What will keep them in the hobby when things go wrong? The hobby will keep them in the hobby. The experience of flying, the friendships with other RC pilots, and the enjoyment of having the planes and taking them out to fly will keep people in the hobby. Yeah, I guess there are guys who drop out after their first crash who might have stuck around had they built their planes and had more emotional investment in them, but given the number of 1/2 built trainers I see there are also significant numbers of people who get bogged down in the startup efforts and never actually fly at all. The problem with both is not the kind of plane they started with, but rather the level of commitment they started out with.