Better weather is coming, I hope!
Hello, again! As I write this, it is early February in Indiana—much colder than what this Florida boy is used to! However, I am learning how to deal with the cold and the snow. Spring really is just around the corner and soon the flying sites will start filling up on the weekends. Everyone will starting bringing out their new creations from the model shops and show them off at the field.
I hope your club took advantage of the Flying Site Improvement Grant this year. The grant is available to all AMA chartered clubs and only requires that you complete the application and turn it in to your AMA district vice president (VP). The deadline to turn these in was March 1, 2015, so that time has already passed. If you didn’t take advantage of it this time, make a note to look into it next year.
The Flying Site Improvement Grant is designed to help clubs with improvements to their flying site and can be used for almost anything that is flying-site related. You can go to the AMA website, download the grant application, and review it so you will understand how it works and what you can do to plan for it for 2016. Remember, your club can apply every year! Make sure your club gets a portion of the approximately $35,000 that AMA annually awards.
The grant is only one of many programs that AMA offers to its chartered clubs. If you are a club officer, take the time to find out about them and contact your VP or associate vice president for additional information. You can also contact AMA Headquarters with your questions, or visit the website for more information.
As part of improvement efforts to the flying site at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana, I have obtained a roll of US Fabrics Aeromodeling Geotextile 230 that will be installed at Site 8, which is dedicated to park flyers. Thank you to US Fabrics for donating the material for us to use!
We will create a 30 x 100-foot runway that will make takeoffs for small models with small wheels much easier. If you visit AMA this year, drop by and check out the runway. Bring a park flyer and try it out.
This might be something your club wants to consider for your home flying site. By testing it yourself, you can report back to your club members with your findings. We hope this will improve the site and give members the opportunity to test out a fabric runway for themselves.
For more information about US Fabrics, visit www.usfabricsinc.com/products/us-230-aeromodeling-geotextile.
Competition Regulations
The latest versions of the Competition Regulations are now online at www.modelaircraft.org/events/compreg.aspx. The regulations incorporate all of the rules proposals that passed the Contest Board’s final vote in 2014.
Note that these new versions no longer have a date listing on the front page. This is because they now include an amendments page that lists all changes that have occurred since 2013. This list will be continually updated in the future, and will eventually list all rules changes that have been made throughout the past four years. Hopefully, this will make it easier for competitors to see what rules have been changed and find them quickly. A table of contents will also make it easier to find what you are looking for.
We are in the process of giving all of the regulations books a much needed facelift! Since we no longer print the Competition Regulations in book form, we can move forward to an updated, full-color look that will be larger print and easier to read. You can view a sample of this update by clicking on the 2015-2016 General Information link under the Competitions Regulations section of the AMA website.
We will be updating each version throughout 2015. We hope you like it!
