Thanks.

Really though...I don't think either is "bad" or "better" or "more of a modeler" or anything...it just seems to me that, even among aviation enthusiasts (and I see this in full scale as well as RC) that there are 2 separate groups.

One group is fascinated by flight. If it has wings and flies, they're interested in watching it, playing with it, flying it, whatever. It is, however, the act of flight itself that moves them. Sure, they see an airplane on the ground and think "neat...airplane", but the "magic" just isn't there unless it's in flight. It is my belief (however wrong it may be) that these folks tend to see airplanes as amazing machines...the science behind them is compelling, the mechanisms that allow them to fly are "amazing", and so on...but they are, ultimately, still machines.

These folks, imho at least, tend to buy and fly ARFs...and they also tend to want to fly the nicest, prettiest, best airplanes they can as full scale pilots.

Then there's another group (of which I am a member). We too are fascinated by flight...if it flies, we want to be a part of it...watching, flying, controlling, riding, whatever. But for us, the airplane isn't a machine...it's a living,breathing thing. It has, for lack of a better word, a soul. We think Wolfgang Langewiesche's Stick and Rudder : An explanation of the Art of Flying, despite being 50+ years old, is STILL the greatest work on the subject of aviation ever penned. (All you kit builders out there..if you HAVEN'T read it, do yourself a favor and do so ASAP. It was written for full scale pilots, but trust me...ole Wolfgang "got it" like few before or since.) In short, flying isn't a question of physics, so much as it is an "emotion".

We, again imho, tend more to be builders (or at least enjoy the craft). Perhaps it is BECAUSE we think airplanes have "souls" that this is so...we want to be a part of that soul's creation, and shaping, so to speak.

*shrug*

Or perhaps I'm just being WAYYYYYYYYYYY to philosophical for a silly RC message board.