Flying Site Assistance-2011/09

134 MODEL AVIATION
HI EVERYONE! As I write this, it is early July and the heat is on!
Lots of hot weather and lots of good flying! I hope you are enjoying
it.
As I speak with AMA members across the United States, I learn
a lot. Many have shared stories about specific club situations that
help me learn things that can help other clubs. It is amazing how
much we can learn and profit from each other if we are willing to
listen!
While helping an AMA club, I learned how important it is to be a
good steward of the land and support your landowner. The case that
I am referring to is still ongoing and hopefully we can help the club
to retain its flying site. Let me explain …
I am currently working with a club. They contacted me with a
question about AMA’s insurance coverage and how it protects the
site owner. Specifically the question was about the Flying Site
Owner’s Insurance that is available to all AMA clubs for purchase.
This insurance is a major reason that many of our clubs are able to
obtain flying sites.
This policy provides primary insurance coverage for the site
owner in the amount of $2.5 million. The site owner has coverage
for any issue that might result from flight operations on his/her
property. You can find more information on this in the AMA Club
Charter kit, which is available as a PDF in the AMA Documents
section of the website at www.modelaircraft.org.
Here is what happened. The club had installed some fencing on
its flying site for safety reasons. Although this is a good thing, the
club obtained verbal approval, but did not get prior written approval
from the owner to do so. In this case, the owner was the city and the
flying site was on a landfill that had been capped by direction of the
EPA.
This cap is a plastic membrane that keeps rainwater from
penetrating the soil beneath it. The membrane is protecting
environmental pollutants from seeping out and possibly polluting the
ground water. In order for it to work, the cap must be protected from
any punctures. This cap is approximately 24 inches under the site’s
topsoil.
When the city found out about the fencing, it required the club to
remove it immediately and inspected the site to determine if the cap
was damaged. Luckily, it was not damaged. Now, the problem ...
The club has been contacted by the city that now wants the club
to provide pollution insurance so that the city would be protected if
the club punctured the cap and caused a leak. The problem is that
our AMA insurance does not cover this. After a discussion with our
insurance company, it became obvious that no typical policy would
cover pollution. The coverage could be purchased, but the cost
would be in the $25,000 per year range—minimum.
So, what is a club of 30 members to do? By not taking the terms
of their site usage seriously, they may end up losing a great flying
field. I am going to help them as much as possible, but the breach of
trust between the club and the city may be more than we can
overcome.
The bottom line here is to make sure you know your situation
with your site owner. Don’t make any changes to the flying field
without getting written approval first! It may seem like common
sense, but the club I am dealing with did not think they were doing
anything that would cause a problem.
In reality, they didn’t puncture the cap, but it brought their
actions in question by the site owner. Not a good place to be.
I hope you can take this tough lesson and apply it to your own
case. Be a good steward of your flying field and make sure you do
everything in such a way to make the site owner feel secure with
your club.
Till next time.
Tony Stillman
Flying Site Assistance
Coordinator
102 Cherrywood Ct., Brunswick GA 31525; (912) 242-2407;
[email protected]
While helping an AMA club, I learned how important it is to be a good
steward of the land and support your landowner.
Flying Site Assistance
Tony Stillman | www.modelaircraft.org/membership/clubs/fsap.aspx
Are you a club newsletter editor? Have you run out of material to print? Do you need
a good idea for a club-sponsored event? Are you just looking for something good to
read? AMA may be able to help!
The AMA INSIDER is published electronically on a bimonthly basis for members of
the Academy of Model Aeronautics. Its purpose is to create a network of information
exchange between the Academy’s chartered clubs, officials, and chartered club officers.
The newsletter’s contents are collected from AMA club newsletters and other sources
within and outside of the organization. Implicit consent to reprint articles found in club
newsletters is given, whereupon the newsletter editor completed and returned the Club
Newsletter Exchange form, or initiated contact with the Academy by sending a
newsletter, either via mail or email, to the newsletter editor.
Visit the INSIDER online at www.modelaircraft.org/insider/index.html or subscribe
to the mailing list that will notify you via email when the newest issue has been posted,
at www.modelaircraft.org/subscribe.aspx.
The AMA INSIDER
By now, nearly everyone should be
somewhat familiar with the FAA’s intent
to create regulation for the operation of
small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS)
in the national airspace. There’s been a lot
of speculation about what will be
contained in the sUAS proposed rule that
is scheduled to be released as a notice of
proposed rulemaking (NPRM) sometime
in June 2011.
The NPRM will contain proposed
regulations that will likely have some
impact on model aviation. The FAA is
prohibited by law from disclosing the
exact language in the NPRM until it’s
released in the Federal Register. However,
we have been able to determine, in a
generic sense, what some of the proposed
language might be. The NPRM will likely
address things such as how high, how
fast, and where a model aircraft may fly.
We know that the FAA has drawn a hard
line between recreational use and
commercial use.
AMA is continuing to work with the
FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Program Office
(UAPO) and is in contact with the UAPO
on a weekly, if not daily, basis. Face-toface
meetings between AMA
representatives and the UAPO staff take
place in Washington on a regular basis.
AMA’s internal workgroup, consisting
of members with a diverse and
knowledgeable model aviation
background, meets weekly by conference
call and continues to develop standards
that will eventually be submitted to the
FAA for adoption that will allow modelers
who follow these standards additional
latitude from the rule.
We’re fighting a tough battle between
keeping our members informed and not
painting an overly tenuous picture of the
future of model aviation. Not knowing
AMA INSIDER |JANUARY 2011 PAGE 1
PRESIDENT TO PRESIDENT
Update on the FAA
VOLUME 7 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 2011
CLUB CORNER
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg 1
ON THE SAFE SIDE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg 2
EDITOR’S PICKS
The Importance of Setting
Headings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg 4
RC Helicopter Safety:
Not Just for the Novice Pilot . . . . . . .pg 4
Clubs: Are You Ready for 2011? . . . .pg 5
Tips & Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg 5
Importance of Balancing Lithium
Polymer Battries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg 6
January 2011 CONTENTS
PRESIDENT TO PRESIDENT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg 1
Dave Mathewson, AMA President
LEADER TO LEADER
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg 3
Jim Wallen, InsiderClub Column Editor
The Club Corner
CLUB CORNER
please see President to
President ... on page 5
Have things gotten a little stale in your type of flying? Is the weather a little
too cold to get out and fly at your flying site? How about trying something
new? A group of flying enthusiasts in the Denver area has found a new wrinkle
to our hobby, flying with CO2 motors! (The Black Sheep Squadron in California
has an interesting Web site featuring CO2.) These guys were predominately
flying electrics before they found this new type of entertainment. They meet
weekly at Frank Dilatush’s place of business to do a little indoor flying and
solve some of the world’s problems as well. Frank submits the following article:
“Some of you know that every Wednesday from 3-5 p.m., the employees at
RFS and Whipchek are free to go play and Chuck and I lock the front door and
host a gathering of our friends back in the warehouse where we fly little
airplanes and helicopters, drink mild and strong spirits, and also solve many of
the world’s problems through civil, yet animated discourse.
“It’s always fun, and of course the non-flying employees love it, I mean
really who doesn’t love recess? Yesterday was especially enjoyable because a
little eBay find of mine had shown up and we got to play with it.
“CO2model motors predate RC and were used in Free Flight models going
back before WW II. They are powered by 8-gram seltzer (siphon) bottle CO2
cartridges. Not the easiest things to find but Burt, our favorite octogenarian, and
please see Club Corner ... on page 7
11september_11amanews.qxd 7/22/2011 11:04 AM Page 134