Red B.

It's amazing how much money people are prepared to spend on hobbies and recreational activities.

The good thing about the model aircraft hobby is that there is no correlation between the amount of money you spend and much fun you can have. During my "career" as a model aircrafter I have "been there, done that" with one exception, I haven't not yet invested in a turbine.

Thinking back I realize I have had as much fun building and flying indoor peanut scale models as I have had when flying giant scale aerobatic aircraft. The cost of a peanut scale model is a small fraction of a giant scale aerobat, but the fun factor is the same.

Also, keep in mind that the skill of the modeller is not measured in the amount of money spent.

/Red B.

Edit: corrected bad spelling

Wild Foamy

Over $2000 / year 35%

:O:O:O some of you lot have more money than things to spend it on dont you?

i get £10 a week from my paper round (stop laughing) and that amounts to £520 a year, 80% of that goes towards my savage for broken limbs and fuel e.t.c, 20% of that goes onto other things.

Missileman

My first year this year and I am some where over $5,000. That is including my heli fleet and the $1,200 I have invested in a 1/4 scale DR1 I am building.(about 1/2 of that money came from selling some of my high power rocket stuff)
My wife doesn't complain because she gets to spend what she wants on her hobbies.
On the plus side I quit smoking a year and a half ago so I am saving $200 a month right there

ScienceisCool

My Feedback: (1)

If you don't mind me asking, what do you guys do (work) that allows you to spend over $2000 a month on this hobby?

bruce88123

Drug smuggling?

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

It seems difficult to not spend a small fortune every month while enjoying this hobby. With flying styles as diverse as trainers, sport planes, pattern planes, 3D planes, scale aerobatics, scale warbirds, pylon racing, sailplanes and gliders, combat contests, float flying, free flight, and control line (to name a few), it's easy to drop a small fortune every time you discover a new facet of the hobby.

What do we spend it on? Books, magazines, kits, tools, adhesives, ARFs, engines, flight packs, engines, props, flight box equipment, batteries, chargers, fuel, materials for our "workshops", cleaning materials, and so much more.

There seems to be no end to the categories available for us on which spend our money.

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

I think the scale was a little tight. Whats the difference between 1200/year and 1600/year ? Who can tell the difference? I have Jet friends that spend way over 10k / year. They buy trailers and campers, big trucks, and Jets. I would suggest the poll would be more interesting if you started with 1k and went up in increments of 3k or 5k. And I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see people that spend over 30k/year. That doesn't necessarily mean they are rich. Some people just spend everything they have and never save a dime. You know, live for today because tomorrow may never come.

Charlie P.

Been there. And at that stage was building Gillows and Dumas rubber powered and had maybe two 0.049 engines I swapped out into free-flight stick and tissue models. Late in H.S. I got into control line - way up to the 30", 0.25 size ships.

We've got a young, single engineer for Lockheed at our club who will roll out a couple $15,000 on up jets and make 'em dance. WAY too rich for my blood. (Boy, they sound great when they take off, though). When you buy a 180,000 rpm turbine engine and it comes in a custom fit attache case you're out of my league. At my last club "the clique" was flying $4,000 & up pattern planes. I was out giggling like a nut with my butt-ugly sport nuttin-scales or squint scale WWI bipes and just happy to be boring holes in the sky. Still am.

There can be a lot of peer pressure in this pursuit. We've got 40 guys in our club and cover it all, so there's always someone to fly and chat with. The very good news is that R/C offers so much it's not hard to find your niche and be happy as a pig in . . . oats.

Another great thing about starting humbly. I'm still tickled that I can make 'em turn left AND right in the same flight!

"Didja see that? I made it do that!"

Set your expectations low and you'll never be disappointed.

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

there is a member here on RCU that has the following for his signature

"Is this a great way to spend money or what"

Take a look at mine. I think both of those say it pretty well why we spend the money we do.

It's easy to get caught up in this. A few of us that have posted here already still fly full scale and some of us do not for various reasons, but I can tell you that the love of flight never leaves us. That is why we are all here. It does not matter if it's a trainer, scale warbird, Giant scale fully dressed aerobat, a high dollar jet, we all share the same love of flying. Most people could care less what you plane looks like, what it is or anything like that. those that do think like that are not someone I care to associate with. I am who I am, I do not care what you have and I will never tell you that you need to own this, that or the other thing. I will come up to you and take a look at whatever you have and talk with you about how it flies, how hard is it to land and takeoff and a host of others.

Yes I fly high dollar GS planes, that's my choice and as long as I can afford it and still maintain a checking and savings account I will. Does that mean I do not like glow planes, heck no, I still own one.

Some of my planes have packing tape covering holes that my fingers thought would be a good place to make those holes, others are brand new, others have 1000+ flights and look like it and yet others are 500+ flight and still look brand new. My 1000+ flight plane is a beat up 4*60 that flies as well as it did when it was new but looks far from new. It's a blast to fly and I let anyone that wants to try it have at it. That plane has given me so much pleasure I would replace it in a heartbeat should it ever die.

Now in answer to the what do we all do question. I'm a Network Security Analyst dealing with testing and certifying proper functionality at the packet level and I am currently writing test criteria and custom testing tools for VoIP as well as testing (in the beta stages right now) VoIP PBX systems.

Basically I get to spend all day trying my best to break into and get around network firewalls to verify that the claims that are made are true. VoIP testing like this is expected to start full time by christmas of this year

scratchonly

Les than golfers or gamblers

gilbertfh

My Feedback: (5)

I would say I spend about $1000 a year but I fly a lot of .46-.60 size planes. None of which are ARFs at the moment and most of the ones I do fly are SPADS. I have a 3D profile that I built out of a Decathlon that was crunched pretty good now it has been reborn as the Phoenix. It was an experience to go from a high wing sport to a midwing 3D but it just goes to show that you don't have to invest a lot to have fun and fly cool planes.

parrthd

i spend more in this hobby than my wife likes BUT i'm not out at the bars, i'm not out running around on her, our bills aren't left unpaid, and there's food on our table.

i would have to say i spend around the 2K mark so far this year. but i have a second job that i do from home, this is the money i put towards my addiction......er hobby.

as for when the wife starts griping too much, i do this,

1 take a picture of her closet and highlight all the items still hanging with the tags still on

2 ask her if she'll ever grow extra feet and arms for all the shoes and puurses she has

3 start paying close attention to the credit card bill and asking many questions like "what's this?" "i don't remember this...." "was this you or me.......oh wait, I just remembered, I don't shop there"

4 show her a thread like this and make her realize there's people a LOT more addicted than me!!!!!


bty.......these 4 things was meant for a bit of humor, but i have a great wife who supports my hobby and i support hers (shopping) as long as the bills are paid and a certain % is put into bonds or savings we hardly ever say anything to $$ to one another.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

after taking stock of my airplane stuff for this year, I am getting close to the 2,000 mark if you include fuel, but like a fellow noted I don't go to bars don't drink or party any more so what do I spend my $$ on,my 2 kids stuff,surf trips,planes mostly kits,music stuff, not necessarily in that order.

dont spend more than you can afford for any one hobby and your good to go.

I also like to keep it to one major kit build a year, just one warbird component list will cost you a 1,000 it adds up fast even for a 60 size. was thinking of going up in size WOW! better get your calculator ready and pay down that credit card.

scary thing is I am only half way through this years build project Top flight P-47 Thunderbolt, and I already have a list of planes I want to do next. man I am behind, I better get off the computer and start building
BTW the future list, TF P-51B, Skyshark FW-190A,SS BF-109E, SS BF-109G, always growing and a few sport kits in between

Ice Fun

It's unbelievable that you guys can afford to pay this much for a hobby! [sm=what_smile.gif]

If you don't think it's such a horrible question, how much of your salary is put towards model airplanes?

Here is my opinionized table (% spent on planes)

0-5% - Sweet! Good devotion to a hobby
5-10% - A little short on the mortgage but I can manage
10-15% - Um.... time... to... decrease... debt... payment.... ... [&o]
15-20% - Honey? Maybe we should sell the car. After all, walking is healthier!
20-25% - O geez! Do we really need a house this big? I wouldn't mind a smaller home.
25-30% - Health insurance?! Who needs em! I got AMA insurance!!!
30-35% - I already paid my taxes 2 years ago!!!! [:@]
35-40% - That's it, you better get a part-time job now!!!!
40-45% - OMG! Get a full-time job right away!
45-50% - So you drove the car 50 miles when you could've walked?!
50+% - Alright... Off to VEGAS!!!!

Charlie P.

I just sold a 34 ft sailboat. R/C is CHEAP compared to $3,800 for dockage, winter storage and pump-out, $500 for electric for having elec heat & A/C, $50/quart bottom paint (took six), $1,100 insurance, state registration (even though we were federally documented). 250 miles round trip to Lake Ontario every weekend. $5.95/gallon for diesel 'cause they can, $8,000 for a set of new sails every five or six years. Heck, I got a BIG monkey off my back. Not to mention three years of my salary for the boat itself (now in my retirement fund). Sold it for 85% of what I paid after six years - try that with a car.

We've been looking at a cheaper hobby: like a used private plane.

Trouble is, I've still got six other hobbies.

plasticizer

It sucks you in like a vacuum. More engines, more kits, more plans, more battery packs, more fuel, more more more more....AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEe

And then one day you sell it all for 1/3 of what you paid and you take the money and start in on a new a less expensive hobby like...coin collecting. :-O

And then five years after chasing down every last proof coin on the planet, you sell all the coins for about 90% of what you paid and you......

get back into r/c planes.

Charlie P.

How 'bout the mid-life crisis Harley-Davidson? You can do a lot of buying and flying of R/C for the price of a Harley.

And I remember when the only honest way to own a Harley was to steal one. Now you've got to be a professional who wants to be a greaser after hours.

Lots of espensive toys and fund drains out there: bass boats, Corvettes, classic cars (my other car is a 1956 Ford 640 tractor ), horses, varmint rifles, English double rifles, mistresses, gambling, cigarette smoking, driving any German car that's not a VW, ebaY, etc. etc.

We all make choices.

bruce88123

Wait a minute Charlie. We're not going to let you run by the "mistress" thing so fast. We want some details.

Come to think of it, that was plural too!!

Wild Foamy

i'll be deep in the cold cold ground before i even consider coin/stamp/stuffed animal collecting.

and all i can say is thank god i dont have a wife/girlfriend, have to pay taxes/bills or have a sailboat... a RC plane will do me fine for a while

ive calculated that when i run my savage for 2/3 tanks, 43% of the time i break something (only because i bash it hard) so ive given up on the dam thing and chucked it into a box where it can sulk quietly, i payed 3300 for the dam thing in the first place, spent about £200 on upgrades and parts and if i sold it id be lucky to get £200 for it, £300 i will never see again...

but with a plane your not on the ground most of the time so you cant break shock absorbers by jumping off large ramps and stuff and all you have to pay for is fuel and maintanence/cleaning equipment... apart from lawn-darting a plane or landing a bit hard you cant really break much on them... (but if you have a radio failure with a sav it can run away and collide with a tree breaking gears, stripping the steering servo gears, snapping driveshafts, shocks, radio gear, fuel tanks e.t.c)

Ah... feels good after a nice rant doesnt it?

foamy is relieved...

Missileman

My average income is $100K and I spend about $5K a year on whatever I want. This year a big chunk went to RC stuff.

bruce88123

and all i can say is thank god i dont have a wife/girlfriend, [/quote]


One day REAL SOON, that will change a lot.

Jim_Purcha

My Feedback: (8)

I bought my first plane (sweet stick), enya 35 and World engine expert 5 channel for less than $250 Canadian about 30 years ago, from my paper route and I was making only $30.00 every two weeks. $780.00 CAD ( £370). It's a start.

Ice Fun

100k?! What in God's name do you do?

bruce88123

What, you think that's a lot? That's what I made last year, up a couple thou from the year before.
Looks like Missleman and I have good jobs is all. I've got co-workers that make more though.

Missileman

LOL, I am an industrial electrician for a major automotive manufacturer.
At your age you have the potential to do anything you want, study and work hard, some day your income will make mine look like chump change.