AMA - FAA Watch
Lastest Update Info Regarding Upcoming
Proposed AMA / FAA Rules & Regs Meetings
Now is the time to let your voice be heard!
"Ramping up the FAA Initiative" - Our Dist. VIII VP, Jim Rice has good advice about
the pending (and ongoing) FAA Rule & Regs situation.... (read more)
| Sen. James Inhofe, OK, successfully sponsored S.223 in the Senate yesterday with an amendment specifying a "Special Rule For Model Aircraft"... (read more) |
|
Gentlemen,
I am your new Associate VP for Oklahoma. The AMA leadership and our lobbyist have been working furiously to represent the 140,000 members of the AMA. Our own Dist. VIII VP Jim Rice has played a key role on this committee to voice our concern. Jim just recently provided the Dist. VIII AVP's the most up-to-date summary of the AMA / FAA meetings for us to share within our specific region. Right now the most troubling issue is not knowing the exact language of the FAA's proposed rules. Therefore, the AMA and the membership must prepare for the official document from the FAA of the proposed rules which should come out June 2011. There will be a window of time to review and submit our concerns officially to the FAA. By law, the FAA must respond to each inquiry. Following this process, the FAA will refine the rules with a proposed implementation date in 2013. AMA Leader Member (LM), Rich Richardson, is right on encouraging each of you to keep informed on this issue. This is the most important mission of the AMA in its 75 years of existence. I will do my best to keep you updated on this issue and provide the course of action when the APPROPRIATE time nears. I will be happy to attend one of your club meetings to discuss this issue in more detail this spring. I guarantee you that our voices will be heard to save this great hobby and I'm optimistic we will prevail. Please feel free to e-mail or call me if I can assist you or your club in any way. Regards, Bill Holland District VIII AVP - Oklahoma (405) 626-1386 Thanks Bill, You have hit the nail squarely on the head..!! The future of model aviation as we know it hinges on the outcome of our negotiations and other efforts. I take this responsibility seriously and face it head on. I am sick to death of the past 2 years of tedious work to seemingly be going almost nowhere. But I cannot step away from this most important matter, probably the most important issue that has faced us in the 75 years of our existence! The quotes in the message from Aero-News Network (ANN) are dated and do not reflect the current feelings of Dave Mathewson, Rich Hanson or me. The documents are on the Gov/Rel page on our website and were written back in late October, early November during a low point in our discussions with the Unmanned Aircraft Project Office (UAPO) - right after a particularly unproductive and troubling meeting in DC at FAA on September 29th. They were created for Mitch Rose (AMA's Lobbyist) to use as handouts when approaching Congressional offices. Some of the concerns in those documents have been resolved. Chris Brooks, AMA's Public Relations Officer, has contacted ANN trying to see if he can make a statement on this posting to be published as an expanation. He thinks they'll be reluctant to post a correction. We've now dated those documents on the webpage and any future statements like this will be time stamped right in the document. Below is a cut and paste from a recent e-mail I shared with an LM, AVP and friend from another district. Hope it helps update you on the situation. Jim Rice AMA, District VIII Vice President National Safety Committee Chair The March issue of MA will be stuffed with FAA stories. Be sure to read it and be prepared at that time to take any actions you feel are appropriate. We, AMA leadership and the FAA Workgroup chaired by Rich Hanson, of which I am also a member, are convinced that we are right. We believe we are on the road to convincing the FAA that we are right and, in fact the main FAA guy we are working with, is a modeler of 35 years and he has said; "we gotta get this right!" He also said when we see the rule(s) we are gonna be shocked..!! That is why the standards that we are developing which allow modelers following a community based organization safety program to fly beyond the limits of the regulation are important. He also said that while he is involved with the rule, he didn't write it and he already has pages of comments to submit, as a private citizen, when the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) is out for public comment. He expects the NPRM to be out in late summer with a 120 day comment period and they expect over a million comments from both the commercial and public use side as well as the hobby side of the rule. In that respect, the Executive Committee (EC) under Dave Mathewson's leadership, has developed a second tier approach. We do not want to abandon nor do we believe we will fail in the negotiations that are ongoing but we need to begin to play the proper cards at the proper time as the NPRM comes to the attention of the general public and our elected officials. That time is nearing according to AMA's Washington Representative (Lobbyist) Mitch Rose. We will be opening a section on our web site so that you can enter your zip and get the names and addresses of your Congressmen and Women and will provide a 'boiler plate' letter for the membership to copy or modify as they communicate with them. I plan to have relatives and friends that don't even fly send letters in as well. Maybe we can get close to his million comments just from the modeling community. But the timing is critical. Too early and they aren't really sure what you are ringing their bell about, and too late, then we are behind the power curve in getting the action done in parallel with our ongoing negotiations and the NPRM. We had a 2 day face to face for 8 hours each day at the AMA Expo in California in Jan... plus some before and after meetings giving us nearly 30 hours that week with the FAA plus they addressed our membership with Dave at the show. They are on our weekly phonecon about half of the time as well. We have another face to face with the FAA in March at my place in San Antonio then they (FAA) are planning another in Muncie in April just preceeding the April EC meeting which they will also attend. Neither the Unmanned Aircraft Project Office (UAPO) of FAA nor the AMA are slacking off on this. I would guess that our work group has in excess of 5,000 man hours invested in it with a couple of PHD modelers, Rich Hanson with 15+ years experience on the EC, a couple of world class Sailplane guys who stand to be seriously affected, a turbine pilot and Large Model Aircraft Inspector, a couple of other really bright guys and me... a member of the EC and the National Safety Chair. We don't plan to lose... but win or lose, you can bet your backside the $58 spent on AMA dues this year was well spent. Wring your hands, say your prayers, read your MA when it comes in and send your letters when it is appropriate. FAA and Congress need to know we are here and we are looking for as close to 'status quo' as possible. Dave's guidance is; "no modeler or modeling discipline left behind". Jim Rice AMA, District VIII Vice President National Safety Committee Chair |
