Got a good laugh the other day when I saw "Buzzy the Drone" on TV . For those unfamiliar with Buzzy , he's a cartoon multicopter character created by the FAA whose mission is to educate kids on the safe use of multicopters . The segment I saw focused heavily on keeping it in your visual line of sight and below 400 feet and out of the way of full scale .

How does this relate to the AMA ?

My question would be , If the FAA is to take on the role of educator , is there anything missing in what the AMA is doing in our education efforts ? When I first saw Buzzy I was kinda hoping he was an AMA creation , you know , plant the seed early and all , but instead it's the FAA and not AMA that'll stick in their young minds along with Buzzy ......

It was on the TV news . I live about an hour drive from Boston Massachusetts and only really watch two news channels , Boston's channel 7 or "NECN" the New England Cable News network . So it was one of those two .

I've wished for years that we could get some TV time . Up till these darned newfangled computer things came along TV/radio exposure was the only real broadcast mass media available , and I believe broadcast media still has quite the reach into Joe Q Public's living room .

If someone were to complain, they would be doing so only because they are missing the whole point on "why" the cartoon was made to begin with.
I personally don't care it it came from the AMA, FAA or Shangri-La. The idea is to promote safe flying practices and that is a good thing, regardless who's behind it

Question is, why did drones get so popular so fast and why is fixed wing flying fading?
With 1 million(?) drones being registered, and that fact creating so many problems for seemingly everyone involved, wouldn't it help the cause if the well funded FAA encouraged the public to get into fixed wing flying more so than quad copters? This would possibly solve everyone's problems, starting with the cash strapped AMA. A win-win for everyone. How many people does television reach as compared to Model Aviation magazine, which only members receive?
Sorry, I forgot the AMA website.
I don't think the public knows or if they do know, really cares. I am a 47 year AMA member.

It has been said that AMA didn't have the financial resources to pay for TV ads, but now that FAA is involved, millions of people would then know about AMA and our hobby/sport and it wouldn't cost AMA anything. Once word got out that our hobby exist and millions of people would know about RC aeromodeling and tons of newcomers would descend upon the AMA's 2500 clubs....no, wait...

Do you really need to ask? Let's think about this for a few seconds........................................... ....
Okay, time's up.
It's actually very simple and can be answered in two words, INSTANT GRATIFICATION
All it takes is an hour or two and most can probably be able to fly a quad with some confidence. In a day or two, they can be doing tricks or stunts. It could take days for someone to learn to fly a conventional aircraft well enough to not need an instructor or electronics assisted foam trainer. Most in today's society don't want to have to schedule instruction time, drive to a flying field or wait to fly. They want to fly right now and where ever they want. This makes a quad a perfect way to get into the air, whether legally or not and, if their quad of choice has a vidcam, even better. This has led the FAA to address the problem with "Buzzy". Truth be told, most probably won't pay any attention to the "Buzzy" spots but, if a few do, it's worth the FAA's money