Hey guys I've been following this thread for a while now. One thing I'm convinced of is that there are many people who like and feel strongly about c/l flying. I started c/l in the early to mid seventies and still love it. I still have the babe bee powered Carl Goldberg lil wizard that I first flew successfully thirty years or so ago. It has many hours and many crashes on it and is still in fair shape even though I have retired it. I haven't seen anything that compares to the simplicity of a reed valve .049. It would probably still run. When one of my friends moved into r/c I would often go to the field with him. Whatever planes we took I usually threw in the wizard. It had three things going for it -- it would almost always start, it usually ran well, and it would usually survive a crash. It was a good one to let a new guy use. At times when there were problems with the more sophisticated stuff it was the only one that flew. Often we would fly it until we ran out of fuel ( the can -- not just the tank ) or until we burned a head ( man we used to run that thing lean ). Truth is after aquiring a job, a wife, a family and other obligations I quit flying so much. Recently I've been trying to get back into the hobby. I like planes and I like engines. I'm happy with a simple flight and I don't want the expence or complexity of r/c. C/L fits me pretty good.