{"id":102,"date":"2016-08-15T18:28:36","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T18:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/?p=102"},"modified":"2016-09-22T18:34:27","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T18:34:27","slug":"ama-district-v-news-september-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/2016\/08\/15\/ama-district-v-news-september-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"AMA District V News September 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back<\/span>!<\/strong> When I show up at\u00a0events, I\u2019m often greeted as \u201csomeone\u00a0from the AMA,\u201d as if that makes me\u00a0special. The truth is, I\u2019m merely a\u00a0modeler who chose to get involved.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re reading this, I encourage\u00a0you to get involved. Volunteer to be a\u00a0club officer. Become an AMA Contest\u00a0Director (CD) or attain the new Event\u00a0Director designation. Run an event. Find\u00a0a way to volunteer and help out.\u00a0I understand that many people simply\u00a0want a place to hang out, fly, then go\u00a0home, or go to an event to see their\u00a0friends. Remember that those places\u00a0and events were built on the backs of\u00a0people who chose to get involved. Help\u00a0them out. Trust me, they will appreciate\u00a0spreading the workload and be more\u00a0than happy to share the accolades. I\u00a0found out a long time ago that the more\u00a0you put into something, the more you\u00a0will get out of it!<\/p>\n

An event that runs for five or six years is\u00a0usually doing pretty well, so how about\u00a0one that runs for 25 years? Our newest\u00a0District V Associate Vice President,\u00a0Scott Anderson, who makes his home\u00a0near Knoxville, Tennessee, sent me a\u00a0report from the Chattanooga Radio\u00a0Control Club.<\/p>\n

More than 25 years ago, Mickey\u00a0Walker, from Atlanta, was thinking\u00a0back to his early AMA Pattern days\u00a0and the good time he had with fellow\u00a0competitors flying single-pass maneuvers.<\/p>\n

To make a long story short, he got\u00a0together with his friends and said if they\u00a0can have a Senior PGA event, then why\u00a0not a Senior AMA Pattern event.\u00a0Originally, the intention was to\u00a0have pilots older than 45 fly singlepass\u00a0maneuvers with models designed\u00a0before 1970. The first Senior Pattern\u00a0Association (SPA) contest was held\u00a0in the Atlanta area 25 years ago in\u00a01991. The event was covered by Model\u00a0Aviation magazine in the February 1992\u00a0issue. SPA became an AMA Special\u00a0Interest Group.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The certificate presented by CD Scott Anderson to Mickey Walker commemorating the AMA Walk of Fame brick for the 25-year anniversary
of the SPA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mickey<\/a>
Mickey Walker with his SPA Pattern airplane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The idea was to keep things \u201csimple\u00a0and inexpensive,\u201d meaning simple balsa\u00a0and plywood models without tuned\u00a0pipes or retracts\u2014the way it was at the\u00a0beginning of AMA Pattern\u2019s \u201cgolden\u00a0days\u201d in the 1960s. Models flown by the\u00a0world\u2019s best pilots cost no more than the\u00a0airplanes flown by an average flier at the\u00a0field.<\/p>\n

A few of the rules have changed.\u00a0The 45-year-old rule didn\u2019t last long\u00a0because people of all ages wanted to\u00a0fly. The time window was extended to\u00a0models designed before January 1976,\u00a0and finally, four-stroke and electric\u00a0propulsion was added as a means to\u00a0address noise restrictions.\u00a0It turned out to be a good formula\u00a0because SPA just celebrated its 25th\u00a0<\/span>anniversary during this year\u2019s annual\u00a0Chattanooga contest. Many of the\u00a0original members still fly and were in\u00a0attendance. The event was held June\u00a011-12, 2016, at the Chattanooga Radio\u00a0Control Club flying site.<\/p>\n

Twenty pilots competed, braving\u00a0heat in the mid-90s. With shade\u00a0and invitations to share RVs with air\u00a0conditioning, we made it okay. The\u00a0contest finished Sunday after six rounds\u00a0and many raffle prizes were donated by\u00a0generous RC manufacturers and the local\u00a0Chattanooga Hobby Town.<\/p>\n

On Saturday evening, the Chattanooga\u00a0Radio Control Club members set up\u00a0a room at a local restaurant, and CD\u00a0Scott Anderson put together a digital\u00a0slideshow of past SPA events that ran on\u00a0the TV during the dinner and meeting.\u00a0The event was capped off with\u00a0a presentation by Scott to Mickey\u00a0Walker of a framed certificate and\u00a0commemorative brick for the walkway at\u00a0AMA Headquarters in Muncie, Indiana.\u00a0It was a fitting tribute to a man with a\u00a0simple vision a quarter century ago.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it for this month!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back! When I show up at\u00a0events, I\u2019m often greeted as \u201csomeone\u00a0from the AMA,\u201d as if that makes me\u00a0special. The truth is, I\u2019m merely a\u00a0modeler […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-district-v-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amadistrict-v\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}