I see that this is a fairly old thread and probably everything that needs saying has been said. I'm still going to offer one observation. One of my other bad habits, I mean hobbies, is astronomy. Today we have computer assisted amateur telescopes. After a simple set up the computer will guide the scope to objects in the night sky that are invisible to the naked eye and do so with amazing accuracy. Old timers on the astronomy forums, who had to use star charts and learn to "star hop" to find those invisible objects, complain that newcomers will never really learn astronomy. How can they when the telescope does all the work? My answer to this is that the computerized scopes are bringing many more people to a hobby they would have never tried if they were requried to star hop in order to see anything more interesting than the Moon and whatever planets are currently visible in the night sky. It's true that many of them will never do more than use the scope to go on an automated tour of celestial objects but that's fine. It's all about enjoyment and fun.

I'm seeing the same sort of thing in RC flying. Many of those who learned to fly in the days before gyros, or things like the SAFE system now offered on the E-Flite Apprentice S, dislike the new technology. They say you will never really learn to fly with those gadgets. They say an instructor and stick time is the only way to go. My answer is much the same as above. If the new technology draws in more new fliers then the entire hobby benefits. And if those new fliers never want to do more than take their plane up and fly lazy circles in the air? So what? They're flying and having fun. That's what it's all about.

I taught myself to fly with a good simulator and an E-Flite Apprentice (not the new S model). Had the S been available I would have bought it. I've got some other planes in the hangar that I'll graduate to when I'm ready but if I never do whose nose is it skin off of?

Storm