AA5BY

I wonder if there is a connection between Vertical Grimmace's comments about flying activity level and the price. Are prices going up to cover the overhead while sales are off?

Like his, our club has seen a good reduction of activity. Ten years ago, we had seventy club members and a crowd at the field on both weekend days. Now, the Tuesday and Thursday retired group sees more activity than weekends. Club membership is less than half and some good flying weather weekend days will have no activity.

I don't pretend to know all the reasons for less activity but one that is clear is that the generation that was enamored by flight is aging and experiencing declining health and when they are gone... our club existence will be in doubt.

fred985

foam is number one!!!! foam and electrics is the great mix in rc flight. i was born in 1943 and as soon as i was old enough to notice,,prices have been going up eversince. i build real kits,,gisnt warbirds right down to guillows to hang from the ceiling. but i love those foam corsairs , hellcats, wildcats etc. i fly them while standing in the front door when its raining out !,,my colection of giant gas powered warbirds are fun but they take lots of effort to go flying. and i own 145 acres and have my own flied graded off and no other trafic, ama etc. some times a crow may enter the patern but they fly away when the foamys chase after them. longlive top flite kits and thank God for foam !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fred985

i forgot to say,,,,sig and balsa usa etc !!!

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

Without the Japanese, Koreans and Chinese getting into the market our hobby would never have advanced so quickly at such an affordable cost. Who makes your electronics and all the accessories that keep you flying. I have nothing but foreign made products and I'll bet I'm not alone. We have always supported this hobby with our wallets and there was a time when buying a Kraft transmitter was beyond the average Joe.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

My dad taught me how to build with my mothers blessing. Not sure I understand the family getting in the way of the hobby thing. Hobbies, I feel are what help a healthy family. I learned so much from my dad during those time. What a shame to deprive that. Unless the other Gender has a problem with it (wife), which unfortunately is too often the case. In my case I told her to jam it as she was the one who was unreasonable and selfish.
My father was always building something, but was never a flyer. I was always more fascinated with making things work, so I gravitated toward CL and RC aircraft as I got older.
This thread is about the hobby overall and not just ARF prices, I guess. As an officer in my club, we are scrambling to figure out ways to generate revenue to preserve our runway. It is quite large, so it is more expensive to maintain. With declining memberships, and not realizing the revenue from annual events we will need to get creative. the declining members just seem to be a glaring aspect of our budget. The problem there as well, is the solution to a majority of the officers, is to raise club dues. This worries me, as I think it may reduce membership further.

SkyPilot101

Arf prices up ??? What ain't up in price ??? WHY ??? Our out of control Federal spending & National debt ! Why is this hard for you all to figure out ??? Stop winning bout it and pay your fair share.

oil_can_harry

My Feedback: (2)

In 1985, brother had been flying 10 years before I got into RC. After visiting him in Arizona I came back to Texas and just had to have I plane. After a wreck and numerous broken bones and not being able to work, I ordered a pt-40 to build. I had a simple instruction book that came with the plane and I started building my plane. I had taken wood shop in high school so I was familiar with what I would need and how to go about it.  Along with a phone call to my brother twice a week for instruction and the simple blueprint, gluing my arm 3 times to my wife's glass tabletop, leaving exacto knife marks in the glass, burning my self numerous times with a Monokote iron, I finally got it finished after 5 weeks. 2 months later I went to Arizona with my pride and joy pt-40 to get trainered up on a cord and learn how to fly it. After working on it another day in Arizona to fix the things I didn't have right ( throws, cg, etc ) we put everything on charge for a day of flying. It was an adrenalin rush and a feeling of pride watching it take off for the first time. On the fourth flight, I thought I was a pilot and could make it do anything my brother could do, and of course I was wrong. He took it back and was showing me a few thi ngs it would do and it was just majestic how it flew and looked in the morning sun. He was up fairly high and throttled back to bring it in for a landing, when Snap !! The main wing folded in half and the rest of the plane came to the ground like a spinning missle. The 2 pieces of wings finally floated down, and when I went to see how bad the rest of the plane was damaged, I was shocked and sad that it was totally destroyed. I came back home and ordered a balsa USA Moonraker and started building again. I have 2 kits in progress right now, and 5 more sitting in the garage. I also have numerous arf's built and 8 in the box. I still like to build a kit, and I like my arf's. I taught my son to fly 3 years ago with a twm Mach 1 sky raider. It's still hanging in my garage and I still enjoy flying it. It has. Few bumps and bruises on it, but it still flys great. Other than some loose covering and the aileron rods getting sloppy where they go into the aileron, I have done nothing to this plane but fly it like I stole it. Pretty tough for an Arf plane. When my son started taking interest in flying, I bought 2 Moonraker kits and gave him one to build along side me while I built mine. After building his plane, he has taken great interest in building kits.  I think more people would take interest in building a kit if they had someone around to help them out when they have a problem.  I don't know how to post pics here or I would post a pic of my Moonraker.

eddieC

My Feedback: (2)

fred985

and what brought on the "great depression" back in the thirtys??? the smoot hawley tariff laws !!!! the world just stoped because the tariffs drove prices to high so the world couldent sell to the USA. if you dont believe this,,,look it up.

eddieC

My Feedback: (2)

GerKonig

So, and what US made household appliances will you buy, or TV, or computer, photographic equipment, or phone, or..... (The list goes on forever)


Gerry

GerKonig

It has nothing to do with that. Computers, TV's, appliances, photo gear, sneakers, clothing, also come from abroad. If you believe cost is what determines a price you are missing marketing entirely. When you have a product to sell you will charge whatever the market will bear. Supply and demand rules... If too many people stop buying, prices eventually will decline when inventories swell... Others might prefer to sell less of something while making a bigger profit, again, your marketing department has a say on that.
Almost all of the over the counter medications (even the big brand names) are currently coming from abroad, India being one of the big players. Do you think that when they started sourcing these items abroad at 1/3 of their prior cost they dropped the price? No, they charge us the same but their profit peaked...

Gerry

rcfighterjock

Just thinkin' out loud here. A few years back, you could get some "at the time" really remarkable ARFs through a name distributor for $500 and higher. In some cases substantially higher. I don't have stats, but I didn't hear that they sold real well. Shortly thereafter, new distributors sprang up around the web offering knockoffs of these ARFs at drastically lower prices. These began to sell quite well as most were and have been sold out for some time. I know, I have some of them. As these planes have been built and flown, they have become quite popular and demand has gone up. As demand rises, so does the price. Many of these are now beginning to creep back up to where they were when offered originally. Imagine that. Even the price of foam planes have exceeded $300 in some cases. It was to be expected. Not disagreeing with anyone, just thinkin' out loud. Keep 'em flying, guys!