Most of our members, especially
those who have been involved in
model aviation for any length of
time, will recognize the name Claude
McCullough. Claude’s modeling career
began early in his life and was an important
part of his life until his death in 2008.
Beginning in 1935, Claude participated in
all types of competitions including Indoor,
Hand-Launched Glider, Free Flight Rubber,
Free Flight Scale, all sizes of Free Flight
Power, ROW (rise-off-water), Control Line
Stunt, Control Line Scale, and RC Pattern.
However, his first love was Radio Control
Scale modeling and competition.
Claude’s extraordinary designing and
building skills, coupled with his piloting
ability, led to his becoming one of the most
prominent Scale aeromodelers in the United
States. His long list of accomplishments
includes winning a number of RC Precision
Scale competitions and FAI Large Scale
events at AMA’s National Aeromodeling
Championships.
During the 1980s through the 1990s,
Claude participated in dozens of QSAA and
Scale Masters competitions, winning
numerous awards including best scale model,
best scratch-built model, best civilian scale
model, and best biplane scale model. Most of
these awards he won several times.
Claude was a longtime employee of Sig
Manufacturing. Countless modelers learned
to fly with his Kadet series of trainer aircraft
that included the Junior, Senior, and Seniorita
designs. His other designs such as the
Komander, Kougar, and Kavalier helped
pilots transition from trainer models to more
advanced flying.
Claude was an ardent supporter of the
AMA and served on a number of committees
and contest boards during his career. His first
President’s Perspective
AMA President Dave Mathewson
M
The new wing will be named the Claude McCullough Educational Facility and is scheduled to be completed
before the end of this year.
July 2009 5
Mission Statement
The Academy of Model Aeronautics is a world-class association of modelers organized for the purpose of
promotion, development, education, advancement, and safeguarding of modeling activities.
The Academy provides leadership, organization, competition, communication, protection, representation,
recognition, education and scientific/technical development to modelers.
appointment to an AMA committee was in
1948, and in 1957 he was elected AMA
president. After his retirement as AMA
president, he returned to a supporting role
and was appointed chairman of the Scale
Advisory Committee, which became the
Scale Contest Board in 1970.
At the time of his death, Claude was still
an active member of the Scale Contest Board
representing District VII. His 53 years of
continuous volunteer service to the AMA is
believed to be the longest of any AMA
member.
Claude believed strongly in the Academy
and its mission. Because of this, he made a
significant donation of over $150,000 to the
AMA at the time of his death. The only
stipulation placed on his bequest was that it
be used to improve the International
Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana.
A number of possibilities were
considered, and it was decided that the best
way to honor Claude, and something that
would benefit all of our members, would be
to build an education wing onto the National
Model Aviation Museum. Claude had a deep
interest in introducing model aviation to
young people and, like many of us, believed
that aeromodeling could serve as an excellent
stepping-stone to careers in the aviation and
aerospace industries.
This addition will allow the AMA to do
more outreach in the area of education,
which will ultimately reinforce our position
that model aviation is a valuable educational
activity. The credibility we gain from doing
this will pay dividends for all of our
members and clubs.
The new wing will be named the Claude
McCullough Educational Facility and is
scheduled to be completed before the end of
this year. A page on the AMA Web site has
been created so that members can follow the
construction progress.
As most of you know, the FAA Aviation
Rulemaking Committee’s (ARC)
recommendations to the FAA for
consideration as a regulatory basis for small
unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) activity
in the National Airspace System (NAS) have
been released for public viewing. It’s
important to note that what has been released
are just recommendations. They are not
regulatory policy.
The FAA will now evaluate what has been
submitted and ultimately develop new
proposed regulations that will define how
sUAS may operate in the NAS. The proposed
regulations will eventually be released for a
period of public comment as a Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).
There are some parts of the ARC’s
recommendations that relate to model
aviation that concern the AMA. Over the next
several months, we will be working directly
with the FAA to address these concerns.
Many of you received an e-mail from the
Academy in mid-May, alerting you to this
process. In addition, a section has been
created on the AMA Web site that will be
used to keep our members apprised of and
updated on this issue.
Included in this section is a video of Rich
Hanson, AMA’s Government and Regulatory
Affairs Representative, giving a presentation
at our general membership meeting, which
was held recently at the Joe Nall Fly-In. He
provided a good overview of the ARC
process, what has taken place so far, and what
we should expect going forward.
We will continue to keep our members
updated through our Web site and in MA.
Later this summer, from August 2-11, the
AMA will host the 2009 FAI World
Championships for model helicopters at the
International Aeromodeling Center. Teams
from nearly two dozen countries will be in the
United States to compete.
This will be a great opportunity for our
members to witness some of the world’s best
precision RC helicopter flying. I hope to see
many of you there. MA
See you next time …
Dave Mathewson
AMA president
[email protected]
07sig1.QXD 5/22/09 11:39 AM Page 5
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/07
Page Numbers: 5