hmmm. the aussie dollar will be a force to be reckoned with
1. when england join the Euro, and
2. when USA decides to split into the spanish speaking and english speaking halves again.
LOL

RC flying is probably not too popular really, my city of 600,000 only has one shop.

capital cities may have bigger stores.

most guys who are in to the hobby would also be in the aerospace industry in someway i guess.

yep the weather is almost always great in queensland, beautiful one day, perfect the next. RC is more of a winter event when the temp gets down to 20 deg C. too cold for watersports..

I have 1 friend that i fly with regularly, and know of about 5 other guys that fly helis in my entire area. dont know what the plankers do or where they do it.

Best part is that its still a very isolated and unpopulated country so you can get away with almost everything. there are not really any rules and regulations other than what common sense dictates. i fly in an area of 2 football pitches side by side in the middle of a suburb and the caretaker has never said anything nor have any of the locals. its a common place for walking dogs, so the occasional mutt will have a go at your machine, (wouldnt like to see the result of a rotweiler and a TSK 60 @ 1800 Rpm!) of course we try not to burn the grass too much with nitro spills and everyone seems happy. caretaker loves a slab of beer over xmas to keep him on side.

Its easy to get 200L of methanol, 40 litres of nitro and 4L cool power oil, so we generally mix our own gas at minimal expense.

a crash is a nightmare, the downtime can be lengthy as parts inevitably have to be ordered from overseas.

hope i've painted an accurate picture. cheers...