How many of you jet guys are JPO members?
If you are not a member, why not sign up and make your voice count. If you are not a JPO member and you will be attending Superman this year, please lookup Roger Shipley and he would be more than glad to sign you up.

Please remember that “united we stand but divided we fall”


Thanks in advance for your prompt action



Regards

Ben

JPO# 129

Or lookup Dawn Ellzey, Gordon Dickens, Lee Reightler, David Reid, Or any other JPO Rep or Officer and we will get you signed up.


David Reid

Can someone explain to the people that don't know what the JPO does and other details about it?

Thanks

What JPO does has been changing over the years. When we first started ducted fans where all we had and JPO provided a means to trade information on how to make them work well. At this point I would imagine that at the AMA we where JP-Who. Two technologies have come about that have changed all that; turbines and the internet. Today you had better believe that AMA knows who JPO is and what it is about, and when people want information on how to get something to work they come here, to the internet.

While we still work on being a source of information the main focus of JPO today is to work with the AMA on the turbine regulation. We do have a measure of success in this, although some may not like all of the outcomes; rudder rules, no plasma bags and the like, but a few, you guys do like; being able to reset the ECU. Currently we are part of a joint JPO/AMA committee that is reviewing and hopefully rewriting the jet regulations based on past conversions with members of the jet community (I am not sure how this effort will turn out yet). We are working to make sure that if a maximum fuel limit is implemented that all of you will have enough fuel to fly with. We do have a direct link to the AMA EC so we can usually at least get a voice there, if we are heard is a different subject.

One of the biggest problems that JPO faces is the belief up at Muncie that the jet community is fractured and that there is no one voice for it. About every time that I speak with an AMA official I have this pointed out to me. Even in the past when we have come out to the public to get buy in on a proposal the AMA questions if it is the will of the majority. It is in every ones best interest to get together an present a common voice. The AMA would like to see it, and so should all jet pilots.

Much of what JPO does these days is not seen by most. At times there is not much happening, but at times, I believe, we do the jet community a tremendous service. The more of you that are behind us the better we can accomplish those things that are important to us all.

Steven Ellzey
President, Jet Pilot’s Organization

JPO Member #1536

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Or lookup Dawn Ellzey, Gordon Dickens, Lee Reightler, David Reid, Or any other JPO Rep or Officer and we will get you signed up.


David Reid
[/quote]
David

Thanks for the contact info update.

Thanks also to Mr. President (Steven Ellzey) for detailed explanations of what JPO means or stood for. I hope all jet pilots (DF and Turbine) would come together and speak with one voice (JPO).

Regards

Ben

As I live in Alaska, it is a bit tough for me to obtain a turbine waiver. What can the JPO do to help out ??? AMA are a *******************when it comes to the turbine regulations, and as of last month, no one in the AMA EC even has a turbine waiver.

My question is this.
At the beginning of the program, someone had to be the first to get "certified"
with this being the case, then why cant I go through the same steps and get a waiver just based on performance and not have to go out of state to get one ???? For what it would cost to get myself and the plane out of state, I can have another plane ready to fly. This seems a bit ridiculous to me.

Hey Steven, has the JPO ever looked at setting up it's own insurance program? Might be a tough sell to the carriers, but you never know. You might be able to tailor the coverage -- for example, higher deductibles than the average AMA guy would carry -- and keep the program affordable. I know I would pay a little more for a higher deductible, but with higher overall limits.

Would help your membership for sure and free up the organization to spend time promoting policies that are more focused on safe jet operations, without the overhead of the AMA.

Probably been thought of and turned out to be a crappy idea, but crappy ideas are my specialty. We all have to be good at something. K.

JPO did work with Jerry Caudle a couple of years ago for idependent insurance coverage for Superman. It was expensive for just that one event. Every Jet pilot should seriously consider an Umbrealla policy on their Homeowners insurance policy. Taylor the policy to your own particular needs. In my case a $5 million policy was the cost of half a dozen good servos but protects me in case of an accident. With around 250 members a JPO group policy would not be very cost effective.

Are there any stats available that would indicate what the jet loss payouts look like that have been filed over time with the AMA's carrier? Are you aware of any jet losses over time? That would probably be the place to start with a carrier. Proabably would need to be an excess and surplus lines outfit that was used to handling one-off programs, liability coverage, and operated across 50 states without a lot of regulation.

250 members isn't a huge group, but it isn't insignificant, either. I would suspect with an insurance program, that number would jump somewhat.

My real goal is to get the JPO membership up to the point that we can build a massive jet complex here in Jacksonville, maybe put in a museum and hall of fame, and take the JPO mag color. We could retire from our day jobs and become paid officials of the new JPO organization. What do you think? K.

Last time I heard (from FTE, who asked this question of the AMA), there were ZERO claims against the AMA for losses caused by jets. Cases like the CAI Panther that went through a roof a few years ago, were handled by the primary insurance, not by the AMA.

Gordon

Ok, I'll bite. I joined JPO about 2 years ago, and have just within the last month flown my 1st turbine. Have received only the membership card and a few newsletters.

If JPO has succeeded with some positive outcomes, such as allowing the ECU to be re set, why I can't I find any information about that positive outcome at either the JPO site or in the AMA regulations/documents?

I assume that permitting ECU adjustments means you can by yourself down-regulate the High RPM limit on your ECU, thus limiti ng its thrust to meet T/W ratio limits. Is this the case?m

Lturner,

yep, originally the ama wanted the modeler to have to send his ecu back to the factory or only allow reps to tweak the limits. much of what the jpo does is in the things we do not have "over" us in regards to turbines use. there is a long history, but with steve at the helm, we have a good conduit to getting information into the right hands. what they do with it is always a toss up, but better than the ec acting on the whims of a indoor flyer's view of turbines. (not that there is anything is wrong with indoor flyers)

Good question. To JPO's credit, they HAVE elevated the AMA EC's awareness level on a bunch of issues relevant to turbine-powered jet modeling. In particular we (JPO) get high marks for raising the level of consciousness on safety issues and what it takes to bring new or novice level enthusiasts on board in a structured manner. But, with respect to your question, some well-deserved chest pounding (like, what we've done lately) would be helpful if it appeared on the JPO website.

Deserved or not, the knock against JPO *used to be* that it was just a bunch of good ol' boys who liked to get together and tell each other how cool they and their jets are. That is certainly not the case as the JPO, most recently and notably under Steven Ellzey's leadership, has come a long way to not only encourage input on a variety of jet-related matters, but they developed the organizational maturity to actual lead a balanced, consensus-focused outcome.

The membership numbers - no matter what they are - is by no means an indicator of JPO's effectiveness with the AMA - quite the contrary. For most of us, the challenge we face is educating our respective AMA district VPs as most seem to be ill-informed, if not clueless, when it comes to jet-related issues and challenges. Some are just not inclined to be informed about anything as they've formed their "reality profiles" long ago... [sm=drowning.gif] The other challenge we face is the AMA Safety Cmte as they seem to be the single face to the EC - special interest group inputs be damned - on several matters, several of which involve jets.

I say join up! What's a few bucks? If nothing else it gives you bragging rights and a VFR direct path to an organization that really wants to make a positive difference.

Mike
JPO 1329 (and former JPO VP)