<<..."foamie hell"...>>

Man, I hear you. I am SO tired of all these steenkin' park flyers; the catalogs-disguised-as-magazines are nothing but these things lately; heck, even RC Report has succumbed, in part, to this infestation.

I understand that the vendors are in business to make money. I understand that these things are hot sellers. And I understand the need to maximize profits; up to a point. But it seems to me that The Empire and, to a lesser extent, Horizon, are slowly but surely moving away from traditional main-stream models, in effect abandoning those of us who prefer that genre.

Sure, this foamie crap is selling as fast as they can be produced; right now. What about five years from now?

I dunno; perhaps I'm just too resistant to change abd set in my ways. I tried electrics, was underwhelmed, and have no desire to try it again. Yes, I know the discipline has improved greatly since then. But to get a glow-comparable power set-up is vey expensive, between li-po/whatever batteries and the chargers they require. I have a substantial investment in two Alpha 4s, which won't handle these new batteries. I cannot see casting them aside just yet.

I had an interesting conversation with Dave Shadel about this at Toledo. He is flying some electric stuff now, and had very good things to say about it. His word is good enough for me, so perhaps one day I'll look into it again.

But it will be in a real model airplane; not a few pieces of ice chest foam glued together with graphics slapped on...