Originally Posted by
init4fun
To answer this tired , hashed & rehashed question ; Growth in this hobby , , , just like any other , is 100% , no , strike that , it's 101% dependent on NEW PEOPLE GETTING INVOLVED/INTERESTED !!!!!!!!
So what , exactly ARE us existing hobbyists/the AMA/the industry supposed to do to push a hobby onto folks who quite plainly (yes , pun intended) are flat out NOT INTERESTED ??????
Give away free models ? Provide free door to door livery services to the the people and their models to the field ? Maybe build and fly the models for them so they don't get their hands dirty ?
Your quoted article is a full 22 years old , don't you think if there was to be some great revival in aeromodeling it would have happened by now ? Do you honestly believe there is just one key ingredient beyond the general lack of public interest that would "bring 'em in in droves" ? Let me say this one more time as I've said many times in the past ;
THE PUBLIC FLAT OUT AIN'T INTERESTED IN OUR HOBBY !!!!!!! And NO amount of wailing or gnashing of teeth on our part is gonna change that ! The "romanticism" of aviation is gone for "joe Q public" , flying is now as routine as taking a bus , and just like the great electronics kit building hobby of the 1950s and 1960s , I do NOT believe the aeromodeling hobby is ever coming back to it's previous participation levels anymore than the electronics kit building hobby ever will . Are there still electronics kits to be bought ? Sure there are , just as there will always be folks like us who enjoy aeromodeling . But "Boom times" for either hobby's future ? As an informed investor I wouldn't be buying stock in either Horizon or Heathkit !
Now , I implore any one of my fellow RCU AMA forum readers to prove me and my post wrong , I defy you !!!!!!!!!!!
Hi gents , I posted this a year ago in a different thread as an answer to the question of what we RC hobbyists should be doing to attract new people to our hobby . I believed then just as I do now that for the most part people aren't all that fascinated with flying things anymore , and this is not the fault of the hobby's current participants . Yes , as you can tell , I took issue with the original question in that other thread's premise that we active hobbyists have somehow let the hobby down by not bringing in new hobbyists , and so I'm forced to ask the question again ; Outside of being a friendly and approachable representative of our hobby , just what ARE we supposed to be doing to push a hobby onto a public that flat out just ain't interested ?