AMA had so much “influence” that:

Voting FOR HR302:
- Congressman in which AMA HQ resides
- 8 of 9 Indiana Congressmen (1 didn’t vote at all)
- Mark Sanford (of famous AMA amendment)
- & pretty much everyone else in Congress

Voting for cloture today in the Senate:
- Both Indiana Senators
- Senator Inhofe

The AMA made it easy for the politicians when they decided to embrace and promote FPV and drones along side line of sight only model airplanes. People can attempt to debate that forever but the facts speak for themselves. We all know this is a measure to put a feather in the cap of politicians and say they’ve countered the “drone menace”. Obviously(to us, that is)model aircraft have not been the threat that’s made national media but as long as FPV and drone flying is promoted by the AMA, our flying will be regulated just the same. I’ve said it all along that FPV and drone flying should have been treated as a completely different entity with its own advocacy, flying rules and flying locations. The AMA is now in danger of losing membership because of the delusional idea that they could control the behavior of many drone operators who routinely break the law. That obviously doesn’t go for all drone operators, but it does describe too many of them. The people who break the law couldn’t care less about our hobby or the AMA. I refuse to believe the AMA was naive. Instead they let the delusionment of mass membership and representation dictate their decisions, which were terrible.

^^^^ This!!! ^^^^

The AMA could have used its influence in the early days of FPV but instead chose to ignore it. And when they finally decided to get involved they put money from a perceived larger membership ahead of common sense. Who could have guessed that people who refused to follow the rules in the first place would not join the organization the made those rules?

This all comes down to us getting lumped in with the aircraft with flight control and GPS hardware. AMA failed miserably by not drawing a thick black line early on between model airplane/helicopters and the GPS guided semiautonomous aircraft MR/AP platforms.

And now we pay the price for that. Actual model airplanes are not, and never have been the problem. MR "pilots" who decided to fly anywhere they felt like it in any manner that seemed "fun" to them ARE the problem. So we get screwed because of those rogue pilots and AMA's failure to differentiate between the two for the public and lawmakers.

It was fun while it lasted.

Originally Posted by Silent-AV8R

This all comes down to us getting lumped in with the aircraft with flight control and GPS hardware. AMA failed miserably by not drawing a thick black line early on between model airplane/helicopters and the GPS guided semiautonomous aircraft MR/AP platforms.

And now we pay the price for that. Actual model airplanes are not, and never have been the problem. MR "pilots" who decided to fly anywhere they felt like it in any manner that seemed "fun" to them ARE the problem. So we get screwed because of those rogue pilots and AMA's failure to differentiate between the two for the public and lawmakers.

It was fun while it lasted.

Spot on. I guess I try to maintain optimism that perhaps things can eventually come full circle and there will be CLEAR distinguishing language between FPV and drone flying and strictly line of sight model aircraft. Now that the AMA got us into this problem(and I firmly believe they did), members have to lean on them hard to help get us relief. I know that’s a difficult and challenging task however one has to ask what else would the AMA be good for if they can’t work towards this goal?

looks like Influence = 0

The survival of the AMA will be if they can make some sort of deal with the FAA on the 400' problem. They need to separate drone rules from traditional model airplane rules.

.

Originally Posted by RC Man

looks like Influence = 0

The survival of the AMA will be if they can make some sort of deal with the FAA on the 400' problem. They need to separate drone rules from traditional model airplane rules.

.

Precisely

Originally Posted by franklin_m

AMA had so much “influence” that:

Voting FOR HR302:
- Congressman in which AMA HQ resides
- 8 of 9 Indiana Congressmen (1 didn’t vote at all)
- Mark Sanford (of famous AMA amendment)
- & pretty much everyone else in Congress

Voting for cloture today in the Senate:
- Both Indiana Senators
- Senator Inhofe

I'm still amazed at how bitter you are toward the AMA. Thinking that they could have done more is such wishful dreaming. The AMA did it's best to bring the outlaw drone operators into the fold and educate them....but that was a futile effort. Too many bad actors brought down the fed's on us all.

I'm sure you believe that if only you were in charge of the AMA (or whatever other organization you might imagine) that you would have done so much more...influenced powerful politicians; brought order to chaos in the ranks of the outlaw flyers; and prevented the FAA from following it's mandate.

After you succeed in destroying the AMA I'm sure you will step up and provide a better option.

I'm sure you believe that if only you were in charge of the AMA (or whatever other organization you might imagine) that you would have done so much more...influenced powerful politicians; brought order to chaos in the ranks of the outlaw flyers; and prevented the FAA from following it's mandate.

radfordc, it's called narcissism.

extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one's own talents and a craving for admiration, as characterizing a personality type.

Originally Posted by franklin_m

AMA had so much “influence” that:

Voting FOR HR302:
- Congressman in which AMA HQ resides
- 8 of 9 Indiana Congressmen (1 didn’t vote at all)
- Mark Sanford (of famous AMA amendment)
- & pretty much everyone else in Congress

Voting for cloture today in the Senate:
- Both Indiana Senators
- Senator Inhofe

It sure didn't help to have a shill for the commercial drone businesses doing the best he could to promote over-regulation of the hobby and to repeatedly badmouth the ONLY organization with any hope of advocating for the hobby. Someone with over 1,300 "I hate AMA" posts in this forum.

i'll say it here, like done elsewhere...
the time for whining and crying is over, now is the time to either live with what we got and learn how to make it work, or to find something else to play with.

i choose to live with it and learn how to make it work.

Originally Posted by franklin_m

AMA had so much “influence” that:

Voting FOR HR302:
- Congressman in which AMA HQ resides
- 8 of 9 Indiana Congressmen (1 didn’t vote at all)
- Mark Sanford (of famous AMA amendment)
- & pretty much everyone else in Congress

Voting for cloture today in the Senate:
- Both Indiana Senators
- Senator Inhofe

From AMA response "In the meantime, we are already working behind-the-scenes to minimize the impact of this bill,,, '

Seems to me their behind-the-scenes shenanigans are what got us into this regulatory mess. Time for for some transparency to the members, if AMA's time isn't up. They might even try to listen to to the members, if they are going to continue with the charade of being a voice for us.

Whatever the AMA didn't do, no other people or organizations did much either to convince their legislators not to impose these requirements. Whatever the AMA did or didn't do in the past is in the rear view mirror. What is the purpose of crying over split milk? Don't like the AMA then don't join the organization. Simple.

Actually, except for the 400' thing, not much changes from the way it is now under 336. I think the testing requirement is probably not a bad thing either.

It could be a lot worse.

no rogues tho', all hobbyists are 'dronesystem' operators

Originally Posted by u2builder

Whatever the AMA didn't do, no other people or organizations did much either to convince their legislators not to impose these requirements. Whatever the AMA did or didn't do in the past is in the rear view mirror. What is the purpose of crying over split milk? Don't like the AMA then don't join the organization. Simple.

Actually, except for the 400' thing, not much changes from the way it is now under 336. I think the testing requirement is probably not a bad thing either.

It could be a lot worse.

Many that don't like AMA don't join - probably in excess of 90% of folks flying sUAS (which includes model airplanes) have exercised that freedom. Therein is AMA's real agenda for pushing 336, to force membership on the unwilling majority. If only folks that do like AMA joined, the AMA membership would be a fraction of its size. Many, possibly most, joined because an AMA chartered club is the only place in their locality where they can fly, and AMA requires all chartered members to be AMA members. Simple indeed.