Contest Attendance.

[Mike Griffin]

I have a question about attendance at contests for those of you who regularly attend and compete in contests.  Have you found that the number of people competing has increased, remained about the same or decreased over the past few years?

Mike

[Dave_Trible]

Definitely in decline,  at least in the middle part of the country.   Actually a number of the contests have simply gone away due to aging out or death of those who ran them and declining attendance.   We are traveling greater distances to fewer contests.   Many locals simply don't have enough fliers who can put on a contest any longer.  That is partly why it is even more important to maintain things like the Nats and participation in the FAI team programs for as long as we can.

Dave

[Paul Walker]

Declining  on the west coast as well.
It won't be long.....until....nothing but fun flys...

[Jim Hoffman]

Here are the recent Vintage Stunt Championships (VSC) records
2021 was cancelled due to Covid

I cannot emphasize what Paul said more emphatically.  If people don’t show up to participate and help, contests will stop happening.
A lack of volunteers who are ready, willing and able is also a huge difficulty.


Jim Hoffman

[Ken Culbertson]

That will be a sad day but ultimately true.  Especially the part about most of the local fliers having to run the contests and therefore not fly.  Our club did something a few years ago that I think is worth perusing.  Many of us are married to our best critic.  It takes very little training for them to make outstanding judges.  Others too, like beginners, brothers and sisters that have no desire to actually fly could have that spark of interest to be a judge.  At the local level it is mostly just fun and simply getting the fliers in the right order is enough.  We need our top talent flying, setting the standard for us bottom feeders to aspire to, not being judged by them.  Leave the "Best of the Best" judging for the NATs.  Just one man's opinion.

Ken

[Dan McEntee]

  I just went to the Tulsa contest at the end of September and that one was the first contest I have flown at in about 3 years. None of the contests I have been flying all these years, especially in the early to mid years I have been flying stunt, are held anymore. The Lafayette Esquadrille Broken Arrow is the last one left, and attendance can be anywhere from 0 to 4 or 5, and for the last several years, I have not flown at all.  It's a 6 to 8 hour drive to the few events that are left and I'll bet it's a similar situation. Tulsa's attendance seemed to be down from what I remember reading. Attendance is directly related to club membership numbers. If there is no one or not enough personnel to run it, it's just not worth putting on a bad contest, I think. The cost of attending has gone up as many of us get on the "fixed income" rolls and that is a big factor. It's just a matter of pure attrition. But I ain't quittin' ! Not as long as I have someone to fly with. I still love flying patterns.
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee
   

[Jim Svitko]

Definitely declining attendance.  We are getting older, not many of us left.  I don't see anyone coming in to replace those no longer with us.  I give it a few more years and local contests will be over.

In addition, hobby shops are closing.  The last one near me shut down after the owner passed away.  I doubt if anyone will re-open it.

It probably does not matter that much since hardly anyone builds anymore.  And, it is not confined to CL.  Just about everything at the RC side of our site is an ARF or RTF foamie.

[Brent Williams]

The Vegas contest has been gaining steam the past few years. 

[Dan McEntee]

The Vegas contest has been gaining steam the past few years.

    It's definitely regional and geographical but limited in scope. People retired and moved to be able to have better flying weather. The Dallas area clubs benefited from that trend and so did Tucson but now time is catching up. How much of the Vegas growth is due to people relocating there?
 Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Brent Williams]

   How much of the Vegas growth is due to people relocating there?
 Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

Probaby none, actually.  Attendees are traveling there from all over the western and central US and coming down from Canada.

[Rusty]

Definitely declining attendance.  We are getting older, not many of us left.  I don't see anyone coming in to replace those no longer with us.  I give it a few more years and local contests will be over.

In addition, hobby shops are closing.  The last one near me shut down after the owner passed away.  I doubt if anyone will re-open it.

It probably does not matter that much since hardly anyone builds anymore.  And, it is not confined to CL.  Just about everything at the RC side of our site is an ARF or RTF foamie.

I think that is a key reason for the decline in "real" modelers.  Several held the line until death.   One owner opened the store even though he was on 24 hr oxygen and wearing a diaper.   He opened it in the 50's.   Another ran his until he was unable to come in at all and his wife ran it up to year after he died.   I am in 2 clubs with a combined membership of over 300 people.  Out of those I know of 3 people, including myself that build their models.   

I am thankful for guys like Bob Whitney, who doesn't hoard estate collections and gets the stuff to people who will use it.  When I met him at McDonald's on his way to KOI, I was happy even though he didn't give an order of fries with my model stuff. 

[Ken Culbertson]

I went on the PAMPA site and looked at the contest results from the late 70's forward through the 80's better known as the "Golden Years".  This was my observation, and it is probably wrong, but here goes.  Attendance at contests was about the same as it is now, there just were more of them.  There were more Juniors and Seniors but, except for the Nats they seemed to drop off pretty fast.  It is as if were a group created in the 50's and 60's and we have been traveling through the sport and age groups together, adding a few, losing a few.  My own personal sphere of fliers in both number and proficiency is actually larger now than it was in 1980 but the difference is that there were more spheres.  I can't make as many contests now but they are just as big.  The scope has changed.  The big Regional AAA Meets have all gone. 

My opinion, for what it is worth, is that we may be a much smaller group in total but for the great satisfaction that the hobby brings we are just as robust as we were 60 years ago within our local spheres - and flying the same pattern for reasons unknown.   So what if the next generations choose some different "Trivial Persuit" to occupy their free time.  We won't be around to tell them how nearsighted they are.  So what if there is only one contests each weekend where there used to be three to choose from, you could only go to one of them anyway.  Don't worry about the "decline", none of us will be alive to see the last name added to the Walker Cup.

Well, that's my opinion and I could be wrong - Ken

[Dave_Trible]

Ken I believe you right in what you believe about our group of people.   Most of us came out of the first generation after the 'Greatest Generation'.   Our fathers were growing up in the golden age of aviation with the wonderment and fascination that allured many in a much simpler time-less computers and very little television.  Rapid advancements in aviation during the war years and the many hundreds of thousands who involved in some manner gave rise to model airplanes as a sport and hobby after the war and much of that got passed on to our generation,  although to an already declining degree.  I graduated from a large class or 714 kids.  Of that I knew of only only two who were actually involved with model airplanes in 1972-73.  In the city overall there were quite a few but spread thinly over a great distance.  Most of the kids had had at least a bit of exposure to the hobby with a Cox plastic airplane or other 1/2A at some point but the game for them was over after the first crash.
I am growing more doubtful that any of my grandkids will take up the hobby seriously no matter what kind of a head start I might might give them.  I'm kind of down to the last one who might grow into it (of four).   Each generation has a 'thing'.   Our father's and a very few of ours found model airplanes.   There was something else before and will be something else now and going forward.  You can start a kid now but in most cases it's to appease 'dad', like playing sports they aren't really interested in.
I do hope we make all efforts to keep at least our few premier events going.   Given current situations I'd honestly be surprised if we will even have a CLPA Nats past the next five or six years.  Reason-volunteers to run it.   We will have some fliers for a while but most of those who step up to help run the event are now in their 70s to mid 80s.  They come back every year but can only do that so long.  As Paul suggested above,  It could well be just a fun fly pretty soon.   Might even happen at some local club field eventually if AMA drops us for lack of participation.   My only suggestion:  If you can please step up,  come out of hibernation and come raise your hand to help!

Dave

[Steve Helmick]

Definitely, contest attendance is down. NW CL Regionals is hanging on fairly well, I think, because it's one of the few contest sites that allows for all the combat, racing and speed events. All our smaller stunt contests have pretty poor turnouts, but like most old clubs, we can afford to lose money, and guys like Howard and Randy Ling crank out really cool trophies on their laser engravers and all that high tech stuff they wanted.

At 79 years old with Neuropathy, I'm barely able to fly, but am still doing what I can to help with the contest chores. I had to beg off of going to the Fall Fallies because my left knee is Tango Utah and fading fast. I'm due for a Bionic replacement next Tuesday morning, and looking forward to it.  "The $6 Man"

[Dan Berry]

Contest attendance has declined in the last eight or so years.
I also fly Free Flight and have seen the same thing at FF meets.

I believe there are several contributing factors -- guys are getting old, there isn't any appreciable youth filling the void left by the old guys who are gone or cannot do it anymore.
Being able to watch the weather and avoid spending money to watch it rain or blow has an effect.
The cost of a room and meals away from home has gotten rather stupid in the last four years. Add to that the fact the when you get home you find that your house and car insurance went up again along with your utilities means that you cannot afford to go fly toy airplanes as often as you did in the past.

[Colin McRae]

To me the root cause is the next generation just really isn't interested in this wonderful CL hobby. Unless we have newcomers, there won't be anyone in the future to get involved in contests.

RC has just taken over. Case in point. Our RC/CL club does have a few youngsters flying RC buy-n-fly foamys. No real interest in building. Our club CL group has a few very basic CL trainers for anyone who wants to try CL out. The interested youngsters try a flight or two, and if a crash occurs, we fix the model. A few youngsters have done a few CL laps, but then just return to RC and we never see them again. Just not interested. Sad state of affairs. But we keep offering!

[Ty Marcucci]

Old age for sure, plus 4 of our club members have died.  Just scroll down to the birthday section.. Very few under 50..Also the price of gas and motel price increases and driving alone has stopped me from attending.. Most are 500 plus miles one way.  Try that at age 83..Lots of pit stops..