I absolutely agree. This is one of my pet peeves, so allow me to be a bit long-winded... Puritan beliefs are still very deeply embedded in American culture. "Gain" is only supposed to be achieved with great "pain". They may not come right out and say it, but most of the anti-spad crowd believe that if Spads really fly as well as we say they do, then Spadders are "cheaters" because we are not working for our pleasure. This drives them nuts.

There are only two ways for them to get this to conform to their view of a just world. The first is to assert that Spads don't fly very well. If they can believe this strongly enough, then we are good people again, because we're not getting as much fun out of flying as they do.

On the other hand, if Spads do fly well, then the only possible way to live with this injustice is to assert that Spadders are morally inferior people. This faction of the anti spad group feel that spadders are lazy, demand "instant gratification", are careless flyers, and are not safety conscious. Another avenue of attack is to say that Spadders just don't have what it takes to build a beautiful aircraft. The latest approach in this desire for a just world is to assert that Spadders are wimps, and are too frightened to fly "real airplanes". As long as the character and skills of Spadders can be degraded, the Puritan world view is safe.

Since Spadding threatens the moral fiber and character of the model flying public, anti-spadders are particularly vocal on the "Beginners" forum, and they are particularly threatened by Spad trainers.

So beginners: If you feel that something of deep value can only be gained by many hours of tedious labor, then by all means, building and flying balsa is for you. If you make it to solo, you will have a great sense of achievement, and can rightly look upon it as a character-building experience. However, if you feel that human ingenuity and clever engineering can result in a better world, one in which technology rewards us all with more leisure time to have fun, you'll want to go Spad right from the start. You can build your character in your free time.