ORIGINAL: Deadeye
The great part about this hobby, is there are 2 distinct aspects to it - building & flying. Not all of us are builders, which is where the ARFs come in to play. Thankfully, I enjoy BOTH aspects of this hobby.
I enjoy flying tremendously, but don't believe that building kits is what I want to do. I'm only 10 flights or so into my second airplane, the Sig, (I got the H9 182 at a swap meet and it will probably sit until next spring) and to be honest didn't get all that much pleasure from assembling the two ARF's. Now, I'm not looking for someone or some company to just hand me an airplane that's ready to start and go fly, but I find the assembly to be tedious at best. I understand that it's in my best interest to know how the plane was put together, and how the pieces need to come together so as to make sure the control linkages, surfaces, etc all work properly together and so I can repair/fix as needed after the inevitable incidents. I just don't particularly enjoy it. That said, I will probably put a kit together this winter if for no other reason than to improve my repair and covering skills. I had to do some repairs to the fuse and covering on my Alpha this fall, and I shudder to think what it would have looked like had I tried to build it from a kit last spring.
What I don't really understand is the way some tend to look down their noses at those that fly planes which they assembled rather than built, or small non-IC planes that can be flown somewhere else other than a purpose built flying field, or whatever. It seems to me that the whole point is to find an aspect or aspects of the hobby that you enjoy, and then have at it. Why would I want to disparage someone who enjoys what they are doing, even though it may be different that what I'm doing? I'm not into heli's but there is a guy at our field who is a wizard with them and my jaw drops at some of the things he can make one do. I love watching him, but it doesn't make me want to fly a helicopter. Same thing with guys who are into scale detail. I've seem some awesome scale planes at events at my field or events I've attended, and enjoy looking at them and watching them fly. I appreciate the time, patience and skill that such takes. Doesn't make me want to build one, though.