rkwbeagle

Why do I see less modelbuilding in the MA magazine. It seems to be a loss art. all I see is stuff about ATF or RTF. they are people that are flying and can't fixs or build a airplane. if they crash it, just go out and buy a new one or get someone to fix it for them. Is ATF the death of modelbuilding and modelers. I hope not. modeling and modelbuilding is what keeps people in AMA for the long haul.

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

Apparently you got a diffrent mag than me. Mine has plans, scratchbuild, and a nice Q&A about building.

Stickbuilder

For the same reason that you see pretty much only ARF's at your flying field. People use the excuse of having no time, and the kids need to go to soccer practice, or their job demands too much of their time etc. They have the same amount of time as everyone else, but they chose to do something else with it. I have 5 kids (now grown) and Grandchildren, a home, a job that requires tons of my time, but I still find time to build scratch and kits. No ARF's for me. It's all about what you want to do, and most of these guys don't know how to build, and don't want to learn how. It's a dying art form. someday they will want to do it, but no one will be around to teach them how. They say that they will be able to find the information online, but there are problems with all kit builds, and the internet won't have anyone to send them messages on how to fix the problems before the plane is built.

Bill, AMA 4720

Crewcut

Two articles in Feb 08 issue on built ups. You must be reading different magazine than me.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Compare the magazines of 30 years ago to the mags of today and there's no comparison when it comes to the number of unique and interesting articles about scratch building. If scratch building articles paid the bills, you would obviously see more of them now. I also suspect that if there were more magazine quality submittals to choose from, there would be more published. It makes no sense to go on a crusade about the situation, "todays' man" is who he is. Many of the reasons given for why todays' man doesn't want to build are lame, the day is still only 24 hours long, the grass has always needed mowing, men have always worked long hours, etc. None of this matters to me, thanks to the internet I have every conceivable material and plans service, scale views, etc. at my finger tips. It has never been easier to get whatever I want because the internet is my magazine now.

rcmiket

Here we go the ARF thing again. Here are the cold hard facts. People buy ARF's because they CAN, THATS IT. Magazines publish what the consumer wants because they have too. If your unhappy about it start your own magazine. Look at the bright side how many fewer participant's in our sport would we have today if there were no ARF's?

BillHarris

What they all else said. bARFs are possible because people have disposable income (coupled with the Magic Plastic) and a source of really inexpensive aeroplanes from the Orient. I tried building for bucks to earn a little extra income, but the little bit you make is offset by the frequent expectation of free repair and maintenance.

I'm not worried about the future of the hobby, plans will always be available and people will always learn to build...

--Bill

k3 valley flyer

My Feedback: (18)

Seemed to me the emphasis was on cheap entry level foamies, check out pages 62 to 66. AMA has decided that the AMA's salvation lies with the Park Flyers and the magazine's emphasis now supports that. First time in 20 plus years that I almost pitched it in the garabage! The Storch article saved it from the can. Tried to read Jim Cherry's 2 page treatise on The AMA, to bad my experience with some of those departments and how he describes them are two different realities.

STLPilot

My Feedback: (21)

I don't see how we can blame the Asians or the AMA for the collapses of kit building and manufacturing, we can thank the American manufacturers and distributors for that situation. The American consumer market accounts for more then 51% of all worldwide RC goods and services sold. But then again the only reason the manufactures produce any product is based on consumer demand. Consumers ask for ARF's, manufacturers make the ARF's, the Asians are commissioned to build the ARF's and then they go right back to the consumer. So in that sense the consumer starts and ends the process of ARF's being developed and sold.

So the AMA is now focusing on consumer demand, no shocker there. It's not like we haven't been asking for it, at least on these boards. But one thing you can say about the AMA which you can't say about most other magazines, at least they attempt to keep their roots and focus on all facets of model building and flying as far back as the history can go.

Kudos to the AMA for finally molding with the times. They see it, now the rest should also jump on board.

ira d

If it were not for arf kit's IMO the hobby would grow at much slower pace. I for one
dont like to build nor do I have the time, if all the planes I have or have had would
have been full build kit's I would have only purchased about 10% of them.

KidEpoxy

Is it the Academy of Model Aeronautics,
or the Academey of Aeronautic Modeling?

Cause one is about flying (models) and the other is about modelling (stuff that flys).
Casting a Spitfire out of concrete from a highly detailed mold is a valid autronautic model.


Manufaturers demand for pubishing about ARFs is called advertizing.
The articles & columns could be nothing but building/modeling regardless of what is being advertized... if that is what the editors wanted to do. Reviewing ARFs is easy, you slap it together and rate it static & in action. Reviewing kits is more daunting, you spent a long time putting that sucker together and then have to consider author skill at building in the final product. You end up with pictures of little bits of stock you would use to build a plane out of... I know what a 3" sheet of 1/16 looks like, I dont need a picture of a stack of wood in a box, but magazines are picture driven for the masses.

There is a giant section of Non-Arf modellers out there.
Scratch builders, plan builders, designers... they publish a ton of designs on the web daily.
But they use blue FFF foam to build planes instead of balsa, and for some reason are not embraced by oldschool balsa kit builders. Folks that want to not like ARF'ers, cause they aren't KitBuilders, should maybe aspire to be Scratchbuilders & Designers like the FFF guys.

Watch out for asking for more building in MA,
we could get issue after issue full of 7 or 8 blue FFF plans & Foamcutter wings plans, & splattered with Chinese glow-ARF ads

Simple way to avoid too many ARFs at your field: 1/2A Only
Go look thru MA and get the .049 vs (40/60/91/gas) ratio of ARF ads.
Folks say there are too many AARF ads & reviews, I say there are not enough 1/2A ARF ads & reviews

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

KE, I didn't know that the AMA offered foam wings until I saw the ad in the last issue. I was impressed with that, hopefully they have a selection that is up to date.

Jim Thomerson

In my opinion, Flying Models is a better general modeling magazine than Model Aviation. A little less empahsis on ARFs although they are covered as well.

Mode One

Once the econonomies of the far East get more inline with the rest of the world, the ARF bubble will likely "POP". Then we may be faced with having to build our own airplanes, again. It does not matter to me, that you who do not like to build, might not be involved in the activity, after this.

Roby

Ditto on post #9 for me.

Regards,
Roby

RCPAUL

My Feedback: (1)

RC Report has given up the "building" process for the "assembly" process as well.

However, when my kids were young (60's), I wish there had been ARFs as I would have got a lot more flying in rather than building after a crash.

Paul

quist

My Feedback: (198)

I am sure the MA will publish any article that is well written and FREE. I don't think they will discriminate on content. This months Scale Aerobatic forum was basically an advertisement for Krill airplanes.

cfaw10

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Vintage

At least we get articles in MA about the hobby. If you would count the number of ad pages against articles concerning our great hobby in most other magazines, I think you will find that 75% of the magazines we are reading are nothing but big catalogs.

Stickbuilder

So, let me get this straight. If someone's opinion differs from yours, then they are, "Arrogant"? How arrogant. Not to mention rude.

Bill, AMA 4720

cfaw10

Don't want to see this thread locked over flaring tempers, so I deleted my previous post.

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

I'm seeing a lot of griping here, about a perceived problem.

I'm just going to suggest that anyone who isn't offering to write up their builds and provide to the magazines (or post here) isn't really offering a solution.

Dave Olson

rcmiket

There is no solution ARF's are here to stay. Like it or not. If you want to build do so. If you want to buy ARF's do so. What's the problem? I wonder how many new AMA members joined because of ARF's?

Mode One

Dave, what is it that you see as a "perceived problem"? If you build kits and this is one of the activities that you enjoy doing, having been in this hobby awhile, I can assure you I have no misperceptions about the lack of kits; or, the lack of people building them these days! I also fail to see any gripping here, only people stating facts, which I strongly believe are irrefutable!

Without doubt, the ARF is a strong component of the hobby, today. Whether it will last when the people of China, Viet Nam, or other far eastern countries start getting paid stronger wages, remains to be seen. I have ARFs and enjoy them. However, if they were to go away today, it would not bother me. I've been a member of the AMA when there were 1/3rd the members there are today. The AMA functioned fine then. To think that the AMA can't function without the ARF people, is being arrogant, also.

Jim Thomerson

MA pays for articles. Go to the website and I'm sure you can find out how to submit one. Sometime back it was a matter of submitting a precis and, if they liked it, they would tell you to go ahead and write it up. I submitted five precies and got two articles published back in the 90's