sensei
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ORIGINAL: ArtW
I started building RC aircraft in the late 1960s. My friends and I would build kits, we would design aircraft, we tried many things that failed, some that worked well. My best design was a circular control line plane traced onto balsa from one of my mom's mixing bowls. It was simple, flew well, and was crash resistant (an extremely important design criteria). We built flying wings. It was great. It took a long time to learn to fly in the era before simulators. It was hard to start the engine. It was hard to learn to fly. It was hard to get the electronics which didn't have servo reverse or limit adjust, to work right without binding, but we worked at it. Many planes had a single flight after months of construction. The only competition for time was school, TV, bike riding, and sports. One guy in our club had what one would call an ARF. We were all amazed at how it only took 20 plus hours to put together after he crashed another one. He was the only pilot at our field that could fly inverted four feet off the runway and the only person I have ever seen fly while chugging Harvey Wall Bangers from a Thermos repaired with duct tape. He flew ARFs because they were quick to get in the air after totalling another plane. When computers became available as kits, we built four of them and then tried to build a flight simulator to learn to fly better.
Well I still build. I still build kits, and ARFs, and helicopters. The thing I fly most now is a BNF helicopter because I can fly it in my front yard. That being said, there is a balsa jet kit on my construction table and a small electric heli. I think that building appeals to a set of RC flyers who like to build stuff. I like designing things. I like modifying them. I enjoy thinking about how to optimize the plane, sometimes it is a success, sometimes not. It is a hobby. If I am in the mood and have time, I buy a kit. If my time is limited, and the vehicle exists as an ARF, I buy the ARF. The choice depends on what I am trying to accomplish. I would like to build a VTOL plane, it doesn't exist, it will likely not be either a kit or an ARF.
There is a subset of General Aviation that has the same discussion. Kitplanes Magazine (http://www.kitplanes.com/) shows that building, and customizing, and tinkering are alive and well even in GA. Some people want to fly. Some people want to build. Some people want to invent or tinker. Some do all of it depending on how they feel at the time the VISA card comes out. I would also recommend Maker Faire (http://makerfaire.com/) as a place where people who like to make stuff, and those of us who build RC kits fall into this group, really have a home. The other point is that when I hire an engineer, I find there are many types. There are those who understand the math and there are those who have built stuff. If someone hasn't built things, they don't understand the reality of making a concept real. Building RC aircraft lets me use that part of my brain that needs to build, invent, construct, tinker, engineer, etc.
People still build kits, they simply also fly ARFs, BNF, etc to let them have the time to both fly and build rather than just one.
You have reminded me of an old saying I heard some 30+ years ago while I was still an active builder of full scale aircraft and a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, and it goes like this. If you are going to build, then build, if you are going to fly then buy!
I always understood the true meaning of that saying by all those unfinished projects that were listed for sale in the Trade-A-Plane subscription I once had.
Bob
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RE: Why don't many people build RC airplane kits anymore? - 
