And why did the FAA close all flying sites in the DC SFRA last week? Keep asking why to each answer stepping backwards and you'll get to the root cause which in this case is the fatal strategic decision the AMA made 3 years ago to be inclusive of drones. Politics, irrespective of your views, do play a contributing role in this situation with contradictory positions being taken by Congress vs the FAA. And the AMA lacked the strategic IQ to see this coming (200,000 members AMA with $15M annual revenue compared to 1.5M drone users and a $1.5B drone "hobby" industry that is has a CAGR 10X that of the AMA). There is no benefit to anyone in registering before 2/19 (besides saving $5 bucks, wow) so its worth waiting to see if anything transpires with efforts to use our AMA numbers/membership for FAA registration that will be a low probabilty of happening IMHO. By 2/19, I'll be regisering with FAA if the AMA is unsuccessful. So, lets all use a little strategic forsight to see what our world will look like in the next 5-10 years.......
1) AMA will not exist in its current form anf function. They have and will continue to allienate their base membership with their inclusive strategy.
2) FAA registration will be the new normal with increasing stringency/regulation over time as youtube videos will continue of the worlds bottom of the barrel IQ'ers showing the world how cool it is to fly their drones in the clouds, over stadiums, over skiers, blah, blah, blah.
3) A new insurance business opportunity will emerge for the formation of a new community based organization that is exclusive of 'drones - ie. having BLOS technology/capability' as an alternative to whatever the AMA becomes OR the home owner insurance industray will create an extended coverage insurance product (if the market is big enough which is probably not the case) that we can all select
Swami VotecYakGuy out....