I absolutely agree that good training should be a given, but it's not a perfect world. My local hobby store has its strengths and weaknesses, and after I bought the Aerobird and struggled to get it to fly, I began educating myself as a consumer. Had I done more research before popping $130 or so for that Aerobird Challenger, I might have steered myself in a different direction to start with.

The ironic part is that my only LHS is a Hobbytown USA and they carry the Hobbytown RTF Trainer package that Hobbico makes for them and they sell it for $229.99 with a Futaba 4YBF radio, an O.S. .40 LA, and a Hobbytown USA branded version of the SuperStar .40 glow ARF. If they'd have just pointed me toward their own house brand trainer and given me the name of one of the local flying clubs, I'd have spent the extra money and been much happier. The $130 I wasted on the Aerobird Challenger would have completely outfitted my $40 Hobbico flight box with a power panel, electric starter, battery, fuel pump, glow starter and all the niceties.

Thanks to them sticking that Aerobird up my a55, I ordered my Nexstar Select RTF and all of my field equipment from Tower. I know now that I need to know about what I'm purchasing before I go to the LHS, because they don't. They only sell me what I ask them to.

It's funny that the ideal hobby stores can't seem to make it. Bud's Hobby in Council Bluffs, IA was the kind of place where you could walk in and count on the owner for expert advise and educated opinions. He was a skilled RC pilot and an instructor for the local club in CB. I bought a plane off of E-Bay one time and it arrived with a broken tail assembly. I bought the tail components from Tower Hobbies, but didn't have the building skills yet to remove the old tail myself. Bud told me to bring it by his shop and he installed the new tail for me at no charge. I took 90% of my hobby business straight to his door for the next 18 months, right up until he sold the property and closed up shop.

People would go in there and talk to Bud like he was their bartender or high school counselor or something. They'd hang out in his shop and drink his coffee (no charge) and eat his M&Ms (no charge) and get his advice on planes and engines and radios and all kinds of other things. When they wanted to actually buy something, they'd mail order it to save $5 or beat Bud up on price because his ARFs were $3 more than the cheapest mail order place on the planet. Too many folks forget all about customer service if they can save 10 cents.