Sorry for the interuption, we had a momentary system crash. There seems to be a major decline in this country, if not also other parts of the world, interest in anything that requires effort or learning. Building and flying well definitely requires both. Some of the large number of newbies seem to come in through the ARF route, learn to fly quickly, then leave in maybe two or three years. To progress beyond that point requires more effort and learning, so the're gone! And from what I've seen of a lot of kids, they just get dropped off by parents who are just looking for free babysitting while they run off to do something more important than actively raising their own kids. Too many of these kids have some interest, until they realize their parents are pretty much abandoning them and rarely will take the time at home to do more than a How'ed things go today? - - That's nice. Then no other real support or help for the kids. The ones who eventually make a break into the building side seem to stay longer and become even better flyers.