Flying Site Assistance - 2012/02
Author
Tony Stillman www.modelaircraft.org/membership/clubs/fsap.aspx
"The club is growing and the city has a new jewel in its crown."
It is December as I am writing this, but it will be January when you receive this issue. I hope everyone had a great holiday with friends and family.
This is the last month that I will push you to sign up as a Flying Site Assistance Volunteer. I am happy to report that we have signed up quite a few people, but we do need more. My goal is to have five in each state, so I have a way to go yet!
If you are considering it, but have not jumped in yet, please do so! The assistance you can give might make the difference for a club.
In mid-November, I attended the National League of Cities Convention and Expo in Phoenix. My wife, Genie, attended with me and Rich Hansen helped as well. Rich lives in the Phoenix area, so it was a perfect opportunity for us to get together and discuss strategies.
Rich is our AMA Governmental Relations representative who has been working tirelessly for the past several years with the FAA concerning an upcoming ruling that will affect model aviation and small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) in the National Air Space.
This show in Phoenix was the last major show of the year that was designed to meet city officials and discuss the use of city land for model airplane fields. We presented the AMA story and discussed how AMA clubs can partner with cities to create a great relationship and a new flying site can be the result.
In a recent issue of MA, there was a great article about a new flying site in North Mankato, Minnesota. This was a story that I shared with many city officials at the show. It helped to show them what can happen when the city gets involved and partners with an AMA club.
The club is growing and the city has a new jewel in its crown. We have similar stories that we publish from time to time.
Another success story that I shared was of the Sonoran Desert Fliers club, which is right there in Arizona!
The club provided me with a video to show the new site and how it was used by the members. The video shows several different models in use at the site, including electric-powered models, jets, and helicopters. This was good work by the club and quite useful to me at the show.
We met and spoke with many city officials and are now in the process of following up with them to hopefully create new flying sites.
As I write this, I am working with staff at AMA Headquarters to modify the Flying Site Assistance portion of the website to make it easier to find support material. I hope this will be completed by the time you read this article.
Have fun!
Tony Stillman Flying Site Assistance Coordinator
Contact
102 Cherrywood Ct., Brunswick, GA 31525 (912) 242-2407 [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
