Originally Posted by
Jack Diaz
Scale competition was one of the strong driving forces for building .
Unfortunately, they have also surrendered to the ARF force. Even in Expert Class, a repainted ARF is allowed and accepted to comply with the "Builder of the Model Rule".
You really have to enjoy building to swallow that your 2 year work is competing against a nice paint job.
Competitions like the JWM eliminated the Rule, thus making it a fistfight between profesional builders.
Another consideration nowadays is the huge difference in pain between crashing an ARF and crashing your long hours of proud work.
So, I guess it all comes down to personal satisfaction and pride as the only reasons for building. And I am sure that there are a lot of us doing it.
Jack
+1 - and that's part of my point - I was doing all ARF's a few years ago and sort of chasing that "one more plane" syndrome, and I got burned out. I started thinking about what was missing, and then I realized that it was the personal satisfaction of building something with my own two hands. So I pulled out my old Mick Reeves' Hawker Hunter kit and started back on it, and I got interested again. I could have gone out and bought the Ripmax ARF Hunter from GJC, but that wouldn't have been as enjoyable...
I still have some ARFs to keep me flying, but now I also have plans for the next two planes I'm going to build after the Hunter. It is a struggle to find time to build, and I also have to work in the maintenance and repair of my flying fleet (which is two ARFs and a scratch-built 110% size Ziroli Panther), but that's part of the deal...
Bob