RE: How many park flyers have YOU seen?
"I think you have provided the parkflyer solution, ET....or rather shown the solution is that there is no solution needed because there is no problem. "
EXACTLY.
"No problem not just because park flyers don't see any problem, but more so because there are no park flyers. How elegant. "
No, there are some park flyers. But I think the fear of park flyers is quite exaggerated.
"BTW, has it occurred to you that what you see in your environs may not be typical of the rest of the country? "
No. I have a place upstate, too, I am there quite often. It's in the country. I also visit the suburbs.
"After all, NYC is something of an alternate universe in its own right. "
That's true!
" Like, how many FF models have you seen in NYC in the past month?"
Let's see. A guy flying HLGs in central park. Competition style HLGs. Indoor flying, lots of it, at the Teaneck Armory. Indoor FF at the Museum at Floyd Bennet. Myself flying a Pee Wee powered Competition Models B-70 upstate. Myself and my daughter flying skeeters and sleek streeks in Manhattan parks. There is a lot of FF going on up at Wawayanda, but I have not visited recently. FF is pretty rare nowadays, no matter WHERE you live. But that's how many I have seen in the past month.
How about turbines?
About half a dozen, Floyd Bennet is pretty much the only place to fly turbines around here, unless you have a private field you can access, I have that, too. I fly turbines a bit, too, I might see more than most, less than some.
For that matter how many model flying sites, period?
Four or five. Floyd Bennet, Moonachie, Thomas Bull upstate, and one more upstate where they mostly fly helis, plus a private airport.
I also saw a lot of soccer fields and such, and most of the park flyers I see are either at a club field, or they gather at a few places with some sort of casual organization, like "let's all meet at the ballfield thursdays." What I don't see is a lot of guys flying solo at "bootleg" fields on 72. I used to, a lot, when I was younger, flying gliders and schoolyard scale, but sooner than later, most guys (flying gas, anyway) want to go to a field where they cannot get kicked out, or they don't have people walking right into the landing zone to play frisbee.
I like park flyers well enough, I think they are nothing but great for the hobby. I have had various park flyers. As a modeller, they are not very interesting to me, but others seem to enjoy them, and when I go to my club fields, I don't really have any fear of being shot down by them. I worry more about the club guy who forgot to get the pin.
If guys want to fly park flyers and not join AMA, it's fine by me. If they start with the park flyers and end up moving on to more complicated stuff and want to join AMA, that's great, too. If they were former AMA members and they decide they want to drop their membership and just fly park flyers down at the schoolyard, that's fine, too. I don't see the problem.
Just my two cents, it's not empirical data that can be construed as "fact", it's just one guy's opinion. Best o' luck!
Abel