I feel the reason is the turbine itself and the fact that more and more kits for them are coming online. It has changed the landscape of the rc modeling hobby where you have people seeing unique airframes and sounds one wouldn’t normally see at your local field. With that, the perception the model is expensive and explosive comes into play. So when an accident does happen, it gets peoples attention more so than a glow or electric powered airframe (even if it’s a giant scale).

You have to step back and look at it from the perspective of the majority of the people in the hobby and those that attend shows not in the hobby. I went to this years IMAA event in Chowchilla, CA to see the giant scale warbirds and there was a noon time demo of a BVM KingCat. I’ve seen and flown a KingCat before and the guy who flow the jet that day IMO flew very conservative (no smoke either) in front of a few hundred people. I was more interested in watching the people watching the jet. It was a big eye opener because the reaction from the crowd was with wonder and complete attention. I’ve been flying turbines for nearly two years now and it’s really amazing to meet people (just a month ago) at the field who’ve never seen one before and have a boatload of questions. This is the point when you have the ability to shape there perception of this aspect of the hobby favorably.