I tend to agree with Deadeye-- I enjoy building as much as I do flying, maybe more. I'll buy an ARF to hone my skills and take chances with and thrash so that when I fly the scale plane that I have a serious emotional attachment to, I have the skills to fly it without too much fear of skinning it up. There's a certain peace to being in the workshop, nobody to answer to, no deadline to meet, the only person to satisfy is yourself. Scale models to me are a vicarious way to experience as close to the real thing as possible when it isn't possible to experience the real thing, at least from an economical point of view.

I'll bet that Birddog used less deckspace to land than any other plane to ever land on that ship, and did it without a tail hook.