President's Perspective
Dave Brown, AMA president
Look around with an awareness of safety.
Time sure flies, especially when you have to meet a monthly deadline for a magazine column!
This last month has been interesting—particularly in terms of the e-mail response to my column in the June 2001 Model Aviation, in which I printed a letter from a disappointed newcomer.
What made it interesting was the fact that the vast majority of people agreed with my stance that this was not good for the sport. But what was really scary to me was that two-thirds of those who responded asked if it had been their club that prompted the letter!
The fact that so many members thought it was even possible that it was their club is disturbing. This might be a good discussion item for a future club or board meeting.
In all fairness, not everyone agreed with my printing the letter. One respondent stated that I shouldn't press my "personal" agenda in the column, but an overwhelming number of those who responded felt we should be concerned.
Has your club been lucky in terms of accidents at your site?
I hope so, but this is a good time to review your preparedness for even the simplest injuries.
By the time you read this it will be the middle of the flying season in most parts of the country, and it's a great time to review your readiness.
When was the last time someone checked the fire extinguishers on the flightline or the contents of the first-aid kit? Either being empty if needed could make a bad situation much worse.
If your club has any situations in which people who are unfamiliar with the area are flying at your field, be sure you have a few safety items posted on the bulletin board or a place that is easily accessible.
Examples of such items include:
- The location of the nearest telephone.
- Telephone numbers of the police, fire department, and hospital.
- A map to the nearest emergency room.
- A description of the flying-field location.
One thing that is easily overlooked is the need for a description of the flying-field location! This might seem silly, but if you think about the possibility of calling for emergency assistance and not being able to tell them where you are, you would see the need.
When I think back to the number of flying fields at which my family and I have spent the night in a camper, and I think of how seldom I could have told emergency assistance exactly where I was, it's a little frightening. I guess you become more careful about such things as you get older.
Once you have considered the above, why not take a simple walk around the field and look for things that could cause problems?
Look for little things, such as a hole in the ground that has grass growing over it, just waiting for someone to step in, or that bench that is ready to collapse the next time someone sits on it.
Look around with an awareness of safety. It shouldn't take any more than a half-hour, and it could prevent someone from needing to use those directions you posted, as suggested above. You did do that, didn't you?
An incident in April has gotten us some bad press. A turbine model went out of control, and it penetrated the roof of a condo at the polo-club site of the Top Gun contest in Florida. That was one of several airplanes lost during the contest.
A lot of misinformation has been spread about this incident. Top Gun was an AMA Class B-sanctioned event, and the severity of the incident was greatly overstated by the press.
This was the last year for Top Gun to be held at the polo-club site, but those incidents are not the reason for moving it to a different location next year.
It is a simple matter of the site shrinking because of development, and the models getting bigger and faster.
Should the site have been abandoned earlier? Hindsight is always 20/20. I expect the subject of suitability of locations for events to come up in the near future, since a site that is perfect for one type of model may not be suitable for another.
One other thing this incident has reinforced is that the press will usually exaggerate an accident, and we need to do our best to prevent that.
Press relations is among the most difficult areas for our sport to handle effectively, and there is almost no way we can expect to be prepared for any situation.
Having the right person address the press has made a bad situation better a couple of times, but the case is often the opposite, and comments from modelers have made the situation worse when it appears in the media.
Ironically, the print media is usually where the greatest threat of being misinterpreted lies, although we have all seen the power of television when someone misstates himself or herself.
I don't know that there is a "best" way to handle the press when an incident occurs, but a few things will usually help.
Working hard ahead of time to keep the neighbors happy can be a godsend in these situations. Your neighbors will probably set the tone of the press; if they are unhappy with you, they will use the opportunity to advance their case. Some of the exaggeration will result from this.
Sometimes your own club members can be your worst problem. That "Oh, yeah—we crash these all the time. You should have seen ..." comment can really hurt.
It's usually best (but hard to do) to speak with one voice, having all club members refer the press to someone designated as the club spokesperson.
In many cases it's best if that person is not the club president. No matter how well you are prepared, misunderstandings will occur, and who is going to correct those statements if the club president made them? The club president is expected to be on the wing, but the reverse is much harder to support.
The best way to approach this situation is to do the best you can to play it as close to the vest as possible, and hope for the best.
We have lost another legend of aeromodeling: Cliff Wierick, a past president of AMA and a well-known contributor to the development of the modern radio-control system, passed away as a result of a stroke he suffered in January.
We will all miss Cliffie, as he was a very popular character who was loved and respected by many.
Dave
Dave Brown AMA president [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
