Re: The Problems with Indoor FF
One more dissenting view Don. At USIC the Johnson City press gave the event a lot of coverage and there were a lot of spectators passing through all week. I did not witness any competitor being anything but ultra nice and patient with them. For my own part I had someone trying to ask questions while I was winding my last good motor for my last F1M flight at 15 minutes before the contest ended. I stopped winding and told them they were welcome to hang around and watch but I couldn't talk to them at that moment. EVERYONE that I talked to during the week was totally amazed at what they saw.
Now I HAVE seen the behavior you are talking about. I've also seen models shredded by someone walking by too fast or a door being carelessly opened, etc. etc. When I started flying indoor it seemed like I was in trouble sooner or later at every contest I went to. (Most of this stopped when I started beating the people who acted that way.)
On the other hand, George Perryman - who was a fierce competitor at every thing he did - never passed up a chance to pay me a complement. He would come up to me when I had the sickliest piece of crap airplane imaginable and say something like "your airplanes always fly so GOOD!". I would go home thinking there was hope that I would actually succeed at indoor flying someday and to some extent I have. This was an important lesson for me and I try to always help someone who is having a hard time - as do almost all the indoor flyers I know.
----- Original Message -----
From: Don DeLoach
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 1:11 AM
Subject: [Indoor_Construction] The Problems with Indoor FF
Don,
How would you describe the average indoor flyer? Progressive? Forward-thinking?
Not *all* hardcore indoor FF modelers are exclusive-leaning old farts, but most seem to be. But, no matter, my original point remains: The indoor FF community needs to get on board with the larger community of Free Flighters/NFFS. There is strength in numbers, with AMA, FAI, the magazines, the public, the mass media etc. Indoor FF-the smallest of all of the tiny factions of aeromodeling--is on the thinnest of ice. Would you not agree?
"Don't touch!" "Slow down!" "Control your kids!" The average person off the street visiting an indoor FF meet must feel like a visitor in an asylum. Weird-looking, high-strung people telling me where to stand and how fast to walk. I'm outta here! Indoor FF will never survive unless its leaders work quickly to turn this absurdly introverted culture around. This is not why we "do" Indoor. We do it to have fun playing with toy airplanes!
Some evidence that indoor FF is generally very obscure and exclusive, and by this very nature quite unappealing to the mass market:
--in the old days the average Free Flighter was also an Indoor flyer in the winter months. Nowadays the big indoor meets are held in the summer, when 90% of Free Flight activity is outdoors. Scratch most of your target market.
--virtually every indoor event has been loopholed to death and taken over by expert flyers. The only remaining rays of light are A-6 and LPP, and perhaps F1L. Two of those three are not AMA events. Is the ICB doing its job or just protecting old turf? Bottom line is there's the perception that most indoor competition events are the dominion of esoterics and experts. Negative perception equals non-participation. "Let's see, maybe I'll try badminton."
--Many Indoor FF models are generally too challenging for the average non asylum-dweller to construct, let alone have fun doing so. How many Intermediate Sticks, R.O.G. cabins, and HL Sticks are there left in the Universe? A dozen?
--How many people on the planet are capable of building a competitive (sub-0.5 gram) Easy B? Easy B is now the cautionary tale for indoor rule-making. The 0.6 gram minimum weight rule was a ray of light but soundly defeated by the turf-guarders on the ICB.
--the prohibition on high tech materials in many of the indoor events has now backfired on the rules-makers of the 1970s/80s. Boron/carbon would make Easy B, Ministick, and other events infinitely easier to construct and adjust. A lot easier than hoarding 100s of sheets of stiffness-tested balsa!
--there has got to be an honest discussion about the BOM rule in indoor FF. For some events it makes sense, absolutely. But, in all events? Has a recent survey been done of active indoor flyers on the BOM rule?
--there has got to be more cooperation with slow-fly RC clubs who are doing a heckuva lot more flying than we are and are growing by leaps and bounds. Many sites don't permit simultaneous FF and RC, but some do.
I wonder how many people know the largest Free Flight contest-by far-in history just took place last month.and it was an indoor contest Actually, there were 617 qualifying contests in virtually every country on Earth, which culminated in the World Championships where the top 253 contestants competed head to head. The total number of registered contestants worldwide was 37,017. There were no ballons, boron or May '99 in use and the average age of contestants was in the mid-twenties
Any guesses?
Don D.
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From: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com [mailto:Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Don Slusarczyk
Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 6:45 PM
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Indoor_Construction] Indoor FF team
Perhaps just living up to the label you branded all indoor modelers, something along the lines of "old farts" where "EXCLUSIVITY" reigns. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Don
Why the "us versus them" attitude?
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Received on Tue Jun 02 2009 - 09:10:53 CEST
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