At what point in time of our lives does it happen? … You know, the date on the calendar we went from wide eyed youngsters full of dreams of flight and many other wonders, into someone that only dreams of getting ahead of the next person, and callously squashing the dreams of others to keep them out of a place you once dreamed about being yourself.
Have you forgotten that time as a young child you sat within a cardboard box imagining that you were piloting a Jenny, P-51, or a futuristic Jet that will go into the farthest reaches of space and time or 20,000 leagues under the sea? Have you forgotten the time you set in your room and folded paper Planes for hours just trying to get one that would fly straight and further then the one before?
Your friends often asked you to make Paper Airplanes for them because you were world renown for you paper Airplane building skills. You were also certain the U.S Military would be calling you any day, and ask you to design a Plane for them because no other designer in the World could fold paper like you. Within your own mind, it was your god given gift
You and your 8 yr old buddies have defeated the enemy many times, if not every time with one of the great paper planes you designed, and many a Cardboard Box Plane has met its doom within your house as they have death spiraled down the basement stairs only to crash and then sink in the vast ocean that resided in your basement. A young friend flounders on the basement floor waiting for a Great White Shark to gobble him up at any second.
At another point in time it was kite flying! All the neighborhood kids working together to try and come up with the record setting ball of twine in an attempt to set World Record altitude flights with a kite. Any flight that made it over the 300ft mark would surely beat out any Guiness Book record. Long before we destroyed our lungs smoking cigarettes, and ingesting years of toxins we could run with those kites so fast that other records like the Worlds fastest man may also have been achieved if only the right people had been there to witness it.
Then there is another point in time where Rubber Power Planes consume your time, and then at another point it is Flying your Cox Plane in a circle attached to an invisible line. You are smiling from ear to ear, and your friends are eating the moment up right along side you. You’re head swells twice its normal size as they declare you the Worlds finest pilot!
Then one day as you have grown older within an age of computers, and high tech gadgets and gizmos you find you still love the thrill of Flight, and you find yourself searching out others who enjoy it as you do.
Then one day while browsing the internet you come across a huge online community known as R/C Universe. The site has everything one could hope for. While browsing the site you come across the R/C Airplane forums…………Why are these people calling each other names? How come the guy with his little electric Plane is not allowed to fly at this other guys Club? Why do these two guys spend all there time bickering back and forth about AMA when they could be putting all that effort into something that is a positive for the hobby. Where did the joy go? Above all else I just wish everyone would remember that as children we would have all or mostly been great friends with a common love of flight, and would have gladly shoved each other down the stairs in a cardboard box.
I think we are losing our way and some have forgotten that it is about having fun. If everyone would just make it fun again then all the other problems would fix themselves, because there isn’t a kid alive who don’t want to be part of something that is fun! Just please remember when you write your next post that this is suppose to be fun. Seeing someones lifelong dreams shattered by something that you may say or do is not fun at all, and it would do everyone good to remember that though similar, everyones dream may not be exactly the same as yours. I think people within these forums would do good to find a better way to agree to disagree. I would also hope to see someday where people can respect another persons opinion even though they may not agree. My Grandmother said it best when she told me "Ray, if you don't have anything nice to say, or can't find a way to speak your mind in a nice way, then just keep your mouth shut!"

I have nothing to add. Nothing else could be said here. Good Show my friend Good show.

Well said ckangaroo70.

Very well put - brings back good memories.

Attitude and mutual respect is what it's all about. Too many "Be reasonable, do it my way" people out there.

Safe, Happy Flying!

Ray,
For a while today I was that 8 year old kid once again. Thanks for helping to put things back into proper perspective