View from HQ
Joyce Hager Executive Director
LET ME start this month with apologies to the author of the text in my November 2001 column. I certainly did not intend to take credit for this article entitled “What if You Gave an Air Show and Everybody Came?”
The author is John Beckman of Hartwell GA. If you have any questions concerning this article, please contact John at [email protected].
Much excitement has taken place at the International Flying Site since my last column. We completed the 75th National Aeromodeling Championships and went right into the Helicopter World Championships.
Teams from 27 countries were entered in this event. We were three days into the World Championships when the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC occurred.
Our AMA employees were devastated along with the rest of the nation, but at the same time the number of E-mails from around the world expressing shock and sorrow at what happened were greatly appreciated.
The teams that were participating in the Helicopter World Championships requested that their flags be flown at half-mast and joined in moments of silence for those people who lost their lives in this unfortunate situation. Modelers certainly have a lot of compassion for each other.
We took security measures to ensure that members of the visiting teams were not in any danger. At the conclusion of the event, the task became figuring out how to get the model boxes out of the United States and back to their respective countries.
After exploring alternate ways to ship these items, I am pleased to say that only people from three countries leaving from the Chicago area had problems. Everyone else flew safely home with their model boxes intact.
Despite the national tragedy, the Helicopter World Championships was a success. But that wasn’t the end.
On October 8 the Free Flight World Championships was scheduled to take place in Bakersfield CA. After much discussion about whether or not to proceed with this event, we decided to continue, and we are glad we did.
With 32 countries participating, the event was a success. My sincere thanks goes to all the volunteers, AMA staff, and contestants for making these two events successful. For more details about both World Championships, check out our Web site at www.modelaircraft.org.
Museum
As an added feature, regularly scheduled, guided tours of the National Model Aviation Museum will be available Monday through Friday at 2 p.m., except on holidays.
Check out our Web site for additional information about the museum.
Solo Certificates
Does your club have a training program that helps beginners achieve solo flight?
Your club can present trainees with an AMA Solo Certificate once the beginner completes the club-training program and his or her first solo flight. These attractive, full-color certificates are available for $1 each.
For more information, please contact April Hathaway, programs coordinator, at (765) 287-1256, extension 271, or E-mail her at [email protected].
Membership Renewal
By now everyone should have received his/her annual renewal notice. In October 2001, 170,754 membership renewal notices were printed and mailed.
If history repeats itself, the membership department will renew 65% of those notices in a three-month period of time, so I am asking people to be patient. In order to help us expedite processing, we do hire additional staff during this period.
Renewals received by mail are processed on a daily basis. You may also take advantage of the opportunity to renew by telephone or via the Internet. When calling AMA, please be sure to have your AMA number and credit-card number handy to speed up renewal.
Attention Contest Directors
Any AMA sanctioned event that includes turbine-engine operation will be required to comply with the “Safety Regulations for Model Aircraft Gas Turbines” and a participant’s statement of compliance must be read and signed by anyone operating a turbine.
This form must be returned to AMA Headquarters along with your sanction report form. If you are having an event and have not received this information, please request a copy from Headquarters.
Happy flying,
Joyce Hager Executive Director [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
