ORIGINAL: CrateCruncher

Sscherin, you got a great deal but it was a closeout price and unsustainable - Tower lost money. I and others felt Lanier's street prices were too high for the contents of the kits and they didn't sell well. Its a vicious circle in every declining industry. Costs (and street prices) go up as volumes decline. Eventually, only the specialist niches (like giant scale) are left because ARF importers can't justify the low volume and high freight costs.

My great grandmother baked her own bread. Around 1920 her local bakery began making it for her because there were enough families in the area to support him. She loved the convenience. Her daughter got married and ran her house the same way mom did. Only this time she bought bread through necessity. The simple skill of bread making had been lost.

Today at my field everyone flies ARF's. The older guys do it for convenience. The new guys do it through necessity. By publishing an interesting build thread we can restore some of the skill-sets being lost. It doesn't take long for several thousand hits to accumulate on a good thread. As more home-built planes begin showing up at local fields the interest could create a sustainable chain reaction. Maybe I'm just dreaming but through the power of the internet we can restore some of whats being lost.