shoes? airplane? fair? she wont think so, to her shoes are a necesity, where as she will see an airplane as just more "junk"
been there done that [:@][&:] When we parted she had well over 100
pr of shoes [X(] while my hangar could be packed into my sedan
Ok on the topic of what the hobby shops will carry, I made a trip to one of the biggest within a 400 mile radius a couple days ago, and I spoke to the manager there, and asked why all he carried was numerous cheap foamies and a few (very few) 40 sized arfs. His reply was eye opening, he said it simplified matters both selling and for issues as his staff didnt have a clue about anything to do with planes, while one of his staff was into cars and buggies, and it showed too, that section was well and truly stocked up and catered for. I asked if there waqs any demand for decent airplane kits, arfs motors etc and he told me bluntly he didnt know, and no-one on his staff had said anything either. Bare in mind this town has 2 good sized RC Airplane clubs, so whats the story? simple, he relies on his staff for whats on demand, and his staff are feeding him duff info. I told him to basicly get his ass out of his office and get with what is really wanted and get the real facts from his staff. he ask what I meant and I told him that his staff had just told me that there was no call for airplanes, yet I walked into his store and was told that what they stocked was all that was available, and I wasnt the only one told that by his "rc expert" I told him bluntly that his "expert" ewas costing him a fortune as I know that like me many of the local club members up there were shopping in the US and Asia just as I do.
Ok thats one hobby shop, But after talking to several others I have come to the conclusion that the reasons hobby shops dont carry many models is
Arfs are so much easier, as they supposedly have everything needed bar the motor and radio gear, meaning less outlay in stock, and staff dont need to know whats what
To sell builder kits means carrying an assortment of hardware, glues, balsa, covering etc, as well as tools and stuff. In the words of one hobby shop owner, "bahh, I couldnt be bothered"
Another issue regarding kits is that many kit makers wont sell direct online, which is cutting thier own throats, seeing as how most hobby shops have little or no interest in actually stocking kits, I have actually contacted several companies about obtaining one or more kits, and was tolds to go to my hobby shop [:'(] so what do you do? It looks to me like for many kit builders its a lose-lose situation, especially in the 40-1.20 size kits. The bigger kits are getting better catered for as more and more kit cutters are setting up shop, and plans are getting more available too. One of the big issues with the popular lits that are disappearing is the "copyright", which means a kit cutter cant just get a set of plans and make a run of say 50 kits of your "40 zingbat" or whatever without leaving himself wide open to a legal wrangle.
The way I see it, as time marches steadily on, the availability of full kits is going to dwindle, and it will be up to builders to find plans and scratch build most smaller kits, while a lot of the bigger planes have plans readily available and a number of cutters doing short and all wood kits to your plans. The big issue with all the Popular kits is that the manufacturers are steadily winding down production, but are holding on to the rights and copyrights, which means basicly a slow death for that kit/plane. As long as we are flooded with cheap chink arfs, I dont see it changing, as most are quite happy to fly them, with the attitude "if I dork it I'll just get another". On that note what I would like to see is a set minimum standard that all these chinese arfs are built too, both in the amopunt of wood, type of wood, and designs. I am seeing more simply fold up in the air simply because they arent built strong enough for what they are. I saw another arf just fold its wings on its maiden flight yesterday, again wings folded just outside the wing joiner, and again, very little in the way of spars, and what was there was notched for ribs and very little glue actually in the joints.
One question to ponder, when was the last time the hobby shops carried a "NEW, just released kit" ??
ok I'll end it here, just the way I see things cheers