Its different now for sure. Speaking as a 52 year old, who started building RC Kits in the late ninties, it's definitely different. I started with a Hobby Lobby Skimmer sailplane with a can motor and 7 cell nicads, flying off of a rural highschool football field. When I figured that out, I moved to glow power at a local rc field in a county park that did not require club membership.

Took 10 years off and now glow is dead and my trusty hitec optic 6 is an antique and watts per pound is now more important than motocalcing the last possible electron out of marginal power packs and getting the gear ratio just right to not fry anything.

I'm now flying at a state park, where the average age of the flyers I've met is pretty danged old. I just bought my first 2.4 gig radio and it has telemetry, most important a variometer for the Sig Riser 100 kit I'm building. I'll fly it at my state park field mostly with just the hawks and buzzards. If the state park land gets aquired for something other than an RC field I'll probably buy some land and make my own. I don't feel the need to convert others to my passion and I do not need or want an audience to fly......RCU is enough social media and social interaction for me....

Definitely need to support outfits like Sig that are still making kits. I need to buy that 4star .60 kit.......have to come up with a strategy to explain that to my lovely wife.....