President's Perspective
Keep this in mind the next time someone tries to tell you that AMA is only about insurance.
As I write this, the news is full of the fifth anniversary of the horrible events of September 11, 2001, and it is a fitting time for us to reflect on the effect that day has had on us as aeromodelers in the United States.
In the immediate aftermath of September 11, we found ourselves shut down, along with virtually all of aviation in this country. A few flying sites were shut down for longer periods of time, but most quickly returned to operation.
Individually, we were directly affected only slightly after that initial period, but collectively we have put up with the aftermath to this day. We have been fortunate that the aftermath of the tragedy has not had more of an impact on aeromodeling.
A number of hobby shops and some of our clubs have received "visits" by various authorities, and any of us who have flown by commercial airliner to events have had to jump through a few more hoops. Even those situations have been less of a problem than we could have expected.
Even our World Championship teams have managed to get themselves and their equipment to events. Adjustments have had to be made, but we have been able to operate with those changes; it could have been much worse.
AMA has worked diligently to represent the interests of our sport with all of the governmental agencies that have taken an interest in our activity, and we have been effective in keeping the restrictions to a minimum.
In great part, this has been the result of the work of AMA Programs Director Jay Mealy, and we owe him a great deal of thanks. But Jay has not worked alone. Many other members of the AMA staff and officers have spent much time and effort meeting with everyone from local law enforcement to the Congress of the United States.
There were meetings with various offices within the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security, and the Federal Aviation Administration, all of which were aimed at retaining your right to continue to fly model airplanes. Keep this in mind the next time someone tries to tell you that AMA is only about insurance.
One common theme in these meetings was the idea that organized model airplane activities give us the best tool to thwart the use of a model airplane as a weapon. Our membership, collectively watching out for anything that seems out of place at our flying fields, is recognized by the authorities as a powerful tool in preventing models from being used by terrorists. Please remain vigilant at your flying field.
One of the articles I read about the threat of terrorism referred to Americans thinking in terms of shorter periods of time than the terrorists. We tend to relax our guard after five or ten years of safety; the terrorists think in terms of accomplishing their goals within centuries. We need to remain sensitive to the threat and willing to speak up.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)—or more correctly Unmanned Aircraft (UAs)—continue to present challenges. The difference between these and our model aircraft has been difficult to define and has resulted in an identity crisis.
My guess is that this issue—and the airspace-access issues which will arise as a result of increased activity in the UA field—will consume much of our time in the next five years, just as Homeland Security issues have taken much time in the past five years.
Again, it is those sometimes boring meetings with various governmental agencies that put us in the best possible position to retain the right to fly our model airplanes in the United States. We have another such meeting scheduled at a conference for all of the military and governmental users of UAs in slightly more than a week.
A news item of concern to all of us reported that a model airplane collided with a paraglider, resulting in the paraglider crashing. I don't have many details as I write this, but the model airplane was reported as having a 21-inch wingspan, so it may have been a "toy" as opposed to a "model airplane" as we would think of it.
According to the article I read, the paraglider pilot suffered minor injuries and the model flier was not charged by the police, but that does not remove the stigma that "these model airplanes are dangerous." Incidents such as this give us all a black eye, and we need to remain keenly aware that any collision between a model airplane and any man-carrying aircraft will make the news and will not enhance our ability to continue to fly.
Till next month.
Dave Brown AMA President [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
