Just sitting here watching TV, 2 ideas come to me: 1.) Could AMA have a float in the Rose Bowl Parade? Would all that advertising/exposure on 2 national networks be worth the expense? Especially with the show coming up shortly afterward.

2.) Now that the AMA's MA has no political foe to keep it contained, what's your draw on getting it on the news-stands? With RCM gone, only MAN and FM are available on some news-stands. That, IMO, would be the sure way to get AMA's message out to those that never hear about organized model aviation.

Would anyone actually PAY for MA, unless it came as part of their AMA membership?

Why not?
It's a good magazine.
Many enjoy "knock it" just because it is AMA's magazine, (and therefore part of the "evil empire"), while others are critical of it, because it contains a balanced blend of content, covering all of aeromodeling's subcatagories, rather than just their favored interests.

I have to agree . Would anyone pay for MA? It gets a guick glance at best here. I wish it was a option. Skip the float. Mike

Yes, I probally would. If the subscription rate was around the $25 range. I enjoy reading MA, but heck, I will sit down and thumb through my wifes Better Homes and Gardens to. I just enjoy kicking back and reading through a magazine every once in awhile. I buy many different mags off the news stand as well. Usually mags pertaining to R/C Planes or R/C Cars and Trucks. Sometimes it is hard to find a R/C Mag on the news stand. Just a few places in my area that carried MAN or RCM.

How about skool libraries.

I would. I very much enjoy MA, and would positively pay for it. I like free flight and cl and all the other disciplines, and you don't see much of it anywhere else anymore.

Rose Bowl? Well...call up the organizers of the parade(through the Pasadena City Council?) and see what it costs. A few phone calls will find out.

Newsstand distribution? Well, it's a thought.

hey easytiger. nice to see you around again. seems you have been kinda quiet for a while.

someone told me not to long ago, that easytiger was seen at Liberty Bell jet rally, was this true?

mark

Have not been dorking around forums so much as of late...

I was at LBJR, I'm there every year, one of the few events I still make it to...before I was married and had a kid, I had more time to go away for weekends to play with models!

Easytiger, Afetr all the chatting we have done in other forums here in RCU, I think we might have bumped into each other at LBJR 2005. here is a pic of what I was flying there

mark

We probably did! I was the guy with all the baby jets, flying all the time...

ET, I must also agree that I like the wide range of Model Aviation covered in MA. Control Line and Free Flight don't get a whole lot of coverage in other mags, and I am glad to see MA still makes some space for those types of Planes. I checked your gallery by the way! I like the CL Stearman! Very neat!

Flying Models and a few British mags are just about the only place besides MA where you can see FF and CL and such anymore...I fly MOSTLY RC nowadays, but I still glean an awful lot of information germaine to RC from the other aspects of the hobby. Want to REALLY know how to build light? Talk to FF guys. Want to know how to REALLY get high performace out of an engine? Talk to the CL speed guys...
When I hear people whine about how "awful" MA is, usually it's because it does not have 162 pages of Giant Scale Aerobatics, or 162 pages of whatever else it is the complaining reader is interested in!

That Flyline Stearman is RC, with a brushless outrunner and three channels, flies BEAUTIFULLY. My second flyline stearman, the first had an Allen-Mercury 09, and was retired due to oil soakage. Electric made this a better airplane, even though I am not an electric nut, it was the right call to keep the dummy engine intact.

I think it would be very good to have MA on newsstands. I have seen it for sale in hobby shops in the past, along with the other magazines. I was very disappointed in the last issue as there was no construction article or now to do article that was of interest to me. I have all my MA's back to 1972. But if the trend toward toy airplane magazine continues, future issues will go to the recycle center. I think Flying Models is a far superior magazine for model builders.

As an elected official here in Ma., I can tell you that any publicity is good publicity as long as your name is spelled correctly.
I enjoy MA most of the time, and do consider it's past issues a source of information. True, not every issue is a page turner for me, but that is more me than the magazine's fault. In addition, what magazine is a page turner every issue? They are printing it for thousands of people not just one person.
Our executive board has sponsored a subscription to 6 local libraries; each library in the hometoen of each exec. board member and the library in which our field resides.

As for a Rosebowl float, I like the thinking, but may be a little too ambitiouse just yet. A half time flight demo would be great though!!

Ma on the newsstands cannot hurt, the worst that happens is it introduces new eople to the AMA. Truthfully we have thrown more money on lesser ideas. Can't hurt.

"what magazine is a page turner every issue?"
Cosmo. Italian Vogue. Journal Of American Allergy Research.

I have always wondered what the point of putting a newsstand price tag on MA but not releasing it to the newsstands.

Ive seen it on the newstands in Hobby Shops. I don't know if it sells well but it must sell at least a few to still have a space on the mag rack. I think most pick a flying mad that is devoted to their type of flying.

Some of the other Mags to me just seem like big sales brochures where everything reviewed is the next best thing! MA IMO seems to focus towards more things that should interest me as a fan of general Model Aviation. It is probally correct that those who fly only scale stuff will be more inclined to pick up a mag featuring mainly scale, or those who only fly 3D will pick up a mag that contains alot of 3D, same for electrics, etc etc. If you are a person like me though that truly admires all aspects of the Hobby then I think MA does a pretty fair job of trying to cater to a wide variety of interest. The AMA Membership is a very diverse group of people, and to alienate certain Members by not featuring Planes that they enjoy would not be a very good representation of what the AMA is supposed to be all about!

I didn't mean to imply that the mag was bad. I only wanted to state that it is on some mag racks. The other mags we already know about. It was just a comment.

Sorry if it seemed is if I was ragging on you! Actually I agreed with you. Your opinion was well stated, and I was just making a few of my own with no attempts to try to dispute what you said. I was just throwing out some random thoughts myself.

No need for an apoligy or anything. Actually what I am waiting for is an idea that will inspire folks to improve the AMA to it's glory days. I believe that heavy advertising in the other mags would be beneficial.

Ok I'll bite...... when were the "glory days" Mike

Imo, I would have to say 1960's(A little before my time), before Insurance and Law Suits dominated AMA discussion!

Does AMA run ads in the other 2 magazines? If not, why not?
I have not read any of the magazines in years.