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you canshow pictures of kids all over this page>> but how many has really stayed on to flying flying will be dead in 20 yrs from now or maybe 80 90 yr old men will be doing some

carrellh

We have had a few kids who really seemed to enjoy flying with their dads. Then they became teenagers and other things were on their minds.

Or dad lost interest and the money and transportation are gone.

My nephew was already a teenager when my brother started flying. He was much more interested in playing sports and video games with his friends, or chasing girls, than spending all day at the RC field with a bunch of old men.

We have had one exception. Junior in high school when he started flying, graduating this week. All-State baseball player, 4 year starter on the football team, girl friend, and loves flying. He soloed in 3 or 4 flights and was flying a 2 meter pattern plane, very well, after a few weeks. His instructor was a pattern flyer and got him interested by letting him fly his planes on the buddy box. He is a busy young man but he makes it to some pattern contests and recently started IMAC with a 50cc Extra or Edge.

opjose

I posted this on the AMA thread:

Last year our club enlisted a few motivated members to do something about declines in membership. These motivated individuals put in the effort.

As a result we've put more people through the Introductory Pilot program than any club in the nation ( over 250+ people in one year ).

We also began a far more structured training program than we had in prior years, and undertook a bit of free advertizing... e.g. leaving stickers on old magazines strategically placed in public locations... etc.

To offset training costs for the club, aside from the club and AMA membership requirements, we added a small $30.00 "consumables" fee for those undergoing training.

The end result has been that our club ( and AMA ) membership grew dramatically over a very short period of time.

We've added and certified many dozens of new pilots a year and doubled our maximume ever membership. Those that did not finish the training program last year stuck around.

This year is no different. We find that we have to TURN AWAY students from our training sessions because the slots fill up quickly.

The interest is there in spite of comments to the contrary.

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What is lacking is the will to do something about it by the "tired few" that remain.

We brought in "new blood" to handle the load and it worked.