A Return to Control Line?

[Mike Griffin]

I have noticed lately on some of the facebook pages, remarks by some RC fliers saying they have had it with the restrictions being placed on them and have taken up CL again.  Maybe this will help a little to get our numbers back up some. 

Mike

[john e. holliday]

Especially when they learn how to use a stooge.

[FLOYD CARTER]

I have always looked at R/C as a temporary hobby for many modelers.  After learning how to zoom back and forth down the runway, and doing non-aviation maneuvers (read: 3-d), they get tired of the whole boring routine. 

At least, that's what happened to me.

[Brett Buck]

I have always looked at R/C as a temporary hobby for many modelers.  After learning how to zoom back and forth down the runway, and doing non-aviation maneuvers (read: 3-d), they get tired of the whole boring routine. 

At least, that's what happened to me.

    That's what the vast, vast majority of the RC sport fliers find. There are a huge number of them, but there is also a constant turnover. The number of people approaching RC the way we do, or FF fliers do (or at least as a lifetime craft/hobby) is a microscopic fraction of the total. If you took the AMA membership of maybe 250,000, took out the drone idiots and RC Sport fliers (the constant turnover types), and sport FF and sport CL, you might find that there are as few as maybe 15,000 total, maybe 10,000 RC modelers, and the other 5000 split up between FF and CL. Everybody else is in a semi-continuous churn of guys who go for a few months-years, then go do something else.

   That's *why* the AMA turned itself into "ARFs 'R Us", the advertising market is dominated by these toss-together systems where you have to know nearly nothing about what you are going to get into the air, quick. It requires continuous "churn".

     There's nothing terribly wrong with that - who am I to say they are "enjoying themselves wrong"? -  but it's basically an adult toy industry, not modeling the way we would normally understand it.

   What I think is likely to happen is that these RC sport fliers are going to, pretty quickly, disappear, and not end up in *any* form of modeling, because they will not want to go to the bother of following the requirements. Some of the "serious" RC types might shift to CL. It wouldn't take many of them to significantly increase our numbers, but the RC sport fliers will likely just be gone entirely.

      Brett

[L0U CRANE]

Doc,
 
I think I told you long ago, my wife used to launch for me...

At a contest, someone mentioned making a stooge so he could fly alone. Penny heard it. She said, "So, that's what I've been..."

The stooge I then built works well. (We're still together, almost 55 years, and happy.)
 

\LOU

[Jim Kraft]

My wife started out as a stooge back in the 60's then graduated to a call girl from 68 to 94 during my R/C pattern days, then she reverted back to a stooge again. You know you have a keeper when they will hold a snarling Anderson Spitfire ship. We celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary last June first. I am so blessed.

[Steve Dwyer]

It is uncertain if CL activity will grow due to fall out from the RC world. Bret makes some good points but only time will tell. I fly at two RC fields where the clubs have been gracious to let us use vacant areas to fly control line. Occasionally an RC flyer will visit us, we often let them fly our models. Many are old-time guys that started in CL eons ago and many have never built anything and seem to enjoy their ARFs.

There are about 6 of us that meet depending on which field we are at. All are builders and most are RC flyers that have lost interest. We exchange experiences, building tips, plans, modeling articles and we closely follow each other's flying critiquing and joking following the landings. Someone is always bringing a model he built half a century ago. I think this is what we enjoy most, the sharing and camaraderie of hanging out together, some are excellent competitive flyers and builders. For me, it is a chance to walk in the past to something I have never stopped enjoying. I can't say what draws the RC guy back, I know some do build but from where I see the majority open the mail order box, go to the field, drop the model on the ground, fly and often simply go home without any contact with others. "Churn and burn" that's easy to lose interest.

We will continue to have fun and we welcome anyone that wants to join us.

Steve

[Chris McMillin]

RC comments,
When I started flying RC I noticed that how I was being taught was much like the old pattern flying where one turned around and then did an aerobatic maneuver in front of themselves, reverse, do the same. Then I started flying Classic pattern and AMA Pattern "in a box" too. Fun, and it makes flying EDF jets and Scale models more fun because when you do vertical reversals and huge loops and ballistic rolls with these type models people start to see the difference between that jerky-jerky stuff and real airplane stuff. There are even periods where guys will wait until I finish flying to fly so they can watch and I can use the runway as show center.

It's fun, I don't fly RC as often as when my son and I were doing it but I'm relatively active. The mad thrash around the traffic pattern has no appeal to me and one time I was told not to fly the way I was by a very poor flyer but club Safety Officer, so I just started showing up at noon when the wind was up and all of those types are long gone!

Our club has it's core modelers and then the come and go guys. The foam jets and Scale ships are universally liked and fly well because of the evolution of design by several quality manufacturers. Typically I have a couple of glass and foam Pattern ships, balsa ARFs and some foam ARFs to fly and one electric only field over by Whitely's make the Park Zone/E-Flite T-28 the typical choice.

Chris...

[Steve Helmick]

I heard that R/C clubs generally take a real dim view of folks doing high speed inverted passes at 4' over the runway. Much above that, and the FAA has a dim view, so what's the point?  Steve

[Ara Dedekian]

My wife started out as a stooge back in the 60's then graduated to a call girl from 68 to 94 during my R/C pattern days, then she reverted back to a stooge again. You know you have a keeper when they will hold a snarling Anderson Spitfire ship. We celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary last June first. I am so blessed.

      Shortly after getting married I took my wife to the 1974 Aerolympics in Lakehurst N.J. Her comment was, "what's a model airplane?" Her comment afterwards was, "Don't EVER bring me to one of these again! You go, say 'Hello' to your friends for me, stay as long as you have to, . . . ". We're going on 46 years.

     Ara