Not only do I agree whole heartedly with this statement I find it completely ironic since I started writing a thread stating almost the exact same thing while at work today. I couldn't quite get the words right, and trashed the post right before I left for the day. This is actually my second start in this hobby. My first attempt was over 15 years ago with my father. We decided we wanted to learn to fly so we went to the local hobby shop. The "nice" gentleman there helped us pick out planes and all the accessories we would need to build, cover, and fly them. I walked out of there with either a Mustang or Corsair (I can't remember which), and my father had purchased a huge scale Cub. Thankfully we also picked up a couple of RC mags. It wasn't until we read through those that we realized how different classes of planes flew, and that we would never successfully fly the planes we bought. Since we didn't have internet ordering back then (I don't think I even knew about Tower yet), we headed back to the LHS. The same very "nice" gentleman proceeded to sell us two trainer kits. I have always resented that man for allowing us to leave the store with those first kits. We openly admitted we had never flown, and actively sought advice from him about what we needed to complete the models we were purchasing. Never once did he mention that we might have even the slightest difficulty flying the planes we bought. I honestly believe he did this knowingly. After all if we crashed the first planes, there is a very good chance we would be coming right back for another one.

Even after being away for so long when I called my LHS to get some price comparisons on a couple of planes I was looking to buy they tried to sell me on the H9 "trainers". If they hadn't been significantly more expensive than the Avistar I did buy, who knows what I might have ended up with.

I can only imagine that this is even worse with the advent of internet shopping. If you can't trust the salesperson at your LHS to point you in the right direction how can you expect a web site to do any better.

The part I can't understand is that with a little guidance the plane manufacturers and hobby shops might just find life long loyal customers. This is something far more valuable than a quick sale. When you take into account the danger involved in flying RC planes, this becomes even more important.

Maybe one day we will see the manufacturers, and resellers showing more concern for their customers, but I haven't seen any change in the 15+ years I have watched the hobby.

At least there are resources like RCU that help to throw some reality into the mix.

So in case I haven't said it before...Thank you to everyone that comes here to help us newbies, and keep us from making more mistakes than we have to.