Seems like RC is rapidly going down the tubes. I wonder what the median age is now?

I would say its evolving.

When I was a kid (70's/80's) the sky was falling and the end was near because there were nearly a half dozen ARF R/C planes available and the control line circles populated with a legion of kids with crew cuts were a decade in the past.

Today 40 years later, I can't find a balsa kit at a hobby shop but for less than $500 I can buy a jet the size of one of the Byron originals jets we drooled over in Model Airplane News that will leap off the ground, retract the gear, and climb straight up while reporting back it's altitude/speed/battery status etc. to my touch screen transmitter.

I don't think it is going down the tubes, it just changes And if there is one thing I have learned it is that all of these "kits" have a limited production time, always have, so if you like one buy a few and not one. I have bought hundreds of classic kits from various sources and other than the R/C cars the prices don't really get insane so if you want to keep buying and building from a given decade ebay is your hobby shop. For me the best part is that the tech is now available to really make the old stuff work even better. An entire flight system now weighs less than a single component in the old RC systems and the power plant options are worlds apart from the good old days. You can take a design that looked better than it flew in the late 70's and throw in a modern power plant and flight pack to slash the weight and have excellent power. You will have something that flies as good as it looks with performance that wasn't possible when it was on the market.

If you have kids or grand kids open your wallet and buy them a Horizon Carbon-Z Cub they can hang in their bedroom and teach them how to fly it this summer. If the local official AMA field is populated by a bunch of humorless bores more concerned with club bylaws and rules than they are flying find another place to fly and keep the hobby fun.

Its different now for sure. Speaking as a 52 year old, who started building RC Kits in the late ninties, it's definitely different. I started with a Hobby Lobby Skimmer sailplane with a can motor and 7 cell nicads, flying off of a rural highschool football field. When I figured that out, I moved to glow power at a local rc field in a county park that did not require club membership.

Took 10 years off and now glow is dead and my trusty hitec optic 6 is an antique and watts per pound is now more important than motocalcing the last possible electron out of marginal power packs and getting the gear ratio just right to not fry anything.

I'm now flying at a state park, where the average age of the flyers I've met is pretty danged old. I just bought my first 2.4 gig radio and it has telemetry, most important a variometer for the Sig Riser 100 kit I'm building. I'll fly it at my state park field mostly with just the hawks and buzzards. If the state park land gets aquired for something other than an RC field I'll probably buy some land and make my own. I don't feel the need to convert others to my passion and I do not need or want an audience to fly......RCU is enough social media and social interaction for me....

Definitely need to support outfits like Sig that are still making kits. I need to buy that 4star .60 kit.......have to come up with a strategy to explain that to my lovely wife.....

I find it simpler not to explain anything so that there isn't an expectation established

Astronut asked an interesting question. Is the hobby dying or just shifting? I see more featherweight, 'park flyers' airplanes lately. In fact, I see more featherweight fixed wing and rotor wing craft being flown by individual pilots rather than as club members. Perhaps people are resisting the regulations or expense of club/AMA membership. No telling. From a personal experience, trying to interest the younger ones in the hobby directly competes with video gamming and both of their thumbs on a phone. Getting them to sit down for hours and build an airplane like we did? No way. In the past few years, due to loss of our flying club's land, I have found R/C boats to be a new interest. It is relaxing and getting the younger ones involved much easier. The learning curve for operating a boat vs airplane is miniscule. Just my two cents worth of opinion. Thanks Astronut for starting a very timely and interesting topic!

I think so, it's certainly changing.

I built my first model, a rubber powered Keil Kraft Ajax in 1959 when I was eleven years old. Then flew several free flight and control line models until the sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'roll years took over. I built my first radio controlled model in 1988, a Keil Kraft Junior 60 three channel model. In those days you had to build and cover your model and install the radio and engine. In the Nineties models with foam veneered wings and lite-ply fuselages became popular but you still had to build them.

Nowadays you can buy something made of foam powered by an electric motor, plug in your radio and go fly it but where's the satisfaction in that? Agreed younger guys have family responsibilities and do not have the time to build.

I have seen the future and don't like it very much but, if i/c is your thing, you can pick up some good second hand engines for next to nothing as the Grim Reaper thins out our ranks!

I was born and raised in England but retired to Central France in 2015 where the houses and wine are cheaper! At the time the British Model Flying Association had over 36,000 members. Now it has "almost 30,000 members."

The French equivalent had 26,000 members.at that time. By 2017 the number had dropped to 22,000.

Nuf said!

https://www.ffam.asso.fr/fr/ffam/presentation.html

https://bmfa.org/about-us

I fly with two young guys in their twenties who have been in the hobby for a few short years and have evolved into really good pilots and innovators. One gets the ARF versions of planes and drones and writes his own telemetry programs and FPV performance apps and its amazing what some of his planes can do. Another guy collects radio parts, motors, and other electronics through second hand sources and builds his own control boards and receivers and then 3D prints and builds his own planes. He's done a few really cool deducted fans this last year. Both finished college and have started families and careers, much like I did, and still kept up with the hobby. It may not be the traditional balsa and nitro, but its still building and flying RC models.

From a UK perspective..

While I wouldn't say the hobby is dying, interest in it does seem to be waning. I think the government and bureaucracy have something to answer for with respect to flying. Tightening the rules on flying in the name of safety has put people off the hobby, in my opinion. In the UK we're supposed to take a test and having third party insurance is advisable. The test isn't difficult by any stretch and insurance isn't expensive. But I think those, combined with relatively strict rules in the name of safety, are enough to put people off bothering. Now don't get me wrong. I think safety is paramount and I understand to a degree why the rules are the way they are. My understanding being that people have done dangerous things and as such, the government has responded (by being overzealous with the law, in my opinion). The end result is that less people are bothered to enjoy the hobby.

I first apologize if I don't align with others and they may be annoyed by my response, but here goes.

I wouldn't say it's going down the tubes. I'd say it's well down the tubes and nearing the septic tank or sewer. Local hobby shops used to dot the Chicago suburbs where I lived. Big ones like Al's Hobby in Elmhurst, Venture Hobbies in Buffalo Grove and many smaller ones. They're all gone. Call it internet retail sales in the hobby industry. However, I try to buy things online and continually see, "Discontinued". They're gone. Tried to buy anything from Robart lately? Sig's trying to rebound but still has no RC kits and many things that come up "Discontinued". I'd like to buy a larger gasoline engine. I just went to Horizon and searched on DLE and Zenoah. Nothing but parts and one DLE engine listed as "Inventory Reduction Sale". I don't really want a twin 170cc.

I started in 1970 when there were no ARFs only kits, no CA, silk and dope, Monokote was introduced in the mid 70's. Want a radio, they were everywhere. Kraft, Proline, Futaba, Expert, Ace, Tower, Orbit, the list goes on and on.

I'm not saying I hate ARFs, I have a couple and they help those that don't want to build fly sooner than later. But what I am saying is the hobby has changed greatly. Building airplanes is becoming few and far between. The materials that was readily abundant is well, "Discontinued".

I traveled to Europe often for business. The hobby, in my opinion, is much more popular there than in the States. I always thought it's because air battle there during WW2 was everyday life. Not in America. There are so many aircraft museums in Europe but a handful in America compared to the size of the country and population. Every 3 years my father and I would drive to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio and spend 2 days. We'd fly every weekend. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the field on a Saturday and Sunday over the past 15 years and there is no one there but me.

I truly hope I'm wrong, I love the hobby, but I'm not feeling it so well.

Hand building, kit building, etc. is just about dead. What kit makers still exist? What hobby shops still exist? If you want something you have to google for it and hope you don't get ripped off in the process. The signs of this part of the hobby dying is when SIG closed, and Tower Hobbies went bankrupt. When flying fields close and no new ones open, when people who used to show up every weekend pass away and no one takes their places, when swap meets that were a winter staple fade away, when the Toledo show went away, those are all signs of the RC flying we grew up with is dying.

Today its the ready made society, why build when a piece of foam does just as well? Where is the pride in flying something you built? That day you place your shiny new hand built airplane on the ground, start it up and take off, fly it around and land, is the best day flying. Those are rare today. Some one has already done 90% of the work today. Take a tiny foam plane today and fly it anywhere there is open space, no AMA license required, if it crashes, oops, go buy another one. Today anyone can buy a multi rotor "drone" press a button and have it fly off and do things all on its own, no experience needed. Hey look I'm flying! Nope, Sorry, someone else flew that for you. They don't care where they fly it, which is what got all of us who put time money and care into the airplanes we build, not assembled, built, into the same careless category. FAA Leaves us scale MODEL pilots alone.

My flying field no longer exists, now the nearest field is nearly an hour away, run by snob nosed uppity old men. I miss the guys I flew with, some moved to Florida, others passed away. Sig is supposedly building back up, but their inventory is nearly non existent. Their buildings in Iowa are all sold now. No more SIG fuel, or dope, and about the only thing I believe will be "SIG" will be ARF as they no longer have the saw mill for making kits. Top Flite has only ARF if there are even those left, no more Gold Star kits. No more Byron Fuels, so good bye Wildcat. The only hobby store that sold Airplanes no longer stocks fuel. I priced out getting methanol and Nitro blends, $600 to deliver it.

Is the hobby dying was the question asked. From my perspective, the part of the hobby that made it the hobby is already dead.

On the other hand there are laser cutters who will produce short kits of anything just about anything to a dwindling market of builders providing there is a plan. Want a Soviet WW2 aircraft? A laser cutter will make one for you. Want a WW1 two-seater? A kit cutter will make one for you. Want an obscure British light aircraft? Well you get my drift. Examples of all three may be found here: https://store.laser-design-services....=index&cPath=7. SIG, Balsa USA et al would never have offered these options.

The real reason why the hobby is dying is that the traditional modeller is literally dying. I turned seventy-seven last month. Last year I sold several kits and engines. In my workshop now, I have five incomplete projects, five unstarted kits, twenty-seven engines not in models, a few electric motors, ESCs and LiPos, two models to repair and one to renovate, and compared with some, I'm a lightweight! Realistically I am not going to finish them all before my date with the grim Reaper! I like a glass of wine too much for that!

Of the twenty-seven members in my club, one is about fifteen years old and by far the best pilot in the club, four are of working age including two beginners and all the rest are retired. The writing is truely on the wall!

Never mind, increasingly we are able to pick up great bargains while we are still here. Two stroke glow anyone?

An opinion from Italy.........About the preparatory technical education for the construction of model airplanes.

Technical Education is a forgotten, undervalued subject that has in fact disappeared from the new school system.
40 years ago it was called Male and Female Technical Applications.
The boys made small projects, went to the lab to make them, cut plywood, learned the fretwork technique, used various tools, glues, colors, learned to connect electrical wires, performed the experiments studied during science class and much more.
The girls take up cutting, sewing, embroidery, crochet and cross stitch, etc.
Certainly this discipline contributed to the development of manual skills and creativity in young people.
Unfortunately, Technical Application has been dropped from school curriculum.
Over time, the subject has moved from being purely practical to being theoretical, for classroom study, forcing us to abandon the laboratories.
Losing this cultural aspect was a social defeat.
The Technical Application could offer students many opportunities, thanks to innovative technological solutions, today more easily available than in the past and easy to approach for kids.
Seeing what they have learned in class put into practice, through operational, concrete models, referring to objects of common use, which refer to theoretical topics, would certainly be edifying for the students.
In this regard, I like to quote a phrase from the founder of the Scouts Baden Powell: ''If I listen I forget, if I observe I remember, if I do I learn'', which can be traced back to the words of Benjamin Franklin ''Speak to me, and I will forget, teach me, and I will remember, let me participate, and I will learn''.
In my experience, the Technical Application carried out in the 70s - 80s, brought out my aptitude towards manual activities, from here arose the passion for model airplanes and subsequently the goldsmith's art, specializing in the creation of unique artefacts entirely handmade.
I think that the government and the educational choices in the school environment have something to answer for regarding the lack of interest of young people towards the artisanal arts.

Sorry for my way of writing in English, I use Google translate !

David,

Nice post approaching reality. Sure, laser short kits exist but I want to build a Don Smith FW 190, more scale than Vailly. Every kit cutter I've reached out to including Precision Cut Kits, whom I thought owned rights, won't cut parts. Cowling, on back order. I can buy engines in Europe but if there's a problem, I gotta send it to Europe. Dessert Aircraft has become the best option.

And "increasingly picking up great bargains"? Have you been on eBay lately and priced the good old kits we used to build. Dave Platt FW 190 for........$489, $899, $575, etc. And when I built it in the mid 70's, $79.00.

I do like your response. Unfortunately, that's where we're at.

Bill

I'm still building them, but flying is practically over. I retired from teaching school and ended up getting talked out of retirement and into fabricating custom parts for general aviation instead. I still have my little SR Cutie that I could fly at the local park but I guess doing so would be illegal now. I have no interest in the RTF toys that seem to be the only thing available at my local hobby shop.

Technically it is still legal to fly at my county owned field, the runway is still there, but no one has mowed down the weeds since I did it back in about 2018. The addition of a new full scale runway sort of ended everything.

Tried to keep interest up locally by teaching lots of kids to fly, some really well, but mostly they got themselves admitted to engineering programs and they have moved far away.

Passion for model airplanes!

By definition, model airplanes are those activities practiced with small flying objects, remotely controlled or in free flight, on which there is no crew. Defining model airplanes as a hobby is limiting, as it involves conceiving, designing and developing a flying machine.
Calling model airplanes a hobby is limiting, as it involves conceiving, designing and fine-tuning a flying machine.
Construction is one of the main aspects, during which you learn how to work with various materials such as: wood, aluminum, brass, steel, copper, plastic, carbon fiber, fabrics, glues, paints, etc.
The piloting exercise crowns the work, because there is no greater satisfaction than that of seeing your model airplane take off and soar slowly and majestically in the sky, or zoom at dizzying speed, or evolve in the most varied acrobatic maneuvers, to then land on the runway.
Among free time activities, it is certainly one of the most complete and suggestive capable of developing creativity.
Therefore, it is good to start from a young age to learn notions of flight aerodynamics and also knowledge in the field of manufacturing techniques, mechanics, electronics and computer science.
While I wouldn't say the hobby is dying, interest in it does seem to be waning.
In this regard, I think that we veterans should do our best to keep interest in model airplanes high, proposing educational projects aimed at opening specific laboratories in school facilities where kids would have the opportunity to experiment and discover their natural aptitudes.

I frequently find myself at the flying field being the only pilot flying a model which I have built myself powered by an i/c engine. Sign of the times I suppose.

I think the sheer expense precludes getting enough involvement to develop the passion it takes to clear the hurdles. The last club I belonged to gave a lot of lip service to building membership and fostering young pilots too but in actual practice the only thing they had a knack for was unintentionally? running folks off...

My brother (may he rest in peace) and I saw the end of rc model building and flying 9 or 10 years ago. Attending the Toledo rc expo every year,
we saw the decline in vendors and attendence. 2000-2015 hard to move in the place so crowded, and then the decline. We live in a society of immediate gratification addicts among 35-40 year olds and younger! Yes some of the older group too. Its not "cool " or the technology is boring for younger snowflakes etc. The demon (or one of the demons) of our world now is the almighty cell phone its their life!!! . The ones who appreciate the fun and comradery and building /flying a model, are not being replaced! The flying field in this area is pretty much doomed.

Meyost, "Tiffin" was my mother's maiden name, sometimes spelt "Tiffen." The family originated in East Anglia somewhere near where the counties of Essex, Sussex and Cambridgeshire converge. After a career in the British Army her grandfather moved the family to Shrewsbury, a garrison town close to the Welsh Border where I suspect he had once been stationed or perhaps he had been discharged there in the late nineteenth century. My parents and I were both born in Shrewsbury.

Same here, the Toledo show was the sign with decreasing number of swappers, used to be so crowded you couldn't even get to some tables and missed out on goodies. The sign it was over was when SIG was no longer there. SIG was a staple of the Toledo Show and one I always looked forward to. I know SIG is still alive, barely, mainly selling some ARF, but I think their kit days are done, wish I bought a few to stash away. I built two of their Cubs, the Liberty Sport, and LT-40 and have gone through one Something Xtra and have a second that sometimes flies.

FPV drones have a unique flying experience, with both technical challenges and visual shocks. FPV drones require a lot of practice, and it's also good to try different brands. I'm using a HS FPV Drone here, and it fell once, so I have accessories to buy, so I can quickly replace it with a new drone.

Yes the hobby is dying, not just in the US but also in many other countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, etc.
Some might say it's not dying but changing. Changing for the good? No. Too many modellers who say something like that are in denial. The trick is to get the transmitter in as many hands and ASAP.
Are modelling organizations capable of doing that? Not so far. Modelling organizations and the RC aeromodelling industry have been hemorrhaging money for many years now, and membership has been dwindling just as long.

So, what could be done to rectify this situation? I have a readily available solution, but no one takes it seriously. One thing that modeling organizations could do and should have done decades ago is to place ads on TV. Too expensive? Mom and pop stores and any small business can afford to pay for TV ads, why not aeromodelling organizations? One organization lost over $30 million after 20 years and continues to lose over $1 million annually. After losing so much money preaching to the choir, depending on the location, even one local TV ad would reach thousands, if not millions, of people. You see multi-rotors on TV regularly.

One of the problems is available space. Where I am, there is a lack of available flying fields as well as tracks (if you are an on or off road RC vehicle enthusiast) due to cost of real estate and open space.

Many clubs I am involved with are consolidating with car enthusiasts and putting tracks at the fields. I know of a field where the majority of flyers were shooters and brought in a shooting club and now has a shooting range as well. Its helping build a membership to help maintain the facility and also since these are on public lands, helps with showing the commissioners that there is an increase in public usage of the land. Its a means of survival since we just lost two sites to development and possibly about to lose a third. Who knows, we may even install a golf driving range if it allows us to keep the land.