I just have to put my 2cents in here because what I have read in this post is exactly why I don't join a club. Lots of people just saying BLABLABLA plain and simple
Everybody comes from different walks of life and in general no 2 people are the same.
I am not an expert buy any means, I got in to this hobby about 4yrs ago and was never interested in it before. My wifes cousin was into it and the rest is well history. My first purchase was a TT raptor 60 with the best of everything and I will state I am from small town Canada, anyway I had in all around $5000.00ca into it took it home read everything and put it together properly I might add, found it a challenge and got hooked didn't know anybody around for help and didn't really need it, just did everthing to a tee made sure everything was neat and tidy, in a nut shell what turned me off was the morrons at the shop I bought it at turned out they forgot or what ever the case was but I couldn't even get ball links blades or anything else for that fact, dumped them and went to a new shop that bought up a bunch of other shops that were probably going under or what ever the case, they had alot of neat stuff in there and at first had product support until I bought up all their product support, I'm the kind of guy that just hates to wait, for anything, I did get an excuse that TT had just moved and their warehouse was in array[:'(] when I phoned GP which was the distributor to Canada they asked me who I was going though for parts, anyway I end up stripping the heli and selling and trading to get my money back or as much as I possibly could come out pretty good I might add.[8D] Anyway by that time I had enough of most hobby shops I had dealt with for the fact nobody seem to be of much help on heli's so I ended up with a 1\3 Byron pitts and a 1\4 scale 300xtra this story can go on and on but I'm trying to make it short, I was to scared to fly these planes because they were really nice and common sence told me don't even. So I go buy a Seagull Cessna 40 take it home and build it over nite, talk it to the field the next day with wifes cousin in tow and I tell him he can try it first, so he gets it up and after a bit gives it to me, well it really moves and before long I let it get to far away and can't really see it can't tell if its upside down right side up or what ever, Splat we walk over there and yup its splinters like 100 pieces or so, I put every piece I could find in a bag and spend the whole nite gluing and epoxy scrounged some covering and was ready to go again in the morning, didn't hve the time to drive the 200mile round trip to the store for one and had to show I could fix it and fly it, you know it was ulgy heavy but flew well and even fast got bored with it and bought an old pattern plane off a guy bearing in mind this is all with-in a week, flew the wings off the pattern plane ya it had a few hard landings nothing a bit of glue and epoxy wouldn't fix and yes it started to get quite colorful through time, about a week or so tell it to got to far away it got to the point where it wasn't worth the time to fix so I go buy another used plane an old Apache v2 for 50 buck fly it once and well but second time lost battery power in a turn and stood there for about 5-6mins watching it go around and around tell it hits the ground lesson #3 learned so now I have 3 planes in parts, pieces rather, so I put it all in a garbage bag give it 3 shakes and out pops a Patchy plane thats what my wife called it, 1part apache fuse 1part pattern wing 2parts epoxy everthing but duct tape but it flew rather well and did surprise a few people, it was all a challenge and experience to say the least this is all with-in about 3weeks there was no club in town and only a very few that flew and where we did fly was at a barley field the town owned, a small strip in the middle was our field had lots of fun and there was nobody with the attitude they were king everthing was cool until we started to venture out to your fields then we met some of the most errogant guys I have ever met. Once the challenge was over and I got hooked on E-Bay it wasn't long and I had enough Arf's and parts to out do some smaller hobby shops, yes I was an addict from the first day and still am going strong, I will add that I do have insurance and do fly safe but do enjoy flying by myself just for the fact its less B.S I've been around the so called instructers that when you tell t6hem when they ask for about a month or so they tend to back-up when I flash up, show them how I fly and then watch them crash and burn,why, well it was a glitch they say, well its going pretty straight for a glitch looks more like you lost your power. Then theres the guy that owns the hobby shop, he can go on for hours about all the planes he's built and designed from scratch of all the ones hanging from his ceiling theyv'e all come down, and he's the guy that runs over buddies plane and flight box at the field, and it goes on an on, so who is better, nobody. All the people that read everything they can about this hobby still aren't any better, sure they know lots of info on the latest gadgets and crap, they get more wrapped up in things you don't really need and lack the true knowledge of going out and learning buy your mistakes and the diffrent experiences you've had and just having fun. Who cares what Joe-blow has and how much money he or she has or wiether they have a trailer full of planes or a stable full who cares, they must be having fun or they wouldn't be out. I think it all comes down to the jealousy thing, same old same old BLABLABLA

As far as the new people that just won't listen or heed advise they soon will come to a point where they figure it out or fall out
As far as the safety is concerned you will never get rid of the guy that has more money than brains well they to are here for a short time they soon will get tired and move on, lets face it it's only the die-hard addicts that will survive, scratch kit or arf its all the same, what goes up is going to come down sooner or later.
Where is everybodies 1st 2nd 3rd------- planes???
Where all lucky no one was hurt!!
Fail safe? and all the other gadgets? waste of money and dangerous, I would sooner have a plane go down in a field rather than off on a collision course with what or whoever

I still class myself as a beginner and always will because I'm always trying something new
mostly with big power in little things
hell I've even went to the hardware store and bought abs downspout tubing and built a plane out of scraps and flew the wings off.
I don't know the stats but who has caused more accidents??
newbies or seasoned vets??


Have A Happy New Year
Always keep safety in mind and most of all have fun and get along with your fellow man, even when it is trying and frutrating at times

This is only my 2cents Have FUN!!!