AMA EXPO is a gonner

[Larry Renger]

Word from an AMA VP is the EXPO is not going to happen next year. The East coast one is already discontinued.

Tragic news, but if the vendors and modelers don’t show up, what can they do. We had perhaps a dozen or fewer people actually do more than glance at the  Knights of the Round Circle booth, and three show up for flight training.

When I went to the outdoor demo site, there was one spectator.

And no, it has nothing to do with drones, they didn’t show up in any great numbers either.

This year they had added RC car racing and drag racing and boats.

This show is a follow-on to the PASADENA IMS show that goes back decades. You used to have to slither sideways through the crowds down the aisles to get through. Now you could take a nap in the middle.

😢 😥 😪 👎

[Mike Griffin]

Just a sign of the times Larry, unfortunately.

Mike

[John Gluth]

"And no, it has nothing to do with drones, they didn’t show up in any great numbers either."

At this point, has nothing to do with drones. Even though Rich Hanson informed us drones are the "future of Model Aviation", that passing fad did it's FAA damage in addition to tantalizing, self-promotion social media, enabled by handheld devices.

[JoeJust]

[quote author=drones, they didn’t show up in any great numbers either."

At this point, has nothing to do with drones. Even though Rich Hanson informed us drones are the "future of Model Aviation", that passing fad did it's FAA damage
[/quote]
Conversely, he Carrier sight for Britian  says that " regulation of Controlline flying will not b affected in upcoming "Drone" regulations"

[Larry Renger]

We had maybe 10 training flights and that required dragging people in!

You could have taken a nice siesta in the booth. We got more attention from the other exhibitors than the public. A big cauldron of Halloween candy may have been the major attraction. We did get a 4star rating on the selection! 

[Dan McEntee]

    What did the AMA pay for these expos? It wasn't all that long ago they took over the west coast show, was it? Probably not a very good return on investment???
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[peabody]

In the east, the Academy piggybacked with the WRAM Show (Western Reserve Air Modelers), and had a booth and an hour long meeting on Saturday. I know that WRAM spent a bunch for the space (held at the Westchester Convention Center), and, as the show shrank, they sought a different location. WRAM excluded control line for a long time and were mad at me when Brodak bought a booth.  That was years ago.

The Meadowlands location is bad for several reasons: cost, location and the fact that the space is unionized. Made it expensive.

Oh well 

[peabody]

I knew that' I think

[Shorts,David]

I used to attend the old show in January in Pasadena and or Pomona. I attended on Friday for "Trade Only" several years and then might swing by Saturday on general public day - it was packed. (Unless we were on our way to Mammoth Mountain to do some skiing on the way back to Nor Cal.)

Speaking of Friday, it wasn't very crowded, mostly hobby shop owners and employees looking for new merchandise to carry and getting questions answered. If there was a trade only day anymore, I expect it would be empty. How many hobby shops still exist? Not many, and I'm grateful for those that do.

Radio control. Almost every plane in the exhibit was designed for a .40-.60 size engine. The hobby was fun and very accessible. Now, radio control is dominated by foam from china or multi-thousand dollar giant scale planes. The average hobby enthusiast has been driven from the radio control hobby. Now-a-days if you showed up at the radio control field with your awesome, amazing .46 sized stunt plane or warbird, you'd feel like the yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Radio control cars used to be 1/10th scale on road or off road. That was after 1/8th scale gas faded out the first time, and 1/12 electric faded out. Because there were two main classes (okay, 4wd and truck too) the classes were packed and competing was awesome. Then gas became popular a second time, and 1/16th scale, and 1/4 scale gas, and stadium electric, and...and...and...and pretty soon the R/C car guys quit because the class sizes shrunk, competitions became overwhelmed, diluted, and then they faded.

Trains bore me, so I have no opinion there, but as I can tell they have remained the same.

But! I think the future has an open door for a hobby that is not ruled by the FAA, that can be accessed by average budgets and average people. That solo flight can be achieved relatively quickly, and the people are friendly and helpful. In other words, I really believe the future of model aviation has huge potential for control line. We need to be visible and prepared.

David
David

[Dan McEntee]

I used to attend the old show in January in Pasadena and or Pomona. I attended on Friday for "Trade Only" several years and then might swing by Saturday on general public day - it was packed. (Unless we were on our way to Mammoth Mountain to do some skiing on the way back to Nor Cal.)

Speaking of Friday, it wasn't very crowded, mostly hobby shop owners and employees looking for new merchandise to carry and getting questions answered. If there was a trade only day anymore, I expect it would be empty. How many hobby shops still exist? Not many, and I'm grateful for those that do.

Radio control. Almost every plane in the exhibit was designed for a .40-.60 size engine. The hobby was fun and very accessible. Now, radio control is dominated by foam from china or multi-thousand dollar giant scale planes. The average hobby enthusiast has been driven from the radio control hobby. Now-a-days if you showed up at the radio control field with your awesome, amazing .46 sized stunt plane or warbird, you'd feel like the yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Radio control cars used to be 1/10th scale on road or off road. That was after 1/8th scale gas faded out the first time, and 1/12 electric faded out. Because there were two main classes (okay, 4wd and truck too) the classes were packed and competing was awesome. Then gas became popular a second time, and 1/16th scale, and 1/4 scale gas, and stadium electric, and...and...and...and pretty soon the R/C car guys quit because the class sizes shrunk, competitions became overwhelmed, diluted, and then they faded.

Trains bore me, so I have no opinion there, but as I can tell they have remained the same.

But! I think the future has an open door for a hobby that is not ruled by the FAA, that can be accessed by average budgets and average people. That solo flight can be achieved relatively quickly, and the people are friendly and helpful. In other words, I really believe the future of model aviation has huge potential for control line. We need to be visible and prepared.

David
David

      I think there is a lot of truth in what David says. If you have ever read "Do You Speak Model Airplane," Dave Thornburg wrote that in his opinion, which I value, in the late 40's and early 50's, control line saved the model airplane hobby industry. maybe it could be that history will repeat itself??
    Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[ericrule]

Yes, I attended the event on Saturday and was very disappointed by both the number of vendors and the lack of attendees.

When I looked at the physical set up and the general bare, shoddy look of the booths I could not help but compare this show to past shows where each vendor had professional looking display booths segmented by colorful curtains. The AMA Expo 2019 looked less professional than local swap meets. No wonder vendors refused to spend money to purchase booth space!

Like many of the folks here in So. Calif. I have attended this show as both a vendor and attendee since the early 1990's when it was owned by the Northrups. Since the AMA purchased the Expo I have watched the number of vendors decline. Although reason for this decline is not the solely the fault of the AMA I am not sure what the organization has done to encourage vendors to attend. I do know from speaking with a number of vendors I had when owning RSM Distribution that the simple cost of attending the show has gone way up since the 1990's. That may be part of the reason they have declined to attend.

I have also noticed a steady decline in the number of AMA members attending the show. Part of that reason is that the cost of attending has constantly increased. On Saturday I had to pay $12.00 to park at the event plus an additional $13.00 for entry to the show. Yes, I know that is only $25.00 in total but when you consider that very few manufacturers or distributors had booths there (those that had booths were outnumbered by the club booths) and there did not appear to be a swap meet had I been interested in finding some engine or model that I could not do without I had vey little to show for spending $25.00.
When you combine the lack of vendors with declining attendance it certainly is not a lot of incentive for me or any other AMA member to go to the next show (if the AMA was inclined to offer a show in the future). Like any commercial enterprise the AMA Expo requires an organization that encourages vendors to show product plus does everything it can do to get AMA members plus the general public to attend. In other words they need to "market" the show. That does not seem to be something that the AMA is capable of doing well.

It is indeed too bad that the Expos will end. The hobby really needs some venue where new products can be introduced to the modelling community.

[Larry Renger]

Actually, there was a relatively large swap meet section.

It was, as always, a pleasure to visit with Eric and we got him to fly the ET-1 trainer. He produced the kit, but had never flown one!   

[YakNine]

I went to the Wrams show 2 or 3 times in the early 80's with my 4-H flying club and it was a magical place to a kid who was plane crazy. I went back when I got back into flying a few years back and it got smaller each time I went but I still enjoyed it . Last year was just sad , I think the biggest vendors were guys who must have bought up a couple of estates and were trying to get rid of the stuff they didn't want, I made the decision that it would be my last time but then I guess so did the AMA. TJ