ORIGINAL: combatpigg

How many ARF product reviews can you read before falling asleep? The mystery, ingenuity and variety are mostly gone. The sport used to be more of an adventure, becoming a master model builder and flyer was a real accomplishment. This is what gave the old magazines interesting material to report and do feature articles on. The hobby has transformed to pre-packaged, stamped out mechanical objects that the average guy just whips out his credit card for and goes home to stick 6 parts together. How interesting can any magazine make this [the state of our hobby] seem like?

ORIGINAL: Bob Mitchell


I think you're right......the hobby has changed from one where to fly an airplane you had to build it from a kit (or scratch) to ARF focused, and the magazine coverage is following the focus of the hobby. It's not difficult to pick up on that, even for one who is fairly new. If one has little (or no) interest in ARF's then much of the content of several of the mass market magazines is going to be lost on them. MA is also in the position of needing to publish information that focuses on smaller niches such as free flight or control line because of the nature of the organization which publishes it. I tend to skip those sections, as well as others that cater to areas of the hobby that either don't interest me or that I haven't gotten into yet. But then I don't read every article in Car & Driver or Road & Track, either.

Model aviation is changing; some are going to like the change, and some will not. That's the nature of change. I think the magazines are being pulled along with that change, and it's probably the right thing for them to do.

As a relative newcomer my perspective on ARF's is that they made it much easier for me to get started and to determine if model aviation appeals to me as much as I thought it would. From that standpoint, the emphasis on ARF's in the magazines is good. I'm planning on building a kit this winter, if for no other reason than to find out if building is as much fun to me as the flying, and if nothing else, to develop some skills to assist with repairs.

ORIGINAL: Jim Thomerson
If you have not seen indoor free flight and get an opportunity to do so you will think it time well spent.

ORIGINAL: Stickbuilder
Not to micro critique your post, but you need to get one thing very straight, and very quickly. Free Flight is the main reason that you have the AMA that you have today. Free Flight, Rubber, and Control line are not Niche markets, but are the old timers in the AMA. What interests you is very new to the hobby. Just because it has developed a bigger following, does not mean that you need to shuttle the old interests off into a, "Niche." Pay your dues, get some time invested, and learn about the hobby before painting the hobby with a broad brush. These guys can trim a model to make it fly as was intended, rather than disturbing a flying model as you are learning to do. As far as I'm concerned, ARF's and Electrics are Niche markets, and not the other way around.
Bill, AMA 4720

ORIGINAL: CrateCruncher

In starting this thread my purpose is not to bash Model Aviation or those that contribute to it. But naturally if I'm motivated enough to begin the discussion I'm going to weigh-in with an opinion. My purpose here is ONLY to foster a discussion on how to make it better.

I've been hanging around the RC forums since returning to the hobby about two years ago. When I have a question I can get an answer almost immediately. Sometimes I have to take an average of several answers and drop the outliers but I get there. So when I read an article in MA I'm looking for some depth. I don't want "Here's a thumbnail sketch of the topic in 175 words or less". I can easily get that from the net.

The "how-to" article should be the focus of the entire magazine in my opinion. One article that stood out in recent memory was Pete Oochroma's 11 page effort titled "Turbine Modeling Made Easy" in the August 2008 issue. It was informative, well organized and deep enough to hold my interest without losing me in the weeds. He clearly put a lot of work into it, even listing websites of suppliers at the end for further reading. Another that generated weeks of internet buzz was a concise yet thought-provoking article on propeller performance calculations. (I apologize to the author. I misplaced the issue). Both were excellent and we need many more of those in my opinion.

The other type story that needs better focus is the "event" article. Many of these mention dozens of people's names and what they did while ignoring what the event is about or how it impacts the progress of model aviation. I don't know Jim and Sally Smith from Columbia, South Carolina and in all likelihood never will! What is significant about their airplane? Why not focus on the technical aspects of the top winner's airplanes instead of a rambling outline of the entire three-day event. Some competitions don't even mention who won!

Another problem I'm seeing more of is the "push article". As the publication becomes increasingly focused on the needs of the advertisers their accepting pre-packaged articles about new products being heavily promoted by the manufacturer. When done right it can give the reader information and exposure to something he might not have otherwise considered. When done wrong it loses objectivity and becomes nothing more than a disguised advertisement.

The internet world is full of amateurs (us) freely divulging our hard-won knowledge so I think it becomes increasingly important for hardcopy publishers to become more focused. AMA is a big tent covering many aspects of aero-modeling that we can't all possibly be interested in. But if I get one or two in-depth professionally written articles I'm interested in from each issue I for one would be quite happy. Most of the AMA Mission Statement mentions "development, education, education and scientific/technical development". What better place to do it than Model Aviation.

And who knows, I might just give free-flight a second look.

ORIGINAL: Stickbuilder

Give the writers a little slack. They spend the entire week or at least the weekend getting the best photos and information possible. Often, due to space limitations, the editor will cut the stink out of the information that you supply to the magazine with the photos and photo identification, and/or descriptions. It's not that we don't want to give you what you want, but if you want that much info, you might want to attend the event yourself, and spend the whole day looking at one plane. It would be easy to do.

Bill, AMA 4720

ORIGINAL: CrateCruncher



Gosh Stick, I didn't realize I was being so harsh asking for only two articles of interest in each 200 page issue. A writer who spends four days at an event and doesn't even bother showcasing the winning entries and their builders is kinda sad. If this publication didn't have a captive subscription base I think they would have made hard changes long ago or been consigned to oblivion with the others. Advertising sales are the major focus of the magazine, the interests of members are secondary because we can't voice our displeasure by cancelling. How long before those advertisers begin to realize their ad-copy isn't being read and stop paying for it? There are much better ways to target advertising budgets in the internet age after all.

I don't think "over editing" is the problem either. This is a big magazine! If anything writers are probably being asked to "stretch it". Model Aviation has gobs of potential which is why it kinda frustrates me that it's mediocre despite so much money and effort in putting it together every issue. The cost to publish is the same whether the article is good or not. Let's put the emphasis back on that!

ORIGINAL: CrateCruncher

Stick, I hear ya about the winners not being announced until late on the last day. However, journalists and writers everywhere are faced with this problem and have learned to work around it by handicapping the entrants beforehand. Everyone knows who the top 5-7 favorites are and so they spend some time with each one filling in a backstory during the event. Ever notice when the olympic swimmer wins the gold suddenly the network has a 3 minute clip about the guy in his home town riding his motorcycle to class or whatever. In the unlikely event the overall winner wasn't on the handicap list he's probably so jazzed about winning he's happy to stick around another hour to take pictures for MA. It's not a big deal. I think they just don't know to do it (or care).

ORIGINAL: CrateCruncher

I'd love to see that Combat. We are, after all, the folks actually using these products and we didn't get a special one for free! In that vein, I'd like to see engine comparisons on a real dynamometer with torque and power curves. The manufacturers publish a data point like 2.5hp @ 16,000rpm. That is useless to us.

ORIGINAL: dhal22

nothing pains me more than some styrofoam rtf park flyer being reviewed by someone who's been in the hobby 50 yrs. you know it's killing them. unfortunately there are probably more of those zipping around as we speak than handmade planes.

david

KidEpoxyWhat group is next for the special treatment? [