AMA News - 2004/08

August 2004 149
AMA News
Academy of Model Aeronautics 5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie IN 47302
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THE FOLLOWING were moved, seconded, and approved
by acclamation:
• To approve the minutes of the February 4, 2004,
Executive Council meeting.
• To accept the Audit Report presented by Bob Reynolds
of Brady Ware (which will be posted to the AMA For
Members Only section of the AMA Web site).
• To approve the ADCOM plan as presented.
• Form a committee to develop a document that would
contain a glossary of terms used in the Safety Code, and an
explanation of the intent and reasoning considered when
creating a Safety Code item. This committee shall also
review the wording of the current Safety Code.
(Committee: B. Underwood, Chairman; D. Mathewson;
R. Morgan, HQ support.)
• To require all AMA charter clubs to supply the
latitude/longitude coordinates of their flying site(s),
effective 2005. The latitude/longitude location is to be
taken at center flight station.
Motion I: Moved and seconded to accept the
recommendations of the Flying Site Grant Committee.
(Recipients are listed on the AMA Web site.)
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion II: Moved and seconded that the FAI Committee
have the authority to grant waivers to the AMA Safety
Code for FAI record attempts.
Motion passed unanimously.
Motion III: Moved and seconded to modify Safety Code
Radio Control item 9 by deleting the following: “, nor
should any part of the model, other than the landing gear
touch the ground.” Effective immediately.
Motion passed: 7 yes, 5 no (I, IV, V, VII, and XI), 1 abstain
(NAA).
Motion IV: Moved and seconded to adopt the new Contest
Board Procedures effective January 1, 2005, as presented.
Motion passed unanimously.
Executive Council Meeting Highlights
The motions below are part of the unofficial minutes of the meeting. Minutes from a given meeting are not official until they are
approved at the next quarterly Council meeting. Questions or comments on the motions should be addressed to your District Vice
President.
Insurance Questions on “What If?”
Motions made at the April 24-25, 2004, Executive Council Meeting
in Muncie, Indiana.
THE ACADEMY receives numerous
requests from chartered clubs and
individual members seeking information
regarding the insurance program. These
questions are routinely fielded by the
people in the Special Services Department.
Occasionally the questions are posed in
the form of hypothetical situations.
Typically a brief set of assumptions or
theoretical situations are outlined and the
question asked is whether or not there is
coverage.
There are a number of reasons why
specific answers to these questions are
difficult to provide and in some cases we
must offer somewhat vague answers.
Providing an opinion about coverage for a
particular situation sometimes involves a
legal opinion, and because we are not
attorneys we cannot offer legal advice.
To have an attorney evaluate and
answer these requests is of little value. To
satisfy a member’s curiosity we have
occasally sought legal advice for the “what
if” situation. This has proven to be an
added expense for AMA and serves no
beneficial purpose since the questions are
hypothetical. These questions invariably
lack the detailed information that is
essential to provide a definitive answer.
Responding to hypothetical questions
leads to answers that are often too
speculative to be of any assistance.
Questions frequently involve some
activity on the flying field and whether or
not some action of an individual is or is
not safe or is or is not a violation of the
AMA Safety Code and/or a covered event.
Never do these questions include the
experience, knowledge, and understanding
of each of the participants and spectators
involved, the frequency with which the
action occurs, or many other circumstances
which in the final analysis would
determine the ultimate outcome as to
whether or not there may be liability
and/or coverage.
A hypothetical question simply does
not and cannot by its nature cover all the
facts necessary for such a determination.
This is why a fundamental principal of
American jurisprudence is that courts will
not give advisory opinions. There has to be
an actual controversy before the court will
render a decision.
Contributing to the uncertainty is that
the 50 state laws and courts many times do
not agree on all aspects of insurance law.
Even with respect to basic principles, there
are routinely different schools of thought
followed by various groupings of the
states.
The law is constantly changing and the
various schools of thought usually vie with
each other for ascendance so there would
likely be some states in the process of
changing the reasoning underlying the
enforcement of an insurance policy.
Some insurance matters are covered by
statute and some are not. This varies from
state to state and it can be crucial to the
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