Kevin, WHAT work with the FAA has Dave Brown done? In his August article - (which should be required reading for ALL soaring enthusiasts) he tells of his trip to the FAA; a meeting in which he said he was shocked to discover that pilots regularly flew models higher than 400 feet! Reminds me of Captain Renault from Cassablanca:
Rick : How can you close me up? On what grounds? Captain Renault : I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money] Croupier : Your winnings, sir. Captain Renault : [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much. Dave Brown participated in a record autonomous flight - then prohibited autonomous flight with an AMA safety rule! He has intervened to prevent new world records by at least 2 pilots I know by refusing to sanction flights into class A airspace or refusing record applications. He has NOT worked with the FAA in this area and he has left it up to the pilots to fight HIS fight with the FAA while he waits on the sidelines (sound familiar). We deserve better. Mark -----Original Message----- From: Kevin Sheen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 8:05 AM To: Barry Andersen; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [RCSE] Security issues and R/C models-keep politics off the exchange While I agree with Barry's premise that partisan politics (while at the same time sheepishly admitting to contributing to it in the past) are best discussed elsewhere, it would be foolish of us to ignore the effect of lobbying efforts in our represented republic. All three of the AMA presidential candidates mention working with various governmental organizations in their election statements. While Dave Brown's work with the FAA is important I think that all three of them might be neglecting the source of some of the more recent temporary flight restrictions (another debate in itself), that being Homeland Security. Large companies, organizations and other groups all hire lobbyists to ensure their interests are fairly represented in Washington (yet another discussion, money in politics). I think the AMA needs to not only continue the efforts they have made recently with the FAA and others, they also need to expand it to keep us out of the limelight and keep those who might be crafting legislation educated about our activities. I think this effort is truly non-partisan since it effects us all. This is just a curiosity question since I don't know much about the AMA at the president and AVP level (the executive counsil): Do the SIG presidents, TK and Jack before him, have much input in the AMA? My guess is they don't since they aren't included in the EC. One last item since I don't post much, did I miss the annual PETA v. KoB (Killers-of-Bambie) thread with obligatory soaring content of course? Kevin ******************************************************************************** This message is intended only for the use of the Addressee and may contain information that is PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please erase all copies of the message and its attachments and notify Space Imaging immediately. ******************************************************************************** RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
