I'd agree with thr whole snobby attitude bit.

As a kid I wanted nothing more than to learn to fly R/c planes. I bugged and bugged my parents, we went several times to the local AMA sancntioned field to watch the slimers, and were always turned a cold shoulder to. I was even lucky enough my parents bought my a .40 size trainer, R/C gear, field gear ect... I put the plane together, balanced it, broke the engine in and never flew it- no doubt in part due to not wanting to go ask some unfriendly, arrogant person for help. in the meantime I enjoyed many an R/c car kit, and boat kit (mostly electric) and some very high performance ones at that- i always wondered and longed for the day this technology and easy of use might creep over to R/c planes.


Fast forward 15 years- It happened!! I got brave one day and while cruising around the hobby store- impluse bought a PZ J-3 cub- little did I know at the time it would turn out to be the ticket to my longtime dream of flying. I managed to teach myself to fly the little cubbie, with no assistance- it now has over 100 flights on it, and i've continued on with several other faster more advnaced 4ch models. to this day I prefer to fly by myself or with one or two other 'friends'. We actually have a church that allows people to fly electrics on their property in town, and on some saturday mornings there will be 20-25 people there flying. Even though this place is touted as beginner friendly you still get "that look" for bringing a RTF model- "I've never seen one of those fly well", "Why don't you get some standard radio gear", "27 Mhz is for toys", blah blah blah...

I think some of these folks need to realize the reason the hobby continues to survive and evolve as it does is in large part because of these electrics and RTF models. R/C aviation had grown to a stagnet point, as skiing had about 15 years ago before the invention of the snowboard, and new life and interest was given to the sport. in much the way these lil electrics and RTF planes have to R/c aviation. without new blood and new dollars in the hobby, it becomes stagnet and people loose interest. something that is all to forgotten about at the "AMA sanctioned" fields.