District X
Lawrence Tougas, District X Vice President [email protected]
States in District X
- Arizona
- California
- Guam
- Hawaii
- Nevada
- Utah
Introductory Pilot Program (IPP)
Let me continue my discussion about attracting new members to both your club and the AMA. One of the most effective tools in your arsenal is the AMA’s Introductory Pilot Program (IPP).
In my travels around the district, I find that the IPP is not a well-understood program. It is open to FF (Free Flight), CL (Control Line), and RC (Radio Control) disciplines. Put simply, it allows non-AMA members to fly while covered by the AMA’s liability insurance for 60 days provided they do it under the direct supervision of a club-designated Introductory Pilot Instructor. This includes allowing a potential member to bring their own airplane and fly it under the instructor’s direct supervision.
To become an IPP instructor, you must be designated as such by one of your club’s officers. There is a form to do that, and a $5 annual processing fee per instructor applies.
This program allows you to expose potential new members to our sport for an extended period of time, without forcing them to make a commitment to either the AMA or your club upfront. It becomes a more natural way of enticing curious visitors who come to your field to take up modeling. Without the IPP, non-AMA members are limited to a single flight. That’s not enough time to make a decision about a hobby that will require the time and financial commitment that modeling does.
Once you’ve decided to designate some IPP instructors at your club, I encourage your club to adopt a policy of making any potential member covered by the IPP a temporary member of your club. Let them fly up to 60 days at your field while in the IPP.
During this time you’ll be able to get to know each other, build a bond, and let the bug of modeling get a good bite into this person’s psyche. Chances are if the person is inclined to pursue modeling, they will join your club and the AMA before the 60 days are up, and you’ll all be better for it.
Fly-for-free sessions and outreach
Regularly scheduled opportunities for prospective new modelers to participate in a hands-on activity are another great way to build your club’s membership. Your club could designate Saturdays from 9–11 as fly-for-free time. The club should have a model that would be appropriate for a beginner to try their hand at. If you are offering RC modeling, a simulator on a laptop might be a good addition to the trainer aircraft.
This chance to fly could be advertised in the weekly “this weekend” section of your local paper, on Craigslist, and at your local hobby shop.
A useful on-site idea: place a small mailbox on the gate at your field with flyers. If someone comes out when no one is there, they can take a flyer home and return later for the opportunity to fly. The flyer can give background about the club, meeting times, and when you hold learn-to-fly sessions.
The IPP and weekly fly-for-free sessions can be great tools for spreading the word about modeling. Please give them a try and let me know how they work for your club. I’d love to hear your ideas on this subject and about how your club builds its membership—please write.
Western United States AMA flying site
I am happy to announce that Gary Hover has agreed to work with me on establishing a Western United States AMA flying site. Gary led the charge to do the same in the 1990s in Visalia, California.
We are forming a small committee to work on this issue. We’re looking for people with experience in:
- Fundraising
- Environmental impact reports
- Conceptual art
- Project management
- Real estate law
- Construction
If you have experience in these areas, please contact me. I’d love to have your experienced help.
The city of Tracy, California, has expressed some interest in a flying site being part of a sports complex they are developing. Discussions with Tracy are at the most preliminary stage right now and I really don’t know where they will lead.
What I do know is that I would like, in one way or another, to have a year-round flying site here in the western United States that all AMA members can enjoy. If you would too, please join the team.
New Associate Vice President — Utah
Utah modeler Todd Sheridan answered the call to become Utah’s newest associate vice president (AVP). Todd is a resident of Pleasant Grove, Utah, and is married with three children. He’s a graphic artist working in video game development, television and film effects, photo manipulation, and web graphics.
Todd enjoys a wide range of modeling with an emphasis on Combat. He travels to a number of Utah clubs to support their events and manages a thread on RC Groups dedicated to Utah modeling. Please help me welcome him aboard.
District X website
I hope you’re taking advantage of our District X website, www.ama10.org. There are many more stories published there than I have room for in this column. The website is a perfect place to find out what is happening in the district. The blog is the place to go to find these stories; so far there are 30 and counting.
You can subscribe to an RSS feed so you’ll be alerted when new posts are added. The blog page lists the five most recent posts; to see the rest click the “go to archives” link near the top of the page to see the entire list.
If you or your club has an article you’d like run on the website, please send it to me and I’ll post it.
That’s it for now. Until next month, may you have nothing but happy landings. — LT
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
