Originally Posted by
ameyam
IMHO, its a question of how much spare time you have. Seven years back when I started flying, ARFs were already the rage. I tried my hand at building a US40+ but realised that there are a certain amount of skills you pick up by working with an instructor that I couldn't get by myself. I did finish the airplane with help but haven't built anything since. Mostly, this is because working guys don't really get the time to build their own stuff. My buddy who is in college did a lot of designing and building for various competitions but I found it impossible to keep up with his schedule. So I fly ARFs mostly these days
Ameyam
to me it's just human nature, I've seen this in other hobbies as well, belonged to a classic chevy car club, owners of 55,56 and 57 chevys and those who took their cars completely apart then put them back by themselves have a tendency to look down upon someone who paid to have their car restored or someone who bought a car already restored.
I'm going to respond to the 2nd quote first - - I'm old enough, and set enough in my ways that I'm getting rather tired of the "children" in this country trying to tell me that I've been wrong for the past nearly 70 years. GROW UP PEOPLE!!!!!! Some people like to do things one way, some like to do it another - it's a simple fact of life. Anybody who "looks down" on anyone else, for any reason at all, needs to have their values corrected. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY has the complete right to do anything they choose in any manner they choose - as long as it's moral and legal.
End of response to that point.
Now, my response to the first part: I'm not buying it. I've never bought it, and I never will. "I don't have the time" - been hearing it all my life, and it's CRAP! I started learning about airplanes when I was 7 yrs old. By the time I was in high school I was designing my own, building them, flying them - successfully. I spent 22 years in the military (which is a 24/7/365 kind of life), which included raising a family in a dozen places around the world. I followed that by another full career of 25 years, plus raising and training horses, plus community work, plus taking care of my own properties, AND I STILL HAD/HAVE TIME TO BUILD, FLY AND FIX MY OWN PLANES, plus repairing those of others who never learned how to do it.
Don't tell me you don't have the time. It's a cop-out. The simple fact is that you don't have the incentive. If you did, you'd find the time.