Kang informed us:
”In 2015, there were 7,400 Science Olympiad teams in the U.S. We're talking about 7,400 to 14,800 students who flew either Wright Stuff or Elastic Launch Glider in a contest in 2015. Can any other free flight event, indoor or outdoor, top this figure?
“Every competent indoor flier should be volunteering to coach as many students as possible. There exists no better platform for getting the word out and recruiting new fliers. Volunteering may also open doors to flying opportunities at the school's gym.”
Those Science Olympiad stats are impressive. Sadly, based on my own experience working with kids and modeling for the past 25 years, they are not indicative of any continuing interest in free flight modeling. I’ve been a Science Olympiad mentor and event supervisor (state and national) and also have given many indoor and outdoor free flight demonstrations to Scout and school groups and at middle and high school.science fairs during that time. I also taught a model building and flying class (AMA Cub & Peck ROG) for three years at a special grades 6-12 school here in Rochester. I have seen no one converted to modeling, indoor or outdoor. As for all those Science Olympiad fliers? They treat building and flying like another school assignment: do the best job possible and then move on. Have I seen any continued interest in building and flying models on their own? None. More personally I’ve experienced this same lack of interest, try as I might, in my two grandsons (both of whom are freshmen in high school). Let me add that lack of both proactive promotion and access to suitable flying sites are strongly in the mix as well. Most folks don’t even know what we do or that we even exist.
I don’t believe that the indoor modeling world of yesteryear that I and many of you reading this well recall will ever come back. As I see it, kids today, with occasional exceptions, simply are not interested in or impressed by free flight model airplanes, certainly not to the point that they want to take up the hobby. (Ditto for any wide spread fascination with full scale aircraft and lore.) I know a trickle of adults will join the ranks from time to time, and even some kids, but believing a beginner’s model of whatever design is the magic bullet that will attract significant numbers of newcomers and begin an indoor renaissance, in my opinion, a pipe dream.
Bob Clemens
Received on Mon Feb 15 2016 - 12:07:51 CET
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