ORIGINAL: Chucksolo69
So if I am reading your post correctly, anyone who wants to buy a ''cheap'' foamie plane and get into the park flyer side of the hobby has no business entering it. Seems to me his ONLY mistake was showing up at your club ''ninvited'' I regularly fly with a bunch of guys who have been flying for years and have NEVER had instruction or been in a club and I can tell you, they fly pretty darn well. Not just ''cheap'' foamies either. Does that mean they enjoy the activity of flying their planes any less? Have you ever considered that there ARE people out there that don't NEED or WANT instruction. Some people don't want to compete or fly giant scale RC aircraft. They want to take their 3, 4, 5 and 6 channel aircraft and just have fun doing it without having to wait in line hours and hours to do so. There are those who are inept in any hobby, be it cars, trucks, helis or airplanes I give you that, but why talk down about those that don't necessarily see eye to eye with your beliefs? I fly foamies and got into the hobby about 3 months ago. I have crashed one plane on it's maiden flight and very slightly, hardly any damage done but a wrinkle in the airplane nose; no crashes since then in a lot of flights. I thank my RealFligh 6 sim for that. Yes I am self taught, so what? Do I want to buddy box with an instructor, no, do I want to join a club, no, do I want to join the AMA? Yes, I probably will just like I am a member of the NRA because I like to shoot. I have read many posts that claim that you can show up to a club and everyone there will gladly help you with a big smile on their face, and then you go and make the statement about this one person showing up ''uninvited.'' That kind sir, is EXACTLY why I don't want to join a club..............I can do without the elitism in a hobby I really enjoy.
Lots of misunderstanding in this post, so I'll try to clear up my position.
I don't have a problem with someone doing the hobby differently than me, including low end foamy planes. I do have a problem with guys putting planes in the air that aren't reliable as the extra cheap end of the hobby tends to be. I also have a problem with people failing and quitting because they tried to fly junk.
On the club field: The fellow tried to fly at our field when nobody was around and didn't have AMA. There are signs clearly posted that prohibit that, partly because our insurance requires that pilots be current AMA members (not to mention our arrangement with the Corps of Engineers to use the land) and also partly because our club has spent 55k in the last 3 years on this facility. I pay my part, so everyone else should too.
On waiting in line: On very busy days I've had to wait as much as 10 minutes in line to fly. But that's rare.
On instruction: These two guys I'm talking about are not responsible, naturally talented guys. They are goobers who have silly ideas about how the hobby is going to work that my experience says simple cannot work. I don't want to judge them or dissuade them. I want to help them by redirecting their ideas to something more viable like not starting with an EDF jet from Banana Hobby as one's first plane.