Exactly. I am not sure why some of us think that everyone should want to fly CL Stunt (or whatever) and would, if only we presented it properly. And since they don't we are doing something wrong that has to be corrected.
An example from my youth - when I was a kid, every drugstore, department store, even convenience stores, had two toy aisles, one for girls and one for boys. The girl's aisle had more-or-less what you would expect, Barbies and other dolls, games, etc. The boys aisle had one side with balls/bats/gloves and army guys. The other side was models, mostly plastic models but usually a few Comet or Guillows, a pretty complete set of rockets (either Estes or Centuri but never both) with a Testor's glue and paint rack at one end. Virtually every single example was like this, and if it wasn't, no one went there. We would shake birthday and Christmas presents, and separated the ones that sounded like plastic parts from the others, like socks or a shirt, or God forbid, a book. Virtually everyone I knew was the same way, and those who didn't were the extreme minority. There were car guys, airplane guys, and rocket guys, but you were one of those or you were very strange.
Go into, say, Target today. The balls/gloves/bats are still there, the army guys and stuff like that is usually still there, but you will not find anything like a model, glue, paint, of any kind. This was true *long* before the internet, so don't blame that. KIDS DO NOT BUILD MODELS ANY MORE, and that is not a defect or a flaw with society. Those kids from 25 years ago are grown up, and THEY DON'T BUILD MODELS ANY MORE, either, and that is also not a defect or flaw.
That's why changing it in a vain attempt to appeal to these target audiences doesn't make any sense. There are a decent number of people who like it the way it is, and they are more-or-less going to keep doing it until they can't any more. There is no evidence that altering the rules/events/conditions will attract anyone else, and in many cases it will drive away the truly dedicated. Maybe we are dying, and maybe we aren't, but trying to invoke radical changes (like the strange FAI rule change suggestions) to stave off the inevitable is almost certainly not going to change the end result.
I would also note that people have had the same observation - the event is doomed, where are all the juniors, how do we drum up more fliers - for as long as I have been doing this, 45+ years. And if you read histories like "Do you speak model airplane?", the same thing with the same predictions was going on *in the 30s*. That's the 1930's, *85 years ago*. So we have been a "dying hobby" for almost a century.
Brett
Everything that Brett says is true and I have been telling people for a long time. Whenever the subject of new blood comes up in our club,it usually revolves around kids. It has been,"get kids involved" for decades. I say that in this day and age, we need to go after the 20 and 30 somethings out there. They have grown up, matured and have a more open mind as to what is neat and cool. They have the bank account and the minivan/SUV to get out to the field to fly whatever. If you get those guys, you stand a chance to get the kids. L have stood in the center of a circle at KidVenture and flown thousands of kids and adults, and it is the adults that always want to talk afterwards and ask questions. I believe the internet will help preserve and archive some stuff and we have seen here on these forums how much it can flatten out the learning curve. Like Brett says, read "Do You Speak Model Airplane by Dave Thornburg. This is not a new problem and will always be a problem. I have read it in letters to the editor of the model mags going all the way back to the late thirties. I have sat with friends for countless hours at mall shows and other demonstrations and displays and long ago came to the conclusion that you can't 'make" someone interested in a hobby or past time. They have to have that certain thing in their DNA that sparks their interest. There will always be that kind of person around, but will be harder to find, so we just have to keep putting the hobby out there for them to see, and keep posting videos to where ever and make as much contact information available as possible. Ane like Paul Walker mentions, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing for as long and I can stand and/or glue a few pieces of wood together to create a flying machine.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: Name Change? (Read 6602 times)
