Hi,

When I went to my first jet rally, it was back in '96. At that time, there were almost NO turbines and very few ARF's. You'd show up and see 'legendary' guys who you've been reading about and seeing pictures of in magazines for years. Some of those guys were absolute artists when it came to building airplanes. Their work was pain-staking, patient, awe-inspiring and exciting. Even the 'regular guys' out there had some level of accomplishment as modelers because they'd managed to build a flyable jet model out of a kit (and, in many cases, from scratch). Add to that the fact that they'd managed to get a ICDF setup running reliably and predictably, and you knew that their investment into the hobby was more 'blood/sweat/tears' than dollars.

A lot of those guys were such 'gurus' that I'd pick their brains and fawn over their planes for hours. More often than not, they were free and generous with their lifetimes of knowledge and skill. As that generation passed or 'retired' out of the hobby, the events have turned almost exclusively into ARF meets. Not that I'm bashing that, but how many truly 'kit-build' jets have you seen. I know some guys will get mad and say, "Hey! Do you have any idea how much heart and soul went into my weathering job on my ARF?? Yes, I deserve to win Top Gun! And let me give a shout-out to the guy over there that actually did the weathering for me!" But we can't deny that it isn't like it used to be. Even the forums don't have the numbers of truly talented, experienced and knowledgeable guys who used to be on here sharing their knowledge.

For that matter, the LHS are a totally different animal than 20 years ago. The other day, I went into an LHS that used to be pretty comprehensive, and the glow engine props were all just tossed into a small box (mixed brands, sizes, etc.) when they used to have a whole wall of just props. I dug through looking for an 11x6, but nope. I asked the guy and he said they hadn't ordered a prop for a glow engine in 18 months. No airplane 'kits' to speak of. It's like you need to go to an estate sale or a museum to find one of those anymore.