Education Through Aviation
by Bill Pritchett, Education Director
“If you can’t figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. Your passion will lead you directly to your purpose.” —T.D. Jakes
This has been a pretty crazy time for AMA. As I write this, we’ve just received the announcement from the FAA regarding the registration of
I caught something written by one of our members, Mark Atwood, in an email list exchange responding to someone blaming the AMA for our current FAA situation and was really impressed by it. It’s honest, yet not offensive. It’s thoughtful, yet not overly analytical. Best of all, it’s accurate. Here’s what Mark had to say about your AMA and the FAA registration process:
“I’ll simply say that I think you’re selling our AMA leadership short in the effort that has been put forth to work with the FAA and to protect our rights as modelers. I don’t know how involved you’ve been, so I’ll stop short of calling your comments ignorant, but they are clearly both inconsiderate of their efforts and personally attacking … without merit.
“I’ve had no shortage of complaints and disagreements with the AMA over the years, and even with our current leaders [Bob (Brown), Dave (Mathewson), and (the) board of directors] over various issues. But I don’t think publicly disparaging their efforts is ever warranted, and on this subject in particular, it’s just erroneous. They have worked diligently on this effort, including funding lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., and their results have been quite good.
“This is a very minor setback and one that they’re working aggressively to mitigate. The FAA is reacting to public pressure to ‘do something,’ and the voice of 150,000 toy airplane enthusiasts is only going to have so much weight, especially when the reality is [that] it doesn’t affect us.
“Yes, we can scream civil liberties and slippery slope and all the other NRA [National Rifle Association] worries, but it’s toy airplanes. Those aren’t real worries until people are actually doing damage with our toys. Let’s support our AMA. They’re us. They’re modelers. They’re friends.”
Mark probably says a couple things that many of us in Muncie, Indiana, would like to say, but don’t. We’re professional about it, yet we recognize and respect the input and opinions of our membership.
I’ve read some blogs, social media, and other posts, however, that are over the top, offensive, and certainly not pointing anyone toward a solution.
Although we’re discussing a solution, here’s my take on registration. Answering a few hundred emails on the same question leads one to come up with some standard text. For those who didn’t email me about this, here’s what I said:
“Thanks for your membership and responsible approach. You point out something that we ask about almost daily in our efforts with the FAA. While you wouldn’t think so, the FAA seemingly operates without regard to laws. They have as much as said the administration of controlling the national airspace superseded the congressional rulings and legislation that currently exist. Not what anyone wants to hear, but true and it really magnifies the difficulty we have in dealing with the FAA.
“Although we are disappointed with the registration process, AMA has been a vocal and active advocate. Before the FAA’s registration announcement, and even phone calls with the core task force, the FAA first agreed to speak exclusively with the AMA to discuss details of the registration process.
“During the meeting, the FAA agreed that pilots are to be exempt from registering every unique aircraft. Hobbyists need to register once as a pilot and again in three years. We did advocate [for] allowing members to use their AMA number. The FAA and AMA are exploring options.
“This is an evolving process. Rest assured that we have staff members working hard at AMA Headquarters, representatives in Washington, D.C., and people in the media who will continue advocating on behalf of the hobby we all love and enjoy. As things progress, we’ll be announcing updates through email, social media, and our blogs.
“Because of your member support, we were able to advocate reducing some of the burdens to our members. For example, just before the FAA registration announcement, we had an exclusive meeting with the FAA and it was determined that only the pilots should be registered and not each aircraft. This is a big win for AMA and our members.
“Other positive results of our government advocacy contained in Section 336 permits AMA members to fly above 400 feet, fly turbines, fly aircraft [weighing] more than 55 pounds, and fly near airports, among other rights. AMA members would have lost these rights without the support of members like you. AMA is your voice for our hobby, now and in the future! At the end of the day, registration won’t change a thing for us flying models recreationally.”
I shared a member’s response and my response to the issue. What’s yours? I hope it’s one of thoughtful purpose—pointing directly at solutions. Someone really smart described this whole thing as an elephant giving birth to a mouse.
Fly and have fun!
