President’s Perspective - 2009/09

MA’s Education Committee
chairman, Dr. Gordon Schimmel,
has been selected as the recipient
of the 2009 Dr. Mervin K. Strickler Jr.
Aerospace Education Leadership Award
presented by the National Coalition for
Aviation Education (NCAE).
The award is presented annually by
NCAE to recognize individuals who have
made a personal commitment and lifelong
contributions to aerospace education.
Nominees and winners have been
individuals who have demonstrated
outstanding aviation and space education
leadership through a noteworthy
achievement and/or have made significant
contributions to the aerospace field over a
continuous period of time.
AMA is proud to have Dr. Schimmel
serving as a member of our education team
and I’d like to personally congratulate him
on this outstanding achievement.
We often talk about how much more there
is to model aviation and AMA than just
flying model aircraft. We talk about the
camaraderie and friendships that are made
with others who share a common interest.
I recently received a letter from AMA
member Tim DiPeri that I’d like to share
with you. Tim’s story clearly exemplifies the
best of what model aviation and our
organization have to offer.
“Extreme hospitality alive and well in
Murfreesboro, Tennessee: I have been
involved in model aviation most of my life
and have been flying radio-controlled
airplanes since 1973. I have had the
fortunate experience of flying with, and
meeting, some of the friendliest and helpful
people I have ever met. In fact some of my
President’s Perspective
AMA President Dave Mathewson
A
Help us? They did far too much as it was.
September 2009 5
Mission Statement
The Academy of Model Aeronautics is a world-class association of modelers organized for the purpose of
promotion, development, education, advancement, and safeguarding of modeling activities.
The Academy provides leadership, organization, competition, communication, protection, representation,
recognition, education and scientific/technical development to modelers.
closest friends I have met through this sport
of model aviation.
“One Friday in June of 2009 I had an
experience with a model aircraft club that
completely floored me! Let me explain. I
have been the contest director for a
helicopter contest in the Nashville,
Tennessee, area for fourteen years. My
regular flying field is within (and controlled
by) one of the state parks. For thirteen of
those years I have had no problem at all.
“Without going into detail, at 4:50 p.m.,
on the practice day (Friday), the parks
department decided they would not allow us
to use their field for a contest (as usual, we
had all of the legal AMA paperwork and
sanction) and told all of the pilots to leave
the field or face a summons by the park
police.
“I had folks that made ten-plus-hour
drives to get here and I was one stressed
CD. I called a modeling friend and let him
know of our problem: a big bunch of worldclass
helicopter pilots with no place to fly!
“Robert Hughes (my friend) happened to
be flying as a guest (the first time at this field
in ten years) at the Middle Point Skyhawks’
flying field a couple of towns over in
Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Jim Powers
(president) overheard the conversation
(remember, this is about 5:00 p.m. on a
Friday) and offered to see if the members
would have any problem with us moving the
contest to their field. Within fifteen minutes,
Jim and I were chatting and he got full
support of the club for this.
“I was pretty much speechless; I didn’t
know these people from Adam and they are
willing to shut down their nice weekend of
flying so the field can be exclusively used by
a bunch of helicopter pilots they don’t even
know. Well we all caravanned to the field
Friday night and met up with Jim and began
to mark out the field for our competition.
“I got home thinking that this cannot be
true. Surely there will be irate members
yelling at us in the morning about ruining
their weekend of flying. I slept quite poorly,
concerned that this was way too good to be
true.
“Saturday was a very nice day (too nice
to give up a flying field), and we got started.
About mid-morning, I caught a glimpse of
someone walking toward me with a
determined pace. Here we go (I thought),
getting kicked off another field in the same
weekend would be too much for me.
“No, this person, one of the club
members, came to find me to shake my hand
and welcome me there and let me know he
was happy they could help. They even
unlocked their doors to let us use their
mower, paint, and grill, as well as any other
items they had available.
“It sounds crazy but this went on all
weekend, club members and officers,
coming out for a few minutes, making sure
we were all right and was there anything
they could do to help us. Help us? They did
far too much as it was.
“I want to offer my sincere appreciation
to all of the members of the Middle Point
Skyhawks. In all the years I have been
enjoying this hobby, I have had so many
positive experiences of people wanting to
help. This experience has moved the bar
high when it comes to hospitality and this
club and its members should be recognized
for helping out when it was not really the
most timely or convenient thing to do.
“What the club members did not know at
the time was that all of the monies from this
event have been going to help support an
after-school program in a low-income area
of Nashville (through one of the churches).
Without their help, we would have missed
this year’s contribution for the first time in
fourteen years.
“Once again, thank you Skyhawks!”
On behalf of all of our members, I’d also
like to extend our thanks and appreciation to
the Skyhawks. As Tim wrote, the bar has
been raised. MA
See you next time …
Dave Mathewson
AMA president
[email protected]
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