ORIGINAL: k3 valley flyer
Glowplugboy I have had the same experience with ''don't need no instructor'' types also. Latest one has me stumped though, a doctor who has the latest greatest RC heli $ can buy, he joined AMA, joined the club, has called and asked for help several times, and been to the field twice in 2 years! It seems he thinks he should be able to be a pilot just by having someone explain it to him, or maybe the ''laying of hands'' on his thumbs or something. We did get him on a trainer plane one time, after he had destroyed his 40 glow trainer trying to fly it in his subdivsion on his own, he said it was to hard and went out and bought the heli!
I know, I know. This is a new phenomena in the hobby, and it's growing rapidly. "Back in the day", when all models were built from kits with considerable time and money invested, newbies wanted to be instructed because failure meant starting all over again and delaying the fun in some cases for several months. As a seventeen year old, I could not afford to crash my Falcon 56 by doing it on my own. ARF's and the new marketing trend of plug N plays have taken away any sense of ownership or emotional connection with the model..... "Hey, I just take it out of the box, charge it, and go fly it. If it goes WHAM! well, it was fun for a weekend." The mail order or LHS got its one shot and these consumers, and they won't be back. Our "hobby" is rapidly being reduced to a consumable, where actual knowledge, experience and appreciation of the sport and life-time passion it can be has been pushed out of the learning equation.