Contests - Then and Now

[Crist Rigotti]

With the problem with Polk City and Sig announcing that their control line contest is cancelled, it got me thinking.  I've been flying control line now since 1999 and entering contests since 2000.  I started thinking of all the contests that I could attend, within a 5 hour drive back then and the number of contest that I could attend now.  Here is a list of them and the red ones are no longer being held.  They are in no particular order.

ICE-O-Lated - St. Louis MO
Polk City - IA
Omaha -NE
Chicago - IL
Fermilab - IL
Pewaukee - WI
Minneapolis - MN
SIG - IA
Rockford - IL
Treetown - IL
Peoria - IL
Broken Arrow - MO

5 out of twelve are no longer being held.  In all fairness to Rockford, that one still might be held.  But for right now, it is not scheduled.  That's a 42% decrease in control line contests here in the midwest within a 5 hour drive for me.  WOW!

[Douglas Ames]

Topeka, KS area has a club about 5-6 hrs from you and we - the Tulsa Glue Dobbers, are about 8 hrs.
We have one of the biggest events in the midwest every Sep.

[Dennis Leonhardi]

If that's upsetting, you don't wanna hear how much things have changed contest-wise since the '50s!


Dennis
 

"Change is the law of life.  And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F. Kennedy

[Allen Brickhaus]

The Western Kentucky/Southern Illinois in Paducah is August 17 and 18 this summer.

Allen

[EddyR]

The only contest I have withing 5 hours is Huntersville and it is only one hour but I work at it most of the time. This week end I flew on Saturday and it rained on me and it was the worst weather we have had in 10 years.It was not flyable Sunday but a couple of people took off and did a wing over and one person did the pattern sort of if you used a lot of emagination. Even Atlanta is six+ hours for me.
 Yes in the 50's I had at least 10 contest with in four hours. In the early 60's I would go to 10-15 FF contest. Get up early and fly by 9AM. Some of those contest were very small,that way I won a lot.
EddyR
 

[Hoss Cain]

Again as I have presented in other threads, the word "contest" is very not something that current folks like to hear. Even if some are ready to promote ball games and such, most folks under 50 years old are simply not receptive to "contest".
That is why I have been trying to get CL'ers to get into "Fun-Flys" and "Fly-Ins" especially in terminology. Minor competitive events can be had in such.

No matter the "Classes" the very slightly-lesser-than-God-like individuals that stroll around breathing on their fingernails and displaying their machines which are absolute works of art - really - will greatly intimidate those of us that definitely do NOT have either the desire, the ability, or any such form. So we don't even try.

For those that do have the desire, then my wishes are definitely with you to really enjoy the tasks before you. OTOH try to find some time to persuade the masses that they too can be up there on the platform. Competition in today's toy airplane world is as in any case, just an attraction to the FEW. Playing football, tennis, or all those such things are fun when a bunch of friends are together having FUN. You folks that CAN need to make up some FUN-FLY games for those that just might be there to enjoy.

[Jim Thomerson]

I think, if you go back to the '70s and '80s, there may have been more contests, but there were many that were smaller than in recent history.  I think having skill classes in stunt has been a major factor in keeping stunt alive.  It means that one can go have fun flying with one's peers, rather than wondering how many points you will be down from the world champ.  One thing different about stunt contests, as I recall,  In the '70s and '80s, we would have contests with no or very few Expert entrants.  Today, Expert is often the largest class. 

The idea of selling CL as fun, at least calling contests fun flies, deserves some thought.   

[Randy Powell]

I was counting ours up and they've actually stayed the same. We lost a site so one moved to a new site, but we still have it. It seems that we may get a new one soon since McMinnville is coming online.

[Brett Buck]

With the problem with Polk City and Sig announcing that their control line contest is cancelled, it got me thinking.  I've been flying control line now since 1999 and entering contests since 2000.  I started thinking of all the contests that I could attend, within a 5 hour drive back then and the number of contest that I could attend now.  Here is a list of them and the red ones are no longer being held.  They are in no particular order.

ICE-O-Lated - St. Louis MO
Polk City - IA
Omaha -NE
Chicago - IL
Fermilab - IL
Pewaukee - WI
Minneapolis - MN
SIG - IA
Rockford - IL
Treetown - IL
Peoria - IL
Broken Arrow - MO

5 out of twelve are no longer being held.  In all fairness to Rockford, that one still might be held.  But for right now, it is not scheduled.  That's a 42% decrease in control line contests here in the midwest within a 5 hour drive for me.  WOW!

   I thought that getting rid of Appearance Points and BOM was saving all the Eastern contests. No?

   Brett

[De Hill]

   I thought that getting rid of Appearance Points and BOM was saving all the Eastern contests. No?

   Brett

Brett,

None of these towns are on the east coast. Wouldn't you say that they are centrally located?

De

[Mike Griffin]

When I made my original post about the future of Control Line Flying, I had no idea the thread was going to go viral or create offshoot posts and threads.  My intent was to create a think tank that will come up with ideas and functions that will bring more people into the hobby whether they be young or old.  I desperately want to see CL survive and thrive way into the future but we are faced with some hard realities that are not favorable.  We know that the number of flyers attending contests is dwindling and that the number of contests are getting fewer and fewer.

I again want to reiterate what Hoss Cain has said:  If we think strictly of STUNT and STUNT CONTESTS, I think we are doomed.  Not everybody wants to enter or go to a stunt contest.  I think for CL flying as and entity to survive, we cannot just think in terms of Stunt Contests because it is narrowing the field and excluding a lot of people who might be interested in other aspects.  Stunt is just one aspect of CL and until we get our minds outside of the box, I really dont see CL flying growing by drawing more people in.  

When I moved to Georgia because of Katrina, I joined the Georgia Aircraft Modelers Association, they are the ones who put on that Huge swap meet in Perry, GA every year.  They have over 1200 tables in 4 buildings at the fairgrounds. It is now the biggest one of its kind in the country.  Granted it is 99% for RC modelers but we always did some sort of CL demo if the weather permitted.  Bob Dixon usually did a stunt pattern but we also would fly Bi Slobs and hover them and bounce the tails off the ground, do a ballon bust or put on a two plane combat expo or anything anyone could think up to get the crowd involved.

Stunt contests are competition and sometimes really  serious competition which is fine and great, but not all people want to compete, they just want to have some fun and not have to get stressed out about it.  Not everyone wants to spend 6 months finishing and buffing out a stunt ship for the front row at the nats.  They want to throw some plastic film on the wing, wrinkles and all , spray paint the fuselage and go fly something.  

This is a STUNT FORUM...STUKA STUNT WORKS is a STUNT FORUM.   Maybe we need to have a forum for the casual flyer who doesn't know or even care what "the pattern" is.  I can see how this forum would intimidate someone new who just wanted to ask a few questions or learn some basics and the intimidation they would feel would not be intentional at all yet , when you read some of the posts on here that get really technical and into the physics of airfoils and the terms we use to discuss dynamics, it gets above a lot of peoples heads, I know it does mine sometimes.  

Anyway, enough of my rambling...just a few thoughts I had.  I love this hobby and I want other people to learn to really enjoy it too.  I hope we can make it survive.....

Mike

[RC Storick]

Stunt Hangar encompasses all forms of control line. many places for all facets and if I forgot one let me know. My primary intersest is Stunt this is why I didn't name it General control line hangar along with the fact stunthangar is shorter

[RC Storick]

It doesn't mater on what side of the coast the city is on or the fact that the BOM is in play or not. What does matter is that the companies who were made successful in RC have done so because of us. Now as they prosper they have cast us aside in Lu of the larger market. Without control line do you think FOX would be in business today? I would venture to say no. Many of the other companies had best wake up now that there are new developments with electric power, new building techniques and materials.

If you are buying food at the grocery store or wood at the hobby shop,every scan or sale is a vote for that product. We as the consumers are powerful and can change the tide. If you buy products from people who support control line and tell them why and where you saw them we as a whole will get more support. Look at Waldomart,awhile ago you could not buy organic vegtables there now you can. The reason is that's what people wanted. Only you can change the tide of not supporting people who don't support you.

[Crist Rigotti]

The simple matter of fact that I was trying to bring out, is that over the span of 12 years, the Stunt contests that I would go to has decreased by 42%.  I dont see stunt growing at all.  It seems to be shrinking.

[Mike Keville]

The simple matter of fact that I was trying to bring out, is that over the span of 12 years, the Stunt contests that I would go to has decreased by 42%.  I dont see stunt growing at all.  It seems to be shrinking.

Probably because we're all getting old and burning-out.  Younger folks aren't stepping-up....being (apparently) more interested in RC Park Flyers, Quad-Copters and other junk promoted by the Academy of Mostly ARFs.

(Well???  Someone had to say it.)

[Crist Rigotti]

Probably because we're all getting old and burning-out.  Younger folks aren't stepping-up....being (apparently) more interested in RC Park Flyers, Quad-Copters and other junk promoted by the Academy of Mostly ARFs.

(Well???  Someone had to say it.)

Yup.  Especially the first sentenance.

[Randy Ryan]

The simple matter of fact that I was trying to bring out, is that over the span of 12 years, the Stunt contests that I would go to has decreased by 42%.  I dont see stunt growing at all.  It seems to be shrinking.

Well Crist, now you know how I felt at Free Flight dwindled down to the Nats and a couple of contests in the easy. virtually all the contests left are held at Muncie. I'm finally getting back to Stunt but I guess I'm going to watch that shrivel on the vine too. There will be diehards, that's what's keeping FF going, but even diehards eventually die.

[Dan McEntee]

  Like in the threads about the future of control line, this too will go in cycles. I started out in C/L contest flying in 1987, and there are about 4 or 5 more contests that I could add to Crist's list, but time marches on and things change. No reason to sell your stuff, or waste a lot of time wailing and wringing your hands. Spend the time in other useful pursuits, promote what we do have, and wait for the next wave. Stop and think about the last twenty years or so, and if you were around at the time, think about how stark and lean things were in the late 70's and early 80's. There can be a good discussion on just what era can be called the "Golden Age of Stunt" and we might just have lived through it and experienced it in the last twenty years. Think of all the changes in designs, powerplants, and materials that have come along, and we can STILL go out and buy a brand new, factory fresh Fox.35 if we want to!!! .  No need for all the gloom and doom, just make the best of what we got, promote it the best we can, and put it out there for the rest of the world to see. How do you think the wave of the last 20 to 25 years started? We ALL weren't flying stunt in the 60's and 70's.
    Good Luck and HAVE FUN!!!!  (THAT"S AN ORDER!!!!)
     Dan McEntee

[Steve Riebe]

ICE-O-Lated - St. Louis MO
Polk City - IA
Omaha -NE
Chicago - IL
Fermilab - IL
Pewaukee - WI
Minneapolis - MN
SIG - IA
Rockford - IL
Treetown - IL
Peoria - IL
Broken Arrow - MO

5 out of twelve are no longer being held.  In all fairness to Rockford, that one still might be held.  But for right now, it is not scheduled.  That's a 42% decrease in control line contests here in the midwest within a 5 hour drive for me.  WOW!

Crist, is the Chicago contest the same as the Busse Woods event coming up soon?  How can I find out more about the Pewaukee event?

Steve

[Allen Brickhaus]

List copied from Crist's first post.


ICE-O-Lated - St. Louis MO
Polk City - IA
Omaha -NE
Windy City Chicago - IL
     Fermilab, IL
Pewaukee - WI
     Minneapolis - MN
     SIG - IA
     ? Rockford - IL
Treetown - IL
     Peoria IL
Broken Arrow MO
WKSI in Paducah

We also have lost
     Memphis TN
     Quincy IL
     Texarkana AR/TX
     Indianapolis IN

Still have
     New Albany IN
     Lexington KY

Allen Brickhaus

[De Hill]

The Oklahoma City Sooner Circleburners club was active having contests from the 1960's (?) to the middle 1990's. It came back briefly with new members a few years later, but disappeared after the Oklahoma City government took their flying field.

De Hill

[RC Storick]

What happened to Cincinnati OH contest?

[EddyR]

If a hobby is FUN and Easy to do it will survive.CL flying is fun but is no longer easy as the flying places have been taken away. If there was a place within 10 miles of my house that I could fly and it was visible to people there would soon be interest. When I was a kid my models were poorly built and many of my motor runs were terrible. I didn't need contest to keep my interest I just went to the local field and flew the  model and had fun. Electric models do solve many of these problems. The small electric models prove it.Most people on this forum are not interested in the simple models that will interest a new flyer.I have built one Ringmaster in the last 40 years but that was my main model of interest back when I was a kid.
 Everything I have just said you all know it all ready so how do we fix it.
 This weekend we had the Huntersville contest and the weather was very bad. That must have been a turn off for those that traveled a long distance to get here and fly stunt.I only traveled one hour and was thinking why did I bother. The answer is to visit with friends and the weather had no effect on that. Thanks to all that made the long trip to get here. Bob all the way from South Florida and the people from the Notheast and Midwest. Thanks for your effort.
  Note the combat and carrier people seemed to be OK with the bad conditions
Ed

[john e. holliday]

Getting new people is hard with what we have to offer.  Just look at the listings of some of the manufacturers.   I thought for sure that RSM would rally jump on the band wagon with Larry Renger's ET-1 and RSM's 1/2A electrice set upfor a combo start.  Would be much easier than the old Cox planes that a lot of people got started with and a few just gave up on. 

I can still remember the days of the 50's and 60's into the 70's when there were contests every weekend and not that far from home.   But, at my age I am leaning more to the fun type flying in which I can sign the list and fly or just sit an watch the flying plus the BS.  But, like this past weekend when people had the chance to drive to a contest only to be deterred by the weather this time of year.  Many a contest I have driven to only to sit and watch the wind or the rain.  Just think contest directors how much easier would it be to only have a fun fly and no competition of sorts.  Awards could be, most flights taken,  pilots choice of all planes and maybe an award for who  could BS the longest.   How many remember the stories after the flying stopped and it got dark about a certain individual who was and still is a great individual at the SIG contest?

[Brett Buck]

Getting new people is hard with what we have to offer.  Just look at the listings of some of the manufacturers.   I thought for sure that RSM would rally jump on the band wagon with Larry Renger's ET-1 and RSM's 1/2A electrice set upfor a combo start.  Would be much easier than the old Cox planes that a lot of people got started with and a few just gave up on. 

    This is not fundamentally a technical problem. Until it's on a shelf at Wal-Mart (and it will not be, nor anything like it) it might as well not exist as far as the people you are talking about go.

   This is well off the original topic of eastern contests that no longer. We have these discussions all the time, but we always very quickly start mixing two entirely unrelated things - contests,  and CL marketing/general flying. We lost the latter 40-50 years ago and it is not coming back.

    Brett

[EddyR]

Some people have said that "fun fly in" would be nice. MCLS has them all summer and thay are open to everyone. Fourth Saturday of the month at Huntersville field ,club meeting and fun events We even give trophies away. Now you all know,so just show up
Ed

[Brett Buck]

Brett,

None of these towns are on the east coast. Wouldn't you say that they are centrally located?

De

  This is OT, but no, they are not "centrally located" as a matter of fact. And I didn't say East Coast, I said eastern.

    The geographic center of the continental US is somewhere in Northern KS (touted as Lebanon, but not accurately surveyed). Saint Louis is ~500 miles, most of a days drive, further East of there. If you have to drive an entire day further East from the center to get there, it is not centrally located. Most of the other locations are much further east than that. The "Midwest" is neither the middle nor the West.

   Another aspect of this is interesting to me. I drove a total of 450 miles just this weekend to go to a local contest, one day of which was a complete blowout from weather. All the contests listed are pretty close to each other (maybe not the one in Minnesota), did anyone to go all or most of them?

  BTW, any comment on the urgent need to drop BOM/Appearance points to "save stunt"? Doesn't appear to be saving anything.

      Brett

[Derek Barry]

    This is not fundamentally a technical problem. Until it's on a shelf at Wal-Mart (and it will not be, nor anything like it) it might as well not exist as far as the people you are talking about go.

   This is well off the original topic of eastern contests that no longer. We have these discussions all the time, but we always very quickly start mixing two entirely unrelated things - contests,  and CL marketing/general flying. We lost the latter 40-50 years ago and it is not coming back.

    Brett

Well since you want to keep bringing up the east coast no BOM contest I will bite. I have to say that I have not witnessed any increase in participation since the drop of AP around here but that being said I have not seen a decrease either. At least no more than the rest of the country is having do to gas prices and some people simply getting to old or "burnt out" to come anymore. To be quite honest I do not see many ARFs at these contests. I guess the horrible quality of these ARFs and the fact that they are not being made any more is the reason there are not many left. Maybe the CDs should bring back appearance points, at least for Advanced and Expert.

Brodak's is the biggest control line contest on the East coast and probably the country and I am pretty sure that they DO have appearance points...

Derek

[Derek Barry]

Some people have said that "fun fly in" would be nice. MCLS has them all summer and thay are open to everyone. Fourth Saturday of the month at Huntersville field ,club meeting and fun events We even give trophies away. Now you all know,so just show up
Ed

Joe Nall is next week.

[RC Storick]

Broken Arrow contest has AP

[Brett Buck]

Well since you want to keep bringing up the east coast no BOM contest I will bite.

  I wanted to bring it up because I got lectured, over and over, about how I didn't care about stunt, was stupid, was a dinosaur, was "anti-growth", etc, as part of the Brodak crap for predicting exactly this. Both the utter lack of effect on stunt contest participation as the result of ARF availability, and the fact that getting rid of BOM, supposedly the panacea for all of our problems, was at the very least not going to accomplish anything and more likely going to accelerate the problem by lowering the level of the event.

  Yes, I am saying "I told you so". Normally I don't but I got SO MUCH crap over it, I made and exception.

   Brett

[Douglas Ames]

Well, everything is "Eastern" relative to CA.

[De Hill]

 This is OT, but no, they are not "centrally located" as a matter of fact. And I didn't say East Coast, I said eastern.

    The geographic center of the continental US is somewhere in Northern KS (touted as Lebanon, but not accurately surveyed). Saint Louis is ~500 miles, most of a days drive, further East of there. If you have to drive an entire day further East from the center to get there, it is not centrally located. Most of the other locations are much further east than that. The "Midwest" is neither the middle nor the West.

   Another aspect of this is interesting to me. I drove a total of 450 miles just this weekend to go to a local contest, one day of which was a complete blowout from weather. All the contests listed are pretty close to each other (maybe not the one in Minnesota), did anyone to go all or most of them?

  BTW, any comment on the urgent need to drop BOM/Appearance points to "save stunt"? Doesn't appear to be saving anything.

      Brett

The geography that you were taught in school must be different than the geography that is taught in the rest of the USA.

Next you will be telling us that Tulsa is in the east....

[Derek Barry]

 I wanted to bring it up because I got lectured, over and over, about how I didn't care about stunt, was stupid, was a dinosaur, was "anti-growth", etc, as part of the Brodak crap for predicting exactly this. Both the utter lack of effect on stunt contest participation as the result of ARF availability, and the fact that getting rid of BOM, supposedly the panacea for all of our problems, was at the very least not going to accomplish anything and more likely going to accelerate the problem by lowering the level of the event.

  Yes, I am saying "I told you so". Normally I don't but I got SO MUCH crap over it, I made and exception.

   Brett

I hear ya Brett, but does it have to be an East vs West thing? I like the BOM and I live in the east and I have seen a Yatzenko Shark win a concours award on the west.

I saw good and bad things come out of ARFs. A cheap way to get new people in the air and learn some things vs People that were already pretty good builders going the easy way out and paying the price. (by flying stuff that was much worse than what they had previously built)


But back to Crist's point. I too remember the days when I was young and there were 30-40 people at contests and now at the same contest I see 10-15. We use to go to at least 6 contest a year and this year I will probably go to 3 or 4 not counting the Nats.

Derek

[Mike Griffin]

OK I am confused, partially because of something Brett said about the public having lost interest in general CL flying 40-50 years ago.  If there is any consensus in all this discussion? Is the consensus that the future of Control Line depends solely on Stunt Contests?  That Stunt is our only hope for the future?  I am just trying to get some clarification here on what is being said.

Mike

[Jim Thomerson]

From a competition point of view, stunt is the only CL event which has been successful in setting up skill classes which allow competition among peers.  Other areas: speed, racing, combat, and carrier have tried to do something to achieve the same result, but have not been very successful.  I think that is why stunt is notably the most successful competition event.  Old Time Stunt has not hurt either. 

There is also the sport flier.  I think most sport fliers want an airplane they can do maneuvers with. So most sport fliers want a somewhat stunt type airplane.  So the barrier between being a sport flier and flying stunt competitively is fairly porous.

[Dave_Trible]

From a competition point of view, stunt is the only CL event which has been successful in setting up skill classes which allow competition among peers.  Other areas: speed, racing, combat, and carrier have tried to do something to achieve the same result, but have not been very successful.  I think that is why stunt is notably the most successful competition event.  Old Time Stunt has not hurt either. 

There is also the sport flier.  I think most sport fliers want an airplane they can do maneuvers with. So most sport fliers want a somewhat stunt type airplane.  So the barrier between being a sport flier and flying stunt competitively is fairly porous.

Yes I think that's true.  Another thing I believe from both competing and running a club way back when ( the real engine of local activity as long as there was at least one selfless worker bee) was that most other events got pretty high-tec and rather expensive for most where stunt and faux stunt can be done on fewer bananas.  I know the OT and classic venues greatly revived C/L for many, bringing back some retreads and drawing those who could have fun on the cheap (relatively).  That fades now in Nats level open flying.  If you want to play in this arena now, bring your wallet.  It easy to forget sometimes many can't or won't spend what some of us will. (Guilty)

Dave

[Jim Kraft]

I wonder how many sport flyers are out there. We use to have 4 or 5 guys in our R/C club that flew 1/2A's for fun. I am sure that most clubs have a few that do not fly competition, and I know there are many out there flying alone without a club that just fly for the fun of it with no thought of ever flying competition. Some of them can be found on RC Groups and other forums. What intrigues me is the fact that some are doing it the old way flying in ball parks, school yards, and vacant lots, probably because they did it that way years ago. I am also guessing that there are many planes sold by Sig, Brodak, and others that never see a contest. I think Fox is still selling way more Fox 35's than are being flown in competition.

I don't know how one could find out how many are out there but it would be interesting to know. They do help keep the hobby alive just by purchasing control line stuff. I also see more and more that these sport flyers are finding each other on the internet which is great for keeping their interest up.
Back in control lines hayday of he 40's thru the 60's, of all the people that I flew with were not competition flyers. We all got together in parks or ball diamonds and flew what ever we had to fly.

[Randy Cuberly]

The geography that you were taught in school must be different than the geography that is taught in the rest of the USA.

Next you will be telling us that Tulsa is in the east....

De,
Tulsa is in the East!...at least a long drive east of here.
At least it's on the "right" (which is the Left Of course) side of the Missippi...never go on the other side!   

Randy Cuberly

[Randy Cuberly]

OK I am confused, partially because of something Brett said about the public having lost interest in general CL flying 40-50 years ago.  If there is any consensus in all this discussion? Is the consensus that the future of Control Line depends solely on Stunt Contests?  That Stunt is our only hope for the future?  I am just trying to get some clarification here on what is being said.

Mike

Mike,
In my opinion the reason the General Public lost interest in Control Line is because most of the modeling business and publications lost intrest in it.
Talk to a non-modeler in the "General Public" and they will usually be familiar with RC but will be totally unaware of CL, especially those under 50 or so.  This is further reinforced when they go visit their local hobby shop that only is aware of RC, or even if they go "On Line" and google Model Airplanes; RC all over the place.  In fact a lot of RC places don't even bother to mention that they cater to RC, it's just assumed there is nothing else.

The only real potential that CL will enjoy a great big resurgence is the Homeland Security Department and the FAA.  As the Jihad thing gets worse that may be the salvation of CL.
No, I'm not wishing for that occurance.  It will mean further loss of freedoms and lives.

Personally I don't see Control Line becoming extinct but participation wil likely continue to get smaller than the current level.  There seems to be enough new participation to keep it alive...but just barely.

My guess is that 20 years from now most of the folks on this forum will not be around anymore.  No that's not a wish either but is fact.

Most older CL fliers have put a lot of effort into attracting new participants to almost no avail.  There have been a few successes but hardly enough to justify the effort.  Most have given up on trying...myself included.  No, I'm not happy about that but it's just fact.

Maintaining a flying site capable of supporting contests is a lot of work and takes considerable effort.  Organizing a contest takes even more effort and work especially as the "volunteers" dwindle.  I've witnessed many eager hard workers burn out doing it, and if it's done for only the participation of a few "Old guys" that show up, it's less likely to get done next time.

Life moves on!  I guess that's good...and bad.

Randy Cuberly

[Allen Brickhaus]

Well since you want to keep bringing up the east coast no BOM contest I will bite. I have to say that I have not witnessed any increase in participation since the drop of AP around here but that being said I have not seen a decrease either. At least no more than the rest of the country is having do to gas prices and some people simply getting to old or "burnt out" to come anymore. To be quite honest I do not see many ARFs at these contests. I guess the horrible quality of these ARFs and the fact that they are not being made any more is the reason there are not many left. Maybe the CDs should bring back appearance points, at least for Advanced and Expert.

Brodak's is the biggest control line contest on the East coast and probably the country and I am pretty sure that they DO have appearance points...

Derek

The Brodak event has appearance points for the CLPA events on Friday and Saturday.

Allen

[Mike Griffin]

Randy your reply really does strike home and holds a lot of credence.  I agree about RC being targeted by Homeland Security.  The next time some nut tries to put a cherry bomb in an RC ship and fly it into somebody there is going to be national coverage of it and the press loves to spew out its crap too.  The points you brought up are true.  I guess we will just ride that mule till it dies as my grandfather used to say.  I am going to enjoy it as long as I am able.  I can say one thing for sure, this hobby and this forum have put me in touch with some of the finest guys I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know and I am a better person for getting to know them.  I have had a lot of fun and plan to have some more before I leave this planet....

Mike

[Randy Cuberly]

  I guess we will just ride that mule till it dies as my grandfather used to say.  I am going to enjoy it as long as I am able.  I can say one thing for sure, this hobby and this forum have put me in touch with some of the finest guys I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know and I am a better person for getting to know them.  I have had a lot of fun and plan to have some more before I leave this planet....

Mike

Mike that's a great attitude and I fully agree with it.  A big ME TOO!

Randy Cuberly

[De Hill]

I feel that five years from now there will be a lot fewer controline contests and clubs than we have today.

Sadly, I don't see how we can fix it.

I wish that someone knew how.

De Hill

[Scott Richlen]

here's a few suggestions:
1) Promote building as an entry-way instead of flying first
2) For youngsters copy soccer and karate: sell the benefits of building to the Moms
3) Learn how to saber-dance or bi-slob.  the kids seem to really like that
4) Set an example for everyone else by spending more time building and less time on the computer...
5) Complain about how it was better in the "good ol days"....ahh, wait

Okay, so here is what I was doing last weekend...

[dale gleason]

Well De,
I don't see Tulsa fading as a contest site. The reason is all you GlueDobbers. You all do everything right to keep it going. If we offer what contestants want, they will be there. If we don't, they won't.

We had a monthly meeting at our club where someone suggested a "FunFly" held concurrently with the "Not Presidents' Day" Classic/OTS contest. Each day of flying left a circle open, so we flew for fun on that circle. No registration, no fee, just AMA safety code, just fun.  A master stroke!

Supporting other contests is important, too, although it can be costly and time consuming.

There's still a lot of contest flying I want to do, and I'm optimisic there will be ample places to do it.

Respectfully submitted,
dg



 

[Allen Brickhaus]

De,
Tulsa is in the East!...at least a long drive east of here.
At least it's on the "right" (which is the Left Of course) side of the Missippi...never go on the other side!   

Randy Cuberly


Hey wait a minute.

LOL

[RC Storick]

This gloom and doom has been talked about for the last 40 years and you will hear it at least 20 more.

[Derek Barry]

Like Sparky said, there will always be the doom and gloom talk. I try to think of the positive things like one of the biggest names in all RC has started flying CL and looks to be pretty damn good. (I will see for myself in less than a week) A lot of people watch what he does and I think some of them will follow. This means more numbers for CL in general. Another thing is the Joe Nall that is coming up next week. THOUSANDS of people will be exposed to control line and all that are interested will be given the opportunity to fly. Last year this resulted in hundreds of training flights, most of them first timers. You all know that I don't fly electric but I am no fool either. Electric has and will make it possible for people to easily get started flying without the noise or mess of IC. I see good things for the future of CL, it just takes a little effort.

Derek

[Joseph Patterson]

    Why Hell!!! I thought a contest was a fun fly!!
      Doug