Ron,
This is a great question. A beginners indoor class to me is a difficult
thing to define because what is the intended goal with the beginner and
where are the beginners coming from as far as their modeling experience
or their personal goal? Is the goal with the beginner to introduce them
to model airplanes in general? a rubber powered plane? a rubber powered
plane flown indoors? a rubber duration indoor model? People will define
that goal quite differently and I think that is where the clash of minds
comes into play. I personally would not start an indoor beginner with a
model that flew nothing like an indoor model if possible but that
depends on the beginner being presented. I do not think there is a one
plane fits all beginner event for all people. Now if you have a church
group of kids and you have 3 hours to build and fly, the AMA cubs style
models beginner event makes sense, in that case the beginners event is
really an introductory to model planes and rubber planes event. I view a
person asking about indoor to be a person who is already beyond that
stage, and I think many others think the same way base don the replies.
Of all the kids flying SO or TSA only a very small percentage of them
want to fly something beyond a SO/TSA model, for most it is just a
homework assignment. But for those that do, the next step for them is
not back to an AMA cub, but forward to something like a Pennyplane. So a
beginner event to me is much different than a beginners event for a
person with a youth group looking for an activity for the kids to do. So
I think it really depends on the group you are looking to cultivate into
new modelers and then tailor the beginner model to their level and
goals. There probably really needs to be a progression of events. In the
case of those 27 kids flying the P18 at the Nats last year, now that has
finished, what is the next step for them? Where do they go from a P18?
What is the next model for those kids who are interested in moving on? I
think maybe this is how the whole newcomer issue needs to be approached.
>
>
> It wold be nice to have a discussion that disects the basic premise
> for a beginner's competitive class rather than repeating the same
> routine again.
>
>
>
--
Don Slusarczyk
Received on Sun Feb 14 2016 - 22:39:01 CET