View From HQ - 2008/01

200 MODEL AVIATION
Executive Director Jim Cherry
he announcement of a new
membership category—the Park Pilot
Program (PPP)—is in this issue of
MA. Rumors have been circulating about the
PPP; the Academy has been developing this
program for more than two years.
As with all organizations and businesses,
change is ever-present in today’s world. The
development of inexpensive, lightweight park
flyers alone has exposed millions to the
experience of flight. If we did not respond to
this new interest in model aviation, the
Academy would be negligent. This larger
awareness of flight brings opportunities and
challenges.
I am asking you to become familiar with
the program since there will be many
questions about this new membership effort.
A visit to the AMA Web site offers a
description of the program and a series of
FAQs that will help you understand how these
new members fit into the AMA family. Please
see www.parkflyer.org for more information.
In a few weeks the Executive Council (EC)
will be meeting. In October the members
agreed to start the meeting a day early to
allow time for the review and adjustment of a
five-year strategic plan that has been under
development.
This plan is based on last year’s
membership survey and staff and EC input as
we worked through the planning process. It is
the first part of what we are calling the “da
Vinci Vision,” named after one of the world’s
earliest modelers.
Your input, through your district vice
president, is welcome as we work to map out
the future of AMA. Call your representative if
you have any thoughts on this long-range
planning process.
Next month in MA we will publish what most
organizations would call an “annual report.”
Staff members have informed me that the
name alone sounds boring and the
membership will not want to read it. They feel
that all MA articles need to be about
modeling.
Under staff pressure the piece will be a
“what AMA did with your dues in 2007”
report. Still not exciting, but maybe it’s
more enticing.
T
Responsible management to the
membership calls for some type of annual
report. I hope to start an annual tradition of
informing the membership of AMA actions
that they would not normally read about in MA.
On a much lighter side, “You know you’re a
modeler when ... ” has generated some great
responses and here is the second installment.
Thanks to those who have shared their
thoughts about modeling.
Jim Anderson of the Hernando Aero
Modelers of Spring Hill and Brooksville,
Florida, starts us off.
You know you’re a modeler when:
• “Your wife asks where the pliers are and you
tell her to check your field box.
• “You know what to do when you stick two
fingers together with instant CA glue.
• “You learn to tell the clerk at the hobby store
to throw the receipt away so your wife won’t
know that fuel went up a couple bucks (and so
did props and covering and glue and other
goodies).
• “As a way to show your everlasting love and
commitment to your wife, you name your new
plane after her on your wedding anniversary,
and put her name on the fuselage in big block
letters.
• “You ‘volunteer’ to get the mail on the day
your model airplane magazine is due.”
Retired Lieutenant Colonel B.J. Kaufman
of the United States Air Force submitted two
suggestions.
• “You know which fast food restaurants’
plastic ketchup cups make the best epoxy
mixing cups.
• “You have used your Dremel tool to trim
your toenails.” (No comment on this one!)
From Darrell Warren of the Michigan
Signal Seekers club:
• “Anytime someone asks for directions and
you use the nearest flying field as a reference.
• “You stop at garage sales and ask if they
have any planes for sale.
• “Every time you see a vacant lot you check
for overhead wires and a smooth landing area.
• “Every time you hear a plane you think ‘I got
it.’
• “You watch the weather channel and can’t
wait to see the wind direction and speed.
• “You use CA and epoxy to make household
repairs.
• “You use an incidence meter to level
furniture.”
Finishing out this month’s installment is
Rob Swider who offered:
• “You own more plans/kits than you’ll ever
build in your lifetime.
• “You can’t park your car in the garage
because it’s the hangar.
• “You have to eat in the living room because
the dining table is a building board.
• “The dining room tablecloth is made of
unrolled airplane plans.
• “Your fingertips have a perpetual skin made
of CA.”
As long as I keep getting such good
responses I’ll keep putting them in my
column.
Jim Rice, District VIII vice president, invited
me to the seventh annual J.W. Rice Memorial
Fly-In. More than 100 pilots came to the
Kingsbury Aerodrome in Texas to celebrate
the love of flight.
Jim’s son, Gary, the acting CD, conducted
one of the most efficient and varied fly-ins in
which I have ever participated. From Giant
Scale to foamies to CL Combat, there was
something for everyone.
Next September if you’re near San
Antonio, Texas, plan to have fun at the eighth
annual J.W. Rice Memorial Fly-In. MA
Jim Cherry takes a turn flying while Jim Rice,
District VIII vice president, looks on.
In the spirit of flight.
Jim Cherry
Executive Director
[email protected]
This larger awareness of flight
brings opportunities and challenges.
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