I've been in this hobby for close to five years. I've sat back and watched the transition from nitro to electric, and brushless from brushed, nicads to lipo's. As I watch I realise just how dangerous this hobby is and has become. The advancement of electronics and inexpensive prices mean anyone with little or no common sense can go out and buy one of these things, and the most profficiant warning from anyone is in a slim to none manual that says "warning this is not a toy, exercise caution". If you scour youtube you can see this in the general public as there are more stupid careless video's of people goofing off then there now are good pilot demonstrations.

My biggest fear as I'm starting to veer away from the hobby is the chinese and thaiwan market playing a big role in cheap downplayed manufacturing. I'm becoming less and less inclined to continue this hobby as I see one new company after another introduce themselves into helicopter production as they steal, clone, or fabricate cheap copies of perfectly good legitimate products. I'm noticing less and less the big boys in the spot light, such as thunder tiger, Hirrobo, and JR, the companies that share a history in starting this hobby to begin with.

While I do love the practical Idea of a hong kong based site "not naming any site names" selling product for dirt cheap to saticfy those who want to be in the hobby but couldn't before afford it, it looks and feels as if it's slowly destroying the hobby. Even those who have giant expensive rigs with a big fat paycheque are turning to the lesser expensive product at the cost of a few dollars savings. It's companies like Futaba, and Thunder power, Kong power, Hitec, and JR that prove themselves in the industry and fuel fantastic products with our dollars. So much of that money goes into design and technology. Only these truly great companies step up and sponsor young and old pilots in competitions and exhibits.

My unfortunate observation left me to start thinking about getting into planes. As I look around at all the Websites selling planes.... to this I see.... Not much hanger 9, not much GWS, almost no great planes...... just cheap foamie planes and jets with no name electronics copied... cloned... and relabeled.