| As far as I am concerened, I realize that having a cheaper membership
| will put money in the till for the AMA,
It might ... or it might not.
There may be members of the AMA who would give up their existing
membership and switch to the cheaper membership if it were available.
| I look upon those plastic and foam electric things as just one step
| above a toy...
And the bigger glow planes aren't?
| and again, as far as I am concerned, they can stay in their back
| yards or in the street in front of their houses and fly....we have a
| couple of them at our field and they spend most of their time
| hovering over the runway
Odd. At our AMA field, most of the people who spend their time
hovering over the runway are flying big planes with gas (not even
glow) engines.
I'm fully aware of the sort of plane you're referring to (and I even
have one, though I'm no good at hovering and it's not much fun
anyways) -- and they're usually not even flown at the AMA field --
instead, they're flown at the local park, school yard, etc.
Unfortunately, that flying location may only be a fraction of a mile
from your AMA field ... which would be unfortunate.
And just for the record, most park fliers do NOT do 3D -- that's only
a small subset of the sort of airplane that people fly in the parks.
| which really causes a problem with "regular" glow R/C models which
| are taking off and landing.
Ok, but that's not a `park flier' problem. It's a rude person
problem, or a problem of perception, or just poor planning on
somebody's part.
| If the foamie mini electric people want in, let 'em pay the regular
| dues just as the rest of us do.
That sounds fine, except that they just ... won't. The AMA needs the
park fliers more than the park fliers need the AMA. People will
disagree with this view, but ultimately the people who disagree tend
to be more AMA and less park flier.
As I see it, the only reasons park flier fliers will be joining the
AMA is 1) they're already flying bigger planes, 2) they have no where
else to fly but the local AMA field (rare, but some places do prohibit
all RC flying except at the specified field), 3) they think they need
an AMA `license' to fly (they don't, but it's a relatively common
misconception), and 4) they like the camaraderie and the magazine.
(And I'm guessing group #4 is pretty small.)
In any event, I've heard of a cheaper AMA membership level being
proposed for years now, but have never heard that the AMA was
seriously considering it befor. Where are people reading this?
--
Doug McLaren, snipped-for-privacy@frenzy.com
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler."
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