We are all products of our time. Most of us builders are retired. When we were young if you wanted a model aeroplane you had to build it. I built my first model, a rubber powered free flight model called a Keil Kraft Ajax, when I was eleven years old. My uncle taught me how to build. This was followed by a small free flight glider Neither was very successful. It was only after I'd saved up my paper round money and bought that Mills 75 that I built a successful model, a Veron Cardinal, free flight of course, radio was the province of the rich in 1960s Britain, but at least I was learning something about aerodynamics which was to come in useful later.
Nowadays you pay your money and buy something which may or may not be suitable for a beginner, you may stay with the hobby but that's increasingly less likely. In these days of buying ARTFs. There is not the same emotional attachment to the model as was the case in the past..
One day, several years ago I was talking to a young member of my club and he asked why I built models rather than buy ARTFs ready built. I mentioned pride of workmanship and sense of achievement, the fact that you could choose your own colour scheme if it was a sports model or modify a scale model to suit your own preferences. We both came from the same town as Eric Lock, the leading British fighter pilot of the Battle of Britain. I said that if I built a Spitfire I could finish it as a replica of Lock's aircraft. With an ARTF you're stuck with what the manufacturer is willing to provide. He looked at me as if I was daft!
Having retired to rural France I joined the local club. Soon after, a father and son team joined the club; both novices. I think that the father was about 45 years old and his son about 20. I had an old car I didn't want so I sold it to the boy. When he picked up the car he noticed that there was a plan of a 1/6th scale Nieuport Bébé on my table. I said that I could build it in three or four months because there's nothing complicated about it. The swept back wings were a bit of a novelty but otherwise it's a very simple aircraft. He looked at me in amazement!
But then, no-one had taught him how to build had they? With the arrival of Covid 19 they both absented themselves from the club and neither has subsequently returned.
Lifelong modellers are also a dying species, if you'll excuse the pun. Last year I bought a Laser V twin fourstroke. I picked it up direct from the factory. The agent told me that many of his customers learn to fly, then buy very expensive model aircraft and engines, then give up the hobby after a couple of years and go on to something else. His brother runs a business selling scuba diving equipment. He has noticed the same trend.
It's been said before, but this is a dying hobby, it appeals to older men. There are thirty-three members of my club. Only four of them are of working age and we also have a thirteen year-old boy who can outfly everyone except his father! In the fullness of time when the older modellers shuffle off this mortal coil, a membership of thirty-three will be reduced down to five unless things change and there's no evidence of that happening. Even amongst the retired, there are some who only buy ARTFs.
And when we die, as we all must, what will become of all of those models which we have built and upon which we have lavished such care? They'll be sold for next to nothing or simply be used as firewood because fewer and fewer people are interested in building model aircraft. You don't believe me? Check out the Plane Olde Bargain site:
https://www.radiocontrolledmodels.co...and-valuations. I don't want to lumber anybody with the task of shifting my stuff when I pop off so I'm starting to de-clutter. Anyone fancy an as new Enya 15,19 or 35? Anybody? Yours for the cost of the shipping.
I'm not bothered if fewer and fewer people are interested in the hobby. I enjoy building and will continue to do so for as long as I can but I can't agree with J330's point. I have four models awaiting repair, one an ARTF(!), but I'm getting on with building my latest project!
Happy Landings
David