fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

Hobby People (nee Hobby Shack) lists a grand total of 4 balsa airplane kits on their site:

http://www.hobbypeople.net/prdcls/ackit01.asp

The future of R/C indeed! (Oh wait, that's Megatech!)
Dave

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

The end of R/C indeed! (Oh wait, THAT'S Megatech)

Boomerang1

Did you order one? If not that's why they do not stock many these days! Supply & demand, no demand - no supply! - John.

Raymond LeFlyr

My Feedback: (2)

Good news bad news? You got me . . .

1. I just ordered a giant-scale ARF and I feel guilty. But the last model I built like it took me a whole Winter of workshop time. I expect to have this flyable in a week or two at most - as an electric. Good news, bad news?

B. I find myself building more pure scratch projects (my design) over the past few years. Is part of the cause the lack of 'real' kits? Good news, bad news?

III. Do ARFs bring in more new modelers? Will these people develop into "real" modelers? Good news, bad news?

Quatro. You tell me how much our hobby has changed in the last five years. Are you doing more/different things? Good news, Bad news?

ptulmer

My Feedback: (5)

There are more kits available now than ever before. What has happened is that laser cutting means that there are more cottage businesses taking business away from the big suppliers. You might see fewer kits on Tower, but do an internet search. Most small businesses don't have big advertising campaigns. Or you can just go get one of my (or Bob's) kits at www.selecthobbies.com (Sorry about the plug, it just seemed relevant)

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

I buy kits, I buy ARF's, I scratch build, I was just commenting that the kits, they seem to be be fading.
(At least from mainstream suppliers) Someone is buying all those Herr, Guillows and Dumas kits though.

And PT, I agree, with affordable CNC laser cutters, routers etc, kits will probably be strictly a "made to order"
business someday. They already are as far as the guys who scan your plan, then cut the parts out for you.

But I am looking forward to ASSEMBLING my Herr Mini Something Extra ARF before spring rolls around.
Tough to beat that plane for $90 in my opinion.
I got over the ARF guilt a few years back, but I used to "build" the Midwest molded foam ARFS way back when,
so I've had practice feeling guilty about them. They were a lot of work compared to todays ARFS however!

Currently I'm scratch-building my little rudder only 1/2a biplane.

And no, I did NOT order one of those 4 kits, I already have those 4 kits!

Dave
EDIT Pleased to report that Tower still lists about 120 kits, & about 160 ARFS.
(And about 90 FF rubber kits)

digital_trucker

I just picked up one of those Q-Tee kits to get my fingers re-trained. I also got a Herr Cloud Ranger kit. That Herr kit seems to be a bit over-engineered. I suspect I can bash it and lighten it up quite a bit. I'm mainly going to be scratching my own designs - mostly scale, although I'm CADding a shoulder-wing job right now with an elliptical planform and former/stringer construction on the fuse.

dieFluggeister

I'm impressed about the little cottage businesses that take orders from people to complete and set up their ARFs! Talk about the end of RC... It seems there is a faction of modelers out there that don't have either the skill or the time to snap together one of today's ARFs, and just want to proceed directly to the field. It seems today's affordability and quality of ARFs has developed a whole new market segment of modeler.

But look on the bright side guys... Anybody who can glue two pieces of balsa together will become a highly paid consultant! Yes sir, bring it on. For another $150 an hour I will even fly it for you.

digital_trucker

I personally don't see a problem with it. As long as the hobby continues, everything should be just ducky. More diversity can only bring good things, especially in hardware. There's always going to be folks who enjoy the full building experience. Actually, there's quite a few people that probably SHOULDN'T be building their own. I've seen some pretty scary hunks of wood and metal flopping around in the sky...

Andrew

DT --

I've noticed a significant expansion in hardware, especially in the micro-linkage areas. Until the growth of the parkflyer market, a lot of the 1/2A hardware came for the '70's era of overdesign. I also doubt if we would have seen the varied selection in small receiver battery packs.

Trogdor the Burninator

ditto

chad500_0

This Christmas I saw a television comercial for a "boat that goes on land and then flies" Aero-Hog makes them (I think). My mind went crazy with comprenhending whose idea was it to make a "toy" that looks like a flying pitchfork. With the cheap RTF planes out there it offers people the opportunity to try our hobby, but I figure most of them will get tired of crashing and quit insted of asking for help.

We have to accept the market as it evolves and learn how to work with it. I am actually pleased that you can find most kits in some form on ebay or information about kits, here. It is pretty cool. In reaction to all the ARFs,RTFs, or FARTs , I can say that I am more inclined to scratch build now than ever. I am starting a Klemm L33 soon.

chad