???
Really?

Lets see what I said leading that soundbite you want to RecArg-
WOW, I was talking about him using the PARK, not about him trespassing.
Why was I talking about using the park? Because HE was talking about him using the park in post1.

If he is in parks, how did you make the leap to gripe about him trespassing,
and if you are so upset over your belief that he is trespassing, TELL HIM, not me.
The OP said he was flying in parks,
how can you say I'm not even close when I tell him learn the park rules and obey each one.

How can he find out what the park rules are?
A LOT of parks will put up a sign that lists them
.. stuff like NoAlcohol, NoGuns, No Golf, NoFires, NoRadios etc.
If they list the 7 or 8 things as NO XXXX, and none of them XXX is toy airplanes,
then there is no rule against toy airplanes.
Thats an important concept folks dont want to admit:
If when you read all the rules and there is no rule against it,
then there is no rule against it

I told the guy to find out what the rules ARE,
and follow those rules.
And it seems folks just want to recreational argue every post I make.


. . .


Joe,
You can believe the folks that say there is no way for citizens like you to even find out waht laws you are required to obey, and that when you say you use parks they talk about you trespassing,
or
you can believe that the city doesnt keep Secret Laws the public has to obey but cannot see.
I have called parks depts before, I have exchanged emails with parks dept before, I have visited PLENTY of parks that even had signs that list the rules.

See what I was saying about folks trying to sell you AMA.
If you join AMA, I'd like you to do so because you want to- because you like what AMA does
... not cause shills tricked you about mythical Secret Laws and so-called trespassing in parks that dont have a rule against it

Just remember, the AMA named its discount electric tier The Park Pilot Program.
It almost is like they had flying Parkflyer type craft in parks.
And the flagship PPP club was using a middle school yard in Vegas.
Dont let folks trick you into thinking you cant fly on city land in america, cause AMA PPP was based on doing just that
.... heck, ask the naysayers about all the AMA clubs that get leases with cities to use city lands. The impossible for you suddenly seems very a reasonable thing to do when the AMA club does it.

Even better, ask the naysayers if you should get 4 friends to join you
and Club Up the city park as an AMA field.
Go ahead, lets see them AMA shills try to tell you NOT to make more cityland AMA clubs.
Heh, you can even call the AMA and they have a person that helps you do just that.
Again, very reasonable thing to do... as long as you pay AMA in the eyes of the shills.

This is not true. Even if flying in a park doesn't violate some posted list, it could be a nuisance, and if your plane wanders beyond the park limits it would be trespassing. Flying near other people using the park would be dangerous, and could violate any number of laws, even if flying isn't listed as a no-no on the park sign.

As I said, not even close. There are some parks in which flying nitro-powered planes would be OK. Most parks (around here, anyway) are too small and, at least on weekends, too busy. Not one of those much-too-small parks has a "no model planes" sign, but that certainly doesn't mean people are free to do it. They don't have signs saying not to set off grenades or play touch football using live mortar rounds either, but it wouldn't be prudent to try it. The idea that you can engage in any activity in a park, or any place else, if it's not expressly prohibited is ridiculous.

OMG, you guys scarying away another guy,,,

whatever happened to common sense??

They can't post a sign banning every activity that the park isn't intended for,,, come on

Top
Stop assuming he is beaking some other, completely unrelated laws,
and answer
If there is no rule against models in the park,
then there is no rule against models in the park.

He didnt say he was trespassing onto private property,
yet twice now you base you arguments on assuming he is.
Stop changing the situation to fit your condemnation.

Yes, I agree that if he violates some other non-model law then he is violating a law.
Sure, it is illegal to murder someone in the park with a model, cause murder is illegal.
yes, its illegal to embezzle in the park with a model, because embezzlement is illegal,
yes, its likely illegal to chop up girls in the park with helicopters, because chopping up girls is illegal.

Being a nuisance or violating sound laws is illegal, with or without a model.
So you want to claim there are no nitro ama clubs on city park lands because of this?
No, I didnt think you would want to say that.
Seems all if forgiven, and nothing is impossible, if only he paid AMA and clubbed that park. Then he would be right and proper to go to that "AMA Club" park and fly as a paid ama member


Stop assuming he is gong to break unrelated, unpark laws
just to say he is breaking a law by just flying a toy in the park.

I'm not assuming any such thing. You said that he was free to fly unless there was a specific ban on flying: "if they dont tell show you a rule against it, then you are golden." That's not true. Flying may be OK if there's no specific ban, or it may not be. Flying nitro-powered models would be particularly chancy, especially in a small park. I've never said that he would be violating some law; how could anyone possibly know that? But it's wrong to assure him that he's "golden" if model planes aren't listed on a do-not-do sign.

Hey Joe, just dont listen to my friends here. Here you will find a thousand diff opinions when it comes to AMA.
The best thing to do is go to you nearest flying field and talk to the guys and see them flying
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You liftes my quote out of context. I said:

"Nitro planes can be very dangerous and are noisy. <u>Which is not to say that electric planes are risk free</u>."

I spoke to the rep at AMA. Basically she said to check with each individual park. Private land is private land and that is okay to use obviously if it is yours. Or if you have permission. She said to be safe she recommends to check with each individual local ordinance to make sure no laws are being broken.

Sounds like good advice.
But then, I may be biased [8D]

Yep, excellent advice.  Most new electrics are 2.4GHz which is good.  There used to be a big problem with park flyers on 72MHz interfering with a local club that was near the park.  Also, 27MHz could be used by both air and land vehicles so park flyers and buggies could interfere with each other.  Again, checking with the park will tell you that kind of info too.

Interesting response from a guy whose advice was just to ask for a copy of the park rules and not to bring up the specifics about what he wanted to do there. ("Do NOT ask if XXXX is forbidden.")

WOW, you made some nasty remarks about KidEpoxy and your the one who is misinformed. Many years ago I flew with a bunch of others using a dry lake bed as their flying field. What we did not know was this piece of real estate was privately owned and we were told to vacate the property. Our spokesman convinced the land owner that if we became a sanctioned AMA club his property would be covered from liabilty on our part. I seperated from the club and found another location to fly on the same dry lake bed which was state owned. The local BLM agent gave me and a few others permission to use the state owned property. No insurance was required to accquire their permission and now the AMA sanctioned club and our small group fly merryly along. AMA isurance is not prime but supplemental to your home owners insurance. It only becomes prime if you have no other insurance. Most if not all AMA clubs lease property and insurance is mandatory to keep the lease in effect. Gone are the days when you could take your nitro powered model to the nearby park or school field to fly.

If your park is big enough and there is not much activity and flying your plane is not forbidden there, then it's fine to fly a small electric.
And the fence line to a neighboring property is not too much of a problem, since the airspace above it is not part of it.
Make sure you are high enough and don't disturb anyone. If you fly your helicopter in someone's backyard and ruin some old Lady's hairdo, you might be in trouble...
Flying a nitro or gas plane is not ok in most parks. There are just too noisy. Keep in mind - all it takes is a few complaints and there will be some new regulations and you are done flying there.
Membership with the AMA is not mandatory, but it is a good idea to have some insurance. It's a good reason to join.
I think park flying is a good thing, you might get some people there hooked on RC flying this way.

Yes, I agree (except that there are some parks where nitro planes may be permitted). Did something give you the impression that I didn't? It was KE, not me, who was claiming that it was OK to fly any kind of plane in a park so long as they didn't expressly ban that.

Kidexpoxy if i had one wish this year it would be to ban you from trolling any AMA related thread....

should get out and fly more instead of worrying about the AMA or responding to questions that don't need more then a sentence to answer because they are so basic.

Things that are not against the rules
are not against the rules.

Find out what the rules are, and obey the rules.

Why do folks have such a hard time with that?
Last year or so, the EPA was trying to come down hard on some places in Texas,
that these Texas sites were not yet obeying a rule the EPA was about to make,
and the EPA was throwing a hissy over the Texans not complying with the non-existent law.
The Texans had a very simple response:
You are the EPA, you make the laws. We obey every law on the books.
If you want us to obey some law, then WRITE THAT LAW and we will obey it.
But dont even try to force us to comply now with laws you plan on writing later-
first put that rule in the book and then we will comply with it.

So very simple.
Learn what the rules are, Obey all the rules.
If there is no rule against it,
then there is no rule against it.



And for the 'Electrics OK - Glow Bad' crowd-
folks were flying 049 in the parks and schoolyards DECADES before people decided to call small electrics 'Parkflyers'

As for the 'We hate KidEpoxy' crowd,
POST5, OP: " KidEpoxy response = awesomeness! Lol. Ty man. :-) "
it seems the OP dont hate me, and expressed some accolade for my posting.
And we even see Muncie say what I said- find out what the rules for the park are and obey them.
Perhaps you guys can get me banned for TGA* posts.


*Too Dang Awesome