Now for the real medicine: The reason that CL Stunt (and CL in general) is not taken seriously by our hobby industry is the fact that CL fliers don't spend much money. Sorry to put it so bluntly, but this is a major contributing factor. Our sport is about the least expensive motor sport on the planet, and we still complain about the cost of stuff.
That's not blunt, it's not at all shocking, and perfectly justified. In fact, I think that is a wonderful situation in many ways. Look at what has happened to RC, for the most part, it's an adult toy industry, and the hobby and competition aspect of it is long gone. Too much attention from manufacturers seems to be the death knell, they move in, dominate the system, and effectively control it.
We have solved the problem a different way - cottage industry suppliers, where you can get essentially custom parts, from fellow modelers for the most part, and without the external pressure of large manufacturers. Look at what we have now, compared to, say, 1970 when CL had a significant commercial presence. The best parts we have ever had in the history of the event are available now, and it's still relatively easy to find - just not at the now-mythical "local hobby shop". Note that the "local hobby shop" was crushed out of existence by the hobby industry, taken to it's logical end by Tower/Great Planes, where the distributors took it over and control it.
Taking this to an industry outside our hobby/sport I can tell you that a really good quality acoustic guitar costs anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 dollars (and sometimes even much more...). I play Taylor guitars, and the two that I own are each in the $4,000 price range. In looking at them I can tell you for certain that there is about the same amount of work in them as there is in one of the Yatsenko's models. So why do many think that their models are overpriced? Why do they even think they are "expensive?" They are reasonably priced for the work that is involved.
The Yatsenkos have decided to ask a real-world price for their work, and I applaud them. If you don't want to spend that kind of money, fine; but don't think that they are charging too much; they are charging for their products as if they were in the real world of commerce. From what I can tell, there are many who understand that such models cost a significant amount and are willing to pay the cost to get them.
Certainly true, I sure am not going to build models of that quality and sell them for $3000 or even $6000, even if I was so inclined (which I am certainly not). I have had the opportunity to examine a few of them up close, and they are very high quality for semi-production items, the fit and finish is very good, and better than almost everyone's individually-built models. There were a few things that appeared to be a bit "off" in terms of production and alignment on each model, so the really good fit-and-finish is very slightly misleading. I was less impressed with the mechanical and structural design, and (as several people have found the hard way) there are places where it seems kind of fragile, particularly the leadout connections. Still, it seems to hold together long enough, Orestes has flown his a million times.
I am less impressed with the way it flies, it is certainly not going to fly the way a lot of us might want it to, although that is partly a matter of preference. In particular, you have to fly it, actively, every second of the time, it has absolutely no tendency to self-correct or fly in straight lines over curved paths, and has none of the semi-automatic corner exits most of our airplanes have in varying degrees. You can't "feel" neutral, and there is little feel at any point. This surprised me and also impressed me about Orestes's piloting skills, because the kind of attention it takes to get it to come out at 5 feet like rolling across a tabletop (which he does all the time) is astonishing. I can also see why he (and others) fly all the flights they can, you have to. It always does the same thing, so it's just matter of learning how to take best advantage, but it is completely different from what we have been trying to achieve for decades.
People worried about the cost are probably wrong, you couldn't get anyone to make it for you for less. But you can probably build a better airplane yourself, for far less - if you are willing to learn how and spend the time doing it*. Which is largely the point...
Until we accept that quality products are worth a quality price and start supporting the hobby industry to a greater degree, we will not be taken seriously by it. But, I don't think that's going to happen...
I know what you are getting at - CL fliers are cheap. In a sense, you are right, because for something the quality of a Yatsenko airplane, ready to fly in its travel container, is a remarkable bargain for what you get. Similarly, if you want to fly Team Race, the way the Europeans go about it is to go to the Russians or Ukrainians, they ask "how fast do you want to go?" and then you write check to suit your competitive needs. Of course they will keep the best stuff for themselves. That sort of thing is exactly what I would want to *avoid*, it's anathema to me and many others in stunt.
But I think there are a lot of other reasons that the "Hobby" industry is going to ignore it, not the least of which is the 400,000 RC sport fliers (compared to the 2-3000 CL fliers, most of whom are specialist competitors). CL *at best*, was supplied by the industry only when it was the only game in town. As soon as RC became practical, and CL was relegated to a specialist activity, there was no way they could even figure out what to do, even had they wanted to.
Even if a major manufacturer wanted to build a competition CL stunt engine, for example, how would you go about it? Develop it over the course of several seasons with competent competitive modelers, make a run of 50, then have people argue about whether it is any good or how they would have done it differently for the next 10 years. At some point, someone will find something different that works slightly better and the market goes "poof" overnight. Hobby shops had a similar problem, at one point, you would build up your stock of ST60s and spare parts because that's what everyone asked for, then, bam, someone discovers the 40VF, and now that stuff is rusting on the shelf forever. I think we both know how that worked out, far better than we ever wanted to...
When the best stunt engine I have ever run was apparently made that way when Dub Jett accidentally turned a handle clockwise instead of counterclockwise, I don't think there is a lot of chance that this will ever be a viable big industry target.
Brett
p.s. there is another aspect to this. While I think you can build any number of other designs that I think can be made to fly better (Impact, Imitation, Trivial Pursuit, Thundergazer, Infinity, Saturn, Geo XL, SV-11 and its kin, and whatever airplane I forgot for which I will be ripped for in a second...), the fact is that the RTF Yatsenko plane will certainly fly FAR, FAR better than almost any airplane people are liable to get, simply because it is in close to ideal trim even as it comes out of the container, and also *because there aren't any adjustments with which to screw it up*. This same feature also makes it very difficult to optimize or to remove the last few little quirks, but it's far, far better than most airplanes I fly (and I fly A LOT of other people's airplanes).
Topic: Yatsenko Shark. (Read 13684 times)