President’s Perspective - 2003/07

ours is no exception—have a 90-day notice
of nonrenewal, but that is just a formality.
Receiving a notice doesn’t mean that the
company will not renew insurance coverage,
but that it might not and wants to reserve the
right to drop your coverage.
Royal has given us this notice for at least
the last two years, yet it did provide a
quotation. I realize that the membership
would want us to “put the insurance out to
bid,” as suggested by many members who
think doing so is a panacea.
Members also want AMA to renew the
club charters and insurance certificates
before they expire. This is a predicament.
The quote we accepted this year came in a
couple of hours before our conference call to
make a decision. That conference call was
scheduled at the last possible moment to still
allow us to produce the charter club
certificates before they expired.
It became a waiting game, and one with a
lot at stake. Wait until the last minute for the
best possible quote, or grab the first quote
you get, regardless of the price, to provide
certificates earlier? Neither option is very
appetizing.
We were able to obtain a policy that
duplicated the coverage we have had for the
past number of years, but it wasn’t our only
option. A couple of quotes were for lesser
coverage, dropping the coverage down to $1
million instead of the current $2.5 million,
which would have been only a small
increase over last year’s premium.
We will have to consider this as an
option for the future. A $1 million policy
would cover any claim we have settled in the
past, and it would allow some reduction in
policy premium, as well as more potential
sources of coverage. It would not reduce the
amount we pay out in the SIR (self-insured
retention) portion of each claim (AMA pays
the first $250,000 of each claim), so the
THIS PAST month included some of the
most nervous days I can remember as
president of AMA. We were close to the
wire getting a quote for our insurance
program. In the end, we got a quote from an
insurer that was better than the renewal quote
offered by our former company, Royal, and
we changed insurance companies.
This change saved us some money
compared to the renewal quote from Royal,
but it still didn’t keep the premium from
going up 70% compared to last year.
Although this was considerably more than
we had budgeted for this premium, the
budget has just about enough room to
accommodate this amount. It will put us
close to a losing year in terms of dollars, but
we should be able to balance the budget.
The main variable is what claims we will
have in the near term; the Self Insured part of
the claims can be the difference between a
good year and a negative one. That is up to
the membership and its efforts to reduce
claims.
Given the fact that a substantial
percentage of our claims comes from
incidents or accidents that have little to do
with aeromodeling, it would be in our best
interest to look for any safety hazards around
our flying sites and remove them.
It would also be a good idea to review
your club bylaws, and be sure you abide by
them to avoid legal actions against the club.
Nowhere is this any more important than in
areas involving disciplining or removing a
club member. Newsletter editors need to be
particularly sensitive to anything that could
be construed as slander or libel.
The ball is in our court, and our ability—
or inability—to avoid claims will determine
whether any dues increases are necessary in
the near future.
Charter club renewal went to the last
minute, and in doing so, left many members
of your Executive Council with a few more
gray hairs—or maybe a few less hairs. It also
left a few clubs in a panic, as the club charter
certificates and certificates of insurance
could not be processed until we had the
insurance policy number(s).
The nature of the insurance industry
leaves us in a quandary. It seems that the
standard way to do business is to wait until
the last minute to provide quotations or
commitments to insure. Most policies—and
Dave Brown AMA president
President’s Perspective
reduction in overall cost would not be as
much as the premium reduction might lead
you to believe. The main effect would be to
reduce the likelihood of the “deep pockets”
claims, where the claim just “happens” to be
for the total amount of insurance coverage
available.
It could also be more feasible for AMA
to go into a fully funded program (a form of
self-insurance), which would preclude the
last-minute tension. As you see, we have a
lot to consider and are looking into as many
options as we can to continue to provide you
with coverage.
A couple of months back I wrote about the
Columbia tragedy, and pointed out that a
couple of the astronauts had mentioned
aeromodeling in preflight interviews.
Afterward I received the following E-mail
from Barent N. McCool that speaks for
itself. To say that I got a lump in my throat
when I read it is an understatement.
“I just received my May 2003 copy of
Model Aviation and was pleased to read your
‘President’s Perspective’ on the Columbia
astronauts and the space program.
“My son, Cdr. Willie McCool, was the
pilot of the Columbia, and one of the
astronauts that you referred to as being
interested in model airplanes and I thought
I’d drop you a brief message on just what
modeling meant to the McCools.
“I started building models when I was
five years old, with the 10-cent Comet
wooden models, and as a thirty-year member
of AMA I am still flying RC today here in
Las Vegas.
“Willie became interested in flying
models in 1971 when I introduced him to
Control Line models with the Cox PT-19.
We flew it until it was no longer airworthy
and graduated to the Carl Goldberg Buster
and Shoestring stunter with old Fox .35s.
Willie and the ‘Old Man’ spent many
wonderful hours building, repairing, and
sometimes even flying models together. It is
true even today, ‘the family that plays
together stays together.’
“This past December Willie and I came
‘full circle’ with modeling. He had called
and asked if I still had any of the old engines
for Control Line models and I sent him a
saved ‘new’ O.S. Max .35. I was looking for
a CG Shoestring to send him when I saw a
‘new’ Cox PT-19. I sent that to him and
Willie introduced the joy and thrill of model
flying to his youngest son, Cameron.
“In between the Mission prep for STS-
107 and crew training, Willie found time to
take his son out to fly and wrote to me that he
felt like he had gone back into time. He
July 2003 5
They all died doing what
they loved—flying.
Continued on page 183
remembered all of the good times that the
two of us had flying and related to
Cameron stories about great planes and
bad crashes.
“I feel that modeling had brought
Willie and his son together for some
quality time, just as I had with Willie so
many years ago. I will continue where
Willie left off with Cameron and my
daughter’s son Hunter, with a Thunder
Tiger .60 Trainer and a buddy box that I
have hanging in my hangar waiting for this
summer.
“Willie and all of the heroes from the
Space Shuttle Columbia will be missed by
their loved ones and all of the Nation.
They all died doing what they loved—
flying.”
God bless, Mr. McCool, and I am sure
those grandsons will do well. They
obviously have a great teacher. MA