“No point wasting time trying to make AMA events mirror SO. After all there are only 50,000 kids flying SO.”
The truth is that number means almost nothing. Sadly increasing our indoor free flight ranks have been poorly served by SO student fliers, virtually none of whom have ever gone on to fly in ANY AMA FF event, indoors or out. Can we face the truth that free flight model planes of almost any sort hold no special lure for these kids. And how many years has SO featured a model plane event of some sort? Over 20, and I’ve been involved as mentor and event supervisor at the district, state and national level during this time (as well as giving many indoor flight demonstrations to kids), so I believe I have a legitimate view of SO’s unfortunate non-production of FF modelers. Ron Williams is absolutely right when he described “...a bunch of old (hey- I’m 84) and middle aged... guys believing that the future of indoor lies in the hand of a bunch of kids.” I see no reason to place any validity in the continuing pipe dream of successfully recruiting young indoor fliers by ANY conceivable means or models. The future- and we know it- will never be a land rush no matter what. Whatever the future of indoor free flight may be lies with recruiting adults, as Ron said. This can be done by letting those who’ve never seen even a simple rubber model fly (in a gym for five minutes- wow!) that free flight modeling exists as a fun hobby. Another group, the post-60 guys, can be approached by stirring up their memories and skills. These are the folks we’ve all run into from time to time that utter that classic statement: “I tried to make those when I was kid. I made microfilm in our bathtub.”
Here’s my question: What is the indoor community doing to actively promote the hobby to the general public? Flight demos at schools, science fairs, scout meetings, maybe between halves at a basketball game? Publicizing the spectator factor of their meets to the general public; getting TV and newspaper coverage of a flying session or a particular modeler? I doubt it, or at least I never hear about these outreaches that could let folks know what we’re all about. As is, indoor flying is like some sort of secret society, virtually invisible to the outside world like some lost tribe from an Indiana Jones movie. If they don’t know we exist, what kind of interest and growth, of any amount, can we expect?
Bob Clemens
Received on Sat Jun 18 2016 - 14:31:12 CEST
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:48 CET