init4fun

I've said it before , to youngsters who grew up in and around the 1950's full scale flight was only 50 years old and still quite fascinating to us mechanically minded people . Now more than Fifty years have passed since then and aviation has become so routine and taken for granted by Joe Q Public as to not be seen as being all that special anymore . Ditto for the (now simple) act of being able to remote control a mechanical device , we who thought Zenith's "Space Command" TV remote control was nothing short of magic have been replaced by a generation or two for whom the TV remote is nothing special (and of course they laugh at the primitive nature of the "Clicker" when I show them one) .

Another consideration , look at the picture I enclosed in the opening post and what do you see ?

A Father preparing a model airplane for flight . Could part of the lack of participation center around the fact that we don't allow today's children nearly as much leeway as we had with such hobbies ? I was 10 or 11 years old flying control line planes with a McCoy 35 and my Dad worked 2 jobs , he wasn't around to build my airplanes and start the engines for me , I was trusted (expected) to master my hobby myself whereas today it seems that if the parent isn't directly involved in every aspect of the hobby the youth doesn't "take the bull by the horns" and strive for self reliance in the hobby .