Wow, lots of really good thoughts here.
PAMPANATS - interesting. I guess my thought here is would it, perhaps, be better to have an all-inclusive controline NATs? Carrier? Speed? Scale? To really promote the hobby I think it would be beneficial to include all of it. From a spectator perspective, carrier, speed and certainly combat are probably more interesting than stunt.
Traveling NATS, heck, we did it 40 years ago. Without the internet and
with C-gas free flight. I'd hate to think we've become so inept that we couldn't do the same these days for strictly CL. Venues ideas aren't so hard, I'll toss one out: Go to race tracks. They have insurance out the ying-yang, you can make all the noise you want, they don't get upset about a little oil and fuel as long as it's off the racing surface, and if they don't need to run race operations and you organize trash cleanup they'll rent the facility pretty reasonably. They have camping, showers etc too. That's one idea from one person and none of us is as good as all of us together. My point of view is that if you eliminate R/C and Free Flight, venues become MUCH easier to find and procure.
One of the fun parts, I always thought, was traveling and the adventure aspect of the traveling NATS. Heck, I remember we went to Oshkosh one year and flew at the EAA airport, then the next year we were in Louisiana! You got to meet new people, see new places, etc. It was a lot of fun, I can tell you that.
My $.02? It's doable. We'd need a two or three year window to make it happen. It's change, and lot's (maybe most?) of people don't like change, but ongoing change and continuous improvement is one of the first things I look for in a healthy organization. [Caveat being that the change is aligned with the best interests of the organization, which is not always the case.]
Stunt - while not mainstream - is healthy. There are ongoing technical improvements, never has there been such a great selection of high-quality gear available. There are more kits available than in years past - and they're not Sterling die-crushed boat lumber. You can build a formidable competition ship that's laser cut from light wood. Competition-ready engines these days are fantastic. Electric makes contest-winning consistency available to anyone - although I still think if we're going to award appearance points to reward modeling skills, an extra 5 points for an IC engine makes sense!
ARFS greatly reduced the entry barriers to newcomers. All the ingredients are here to attract new members.
I firmly believe that we need now is public outreach. Some of the guys up this way from a few towns and cities are getting organized. Since there's a dozen or so R/C fly-in events within our sphere of influence, we're putting together a little traveling circus to go to these events and display and demo. Realistically I figure if we can pick up three new CL'ers a year it's worth it. Heck, our AMA district rep might actually see some controline models and flyers and have to admit they exist!!! I'd pay money to see that. I wonder what would happen if all CL guys and gals did that across the country?
We all know how much fun CL flying is. That's why we do it.
In today's world, we don't need a magazine. We don't need a headquarters. We don't need no stinking badges. We can reach out to millions with social media. What we need is a few people with the vision, passion and talent to start the next chapter of controline. Negativism? Screw that. We have used cars on the moon dammit! (Start humming Battle Hymn of the Republic here.) Losers come up with excuses, winners find a way.
All kidding aside, I'd like to lay down a challenge here of not writing posts of why it can't be done, but rather ideas and brainstorming on how it
could be done. I'll bet that if we use that approach the thing could pick up some energy and snowball rather quickly.
Maybe all this drone BS is really an opportunity.
Chuck
All of the above is IMHO and I respect and defend your right to disagree.