When I started to volunteer at the KidVenture venue at Oshkosh, we decided early on the let ANYONE fly, no age restrictions, no "kids only." In early discussions, I offered my opinion that our target should really be the parents. If you get a parent interested, the kids come with the deal. The parents are the ones with the minivan and the bank account. The parents, especially the Dads but maybe Moms also, are older and more mature, have some experience with things mechanical, and may be looking for a hobby or outside activity, and can appreciate what it takes to build a flying machine and be challenged by the thought of it. I have also preached that you can't point a gun at someone's head and make them like model airplanes and want to build one, but there are people out there like us and they don't know it yet, that just need the spark, just need the exposure of something that they had never seen or maybe only heard of or saw on YouTube, and their curiosity leads them to search more on this computer thing, and maybe that plants the seed. There won't be the big hoards of people like there used to be, but I believe there are enough people out there with the gene in their DNA that lets them get excited about things like our hobby. In this day and age, aviation does not hold the attraction and romance that it did years ago. The current space race, while interesting, doesn't grab the entire nation like it did in the 60's. It was thought that free flight models would die out in the 60's and 70's but it continues on, and I have read a lot on participants that discovered free flight later in life. That can be the path that any discipline of model aviation can take. We just have to keep putting it out there for people to see and make ourselves available to help and answer questions. There are a few of this kind of newbie that are present right here on this forum. And the computer will make things easier for any newcomer as long as the information is available for them to find. And it has to be on the internet. There are no more magazines out there on drug store magazine racks for them to stumble upon like we did. As old fashioned as I am, I believe we have to learn how to take advantage of the new mediums to reach those that may want to join in on the fun. I think that in this day and age, that is what the AMA can do to promote model aviation, and not just drones and large scale R/C jobs hovering a foot off the ground. They have to make a commitment to promote ALL forms of the hobby as equally as possible. One way to do that would be to find places on the net to place a simple add that mentions the Academy of Model Aeronautics, and has the web address. Place the simple add anywhere and everywhere they can. Something like "Academy of Model Aeronautics, modelaircraft.org, Discover aviation!" or something more catchy. If someone has what I'm talking about inside them, their curiosity will take them to the website, and then see what happens there.We have those little pop up adds on Stunthanger that have nothing to do with model airplanes. Why can't the AMA have little pop up adds on other websites that don't have anything to do with model airplanes?. Enough rambling, it's time for bed!
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee