Don, that is exactly the point, and it this time, probably the only discussion really worth addressing. We can create all the events in the world, geared towards any level of flier, but it is kind of pointless if there is no place to fly models.
As far as I know, our indoor sessions are the only regular indoor meets being held in Ohio. Don knows this, because he flies with me, but in order to gain regular access to the gym we use, I had to be employed by the school (which I am) and had to put together an extra curricular program for students geared towards indoor building and flying. Then I could justify a building use request every few weeks. And even with our sessions being part of a school club, it still irks the volleyball and softball coaches that they have to share access to "their" gym.
So if we want to grow indoor, we need access more regular sites. I encourage everyone who wants to pursue this to talk to local principals and teachers at schools. Many of the high schools will have a math/science type club or similar extracurricular that could include indoor free flight models. Make a faculty contact and offer to mentor an after school program and get gym access in exchange. Hopefully the people running the school have a sense of decency and won't charge their students to use the facility.
For those mentoring SO students, have them build a Penny Plane or similar in addition to their SO models.
Complaining online that there isn't enough participation or the sport is dying, etc. won't get us very far. Working to gain access to flying sites and mentoring new fliers is what needs to happen.
Chris
Sent from my iPhone
> On Feb 15, 2016, at 10:30 AM, don_at_slusarczyk.com [Indoor_Construction] <Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>
> Chris,
>
> Site access is a huge factor in maintaining interest. Akron was lost then after Vern Hacker passed away we had to return our keys to the school we had weekely access to for over 10 years. All the schools in my local school system instituted a policy of $40 per hour to use the gyms. So I was down to pretty much flying once a year at Kent. The large sports centers out here by me that they fly indoor RC are charging between $150 -$200 per hour for a 8-10pm time slot. They are even struggling to meet such high rent. I am glad to see the work being done out at Rantoul and the reasonable rates they charge for the facility. I do think there would be more interest if people had regular local access at a reasonable rate. It would be interesting to see how outdoor participation would be if for exampke our local FAC had to cover $1000-1500 a day field rental instead of having it for free. They barely make quorum as it is.
> It seems the only way for ling tern access is to have a person on the inside. That is how Akron was, how Andrews gym was, how our current sessions are. Van Gorder spent years of meetings and dinners etc to get access back into West Baden. Without the flying session you have set up, if a local person said they wanted to fly indoor, there would be literally no place I could tell them to fly at or come to watch locally. So you can't even start with what event to have them try when there is no place to fly.
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Received on Mon Feb 15 2016 - 08:47:10 CET
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