President's Perspective

AMA President Bob Brown	FAA issues continue to consume a great deal of effort from the Academy’s leadership. Rich Hanson, Mitch Rose, and I met with four groups in Congress. These individuals included staff from the Senate Appropriations, the Senate Aviation Staff, the House Aviation Staff, and Senator James Inhofe (Oklahoma). The highlight of the meetings was to present Senator Inhofe a plaque, thanking him for his amendment to the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. His efforts certainly provided attention and support for model aviation in our endeavors with the FAA. The congressional discussions illustrated the impact of last year’s letter-writing campaign. I heard several people comment that they did not realize the passion our members had in support of our hobby. At no time during the discussions were negative views expressed. We certainly have friends in Congress.
FAI Program For the past several months, I have been focused on my attempt to satisfy the AMA Executive Council’s desire to reduce the expense of our FAI program. I attended the National Aeronautic Association’s (NAA) board meeting and a meeting of the various air sport groups in the United States. It became evident that the Academy is not the only group dissatisfied with the direction of the FAI. Monetary issues were dominant, but also included was a Eurocentric attitude, lack of desire to eliminate competition classes of little interest, and failure to recognize the need for activity outside the world of competition. NAA president, Jonathan Gaffney, responded to the issues and will produce a plan of action. Those within the Academy should realize that we are attempting to resolve this situation in a positive, constructive manner. I do not think any council member wants the AMA to isolate itself from the rest of the aeromodeling world. National Electric Fly-In The National Electric Fly-In, held June 15-17, was a success and my thanks go to CD Jay Smith, AMA Headquarters staff, and the many volunteers. More than 100 pilots enjoyed the event. Kevin Hines and Mark Murdock provided an informative introduction to first-person view (FPV) to everyone who was interested. Dave Mathewson and I enthusiastically flew their FPV models with much enjoyment. AMA Has developed FPV guidelines, which are available on our website at www.modelaircraft.org/files/550.pdf. Interest in this facet of model aviation is growing at a fast rate. Why not give it a try? Bob Brown AMA Executive Vice President [email protected]