ORIGINAL: JW0311
Are noob's allowed to have opinions?
Certainly! Encouraged to do so. I have no respect for someone who holds no opinions.
In fact, it's very easy for some to sit back and snipe at someone's dreams. To all the self-taught out there: I salute you. However, statistically, you must know you succeeded against the odds.
Somewhere I read the average hobby lasts a person seven years. I know lots of guys who have been in R/C for 40 or 50 years. That means there are LOTS of guys who come and go quickly. I was in it briefly in the late 70's and gave up trying to figure out powered models on my own (I had flown two-channel gliders successfully). I just couldn't get it all together with the engine and airframe and other things came along (like getting married two weeks out of college).
I care enough about strangers to
try and protect them from hurt. And I am thankful for the guys who volunteered their time and gray hairs to get me flying when I decided to get back into it . . . properly and with a trainer and tutor on a buddy box and after being coached on engine installation, maintenance and tuning.
Just paying it forward.
Granted, there are many park flyers and foamies now that can be readily learned by ones self. Sometimes guys my age ignore that. And sometimes young guys think simulators can replace instructors or that lessons learned on a 12 ounce model translate to 12 pound versions.
To those with bright hopes and ambitions: Go for it! But only after you listen to us old grandmothers try and talk sense into your knoggins.
“ It's not the critic that counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or whether the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is married by dust and sweat and blood who strives valiantly, who errs, and often comes up short again and again.
Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion and spends himself in a worthy cause. And who, if at best in the end, knows the triumph of higher treatment and high achievement. And who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his soul shall never be with those cold timid ones who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt