President’s Perspective-2010/09

September 2010 5
MA has received a number of calls
and e-mails this summer from
members asking about the FAA
TFRs that seem to be popping up, regularly,
all across the country. TFR stands for
“Temporary Flight Restriction,” and a TFR is
usually created in the national airspace
surrounding and during the period of some
special event like the Super Bowl or a launch
of the space shuttle. In addition, they are
created at locations where the president of the
United States or other VIPs are visiting. TFRs
created during presidential visits are mandated
by the Secret Service.
If you get the impression that the number
of TFRs being issued has risen dramatically in
the last couple of years, you’re right. Since the
beginning of 2009, more than 125 have been
issued throughout the country.
Virtually everything that flies in the
National Airspace System (NAS) is affected if
flight operations require activity within a TFR.
For modelers, as recreational users, this can
certainly be an annoyance. For other users of
the NAS it can mean much more. Livelihoods
can be affected.
In 2009 when President Obama vacationed
in Martha’s Vineyard, a TFR was in place
during his entire eight-day visit. While model
aircraft were grounded, so was everything
else.
Flight training, glider and glider-towing
operations, parachute operations, balloon
operations, crop dusting, banner-towing
operations, and sightseeing operations were all
prohibited. The negative economic impact that
this presents can be devastating, especially in
President’s Perspective
AMA President Dave Mathewson
A
an area that has such a limited season of
acceptable weather conditions.
AMA certainly understands the security
implications that have resulted in the increase
in TFRs. However, we also believe that there
are ways to maintain the required level of
safety, while offering some relief to other users
of the NAS.
In last month’s MA, AMA’s government
affairs representative, Rich Hanson, wrote a
brief article which explains TFRs in more detail
and the approach that AMA is taking to seek
some reasonable relief for model aviation
enthusiasts. AMA will continue to work
through this, in hopes of finding a sensible
compromise.
As you might expect, the question on most
everyone’s mind at events I attend is what kind
of progress we are making with the FAA and
the regulatory process involving small
unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS). AMA’s
internal workgroup charged with drafting an
initial set of standards that we will eventually
submit to the FAA for consideration continues
to make good progress. Our intent, as it has
been all along, is to use the National Model
Aviation Safety Code, along with its supporting
documents, as the foundation of our
submission.
The majority of the work being done now
centers around making sure that we have
addressed all the issues that the FAA has raised
and to create our documents using the “form
and format” preferred by the FAA. The latter
being simply how the FAA would like our
submission to be packaged. As we get further
along, our set of guidelines will be vetted
throughout the model aviation community so
that everyone has an opportunity for comment.
AMA’s new education director, Bill Pritchett,
has hit the ground running. Bill has been
working with AMA’s Education Committee
and our education outreach specialist, Dr.
Gordon Schimmel, on a number of new ideas
that will enhance our education outreach efforts.
Many of these ideas will focus on creating
new programs that will support our members
and clubs who want to introduce model
aviation to the members of their communities.
In addition, we are reaching out to
organizations like the Boy Scouts, Civil Air
Patrol, and ROTC to open a dialogue on how
we can work together to create programming
that will support those organizations. Over the
next several months you’ll be reading much
more about these efforts.
AMA’s Web site is undergoing a major
reconstruction. In today’s world, for many, the
Internet has become the primary resource for
information. It has also become a common tool
for conducting business. The AMA Web site
needs to address both of these areas.
It needs to be a place where someone
interested in model aviation can go to learn
more about aeromodeling. At the same time,
our Web site needs to be a conduit to the
services and benefits we provide to our
membership. Current plans are to launch the
new site sometime in the fourth quarter of 2010.
About the time this issue of MA reaches you,
the 2010 F5B & D World Championships will
be taking place at the International
Aeromodeling Center (IAC). Teams from a
number of countries will be in Muncie for the
competition, which runs from August 20
through August 25.
In addition, on August 18 and 19 many of
these same teams and pilots will compete in the
Neu-Castle Cup Open International. This is a
great opportunity to visit the IAC and watch
some of the best F5 Electric pilots in the world
compete against each other.
If you visit, please take some time to stop at
the National Model Aviation Museum and the
AMA’s administrative headquarters, to say
hello to the AMA staff who work so hard on
our behalf. If you ask the receptionist, she
would be happy to arrange for you a tour of the
building. MA
See you next time.
Dave Mathewson
AMA president
[email protected]
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.
AMA certainly understands
the security implications …
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