Locally, pattern seems to be growing. Why? Attitudes of the people. In our area we've got a bunch of great guys who are in it for the people relationships as much as they are for the competition. I have seen guys who are flying at the FAI level helping sportsman flyers. The contests are free to sportsman and we let the sportsman guys fly 2 rounds at once. You just need to have the right attitude and be a bit creative.

There are also lots of planes out on the market now in ARF form such as the Venus that can fly almost all of the classes with a standard non-exotic engine. I think this makes it easy to get going.