Quote:
Originally Posted by g.p.
Funny, I've had several people come and ask about my hobby while flying in the farmer's field next to our subdivision......with at least one of them joining our club.
I've never had someone ask about my hobby while flying at our club field 20km outside of town, in the middle of nowhere.
It seems to me that flying where the public can see is exposing people and kids to RC better than only flying where interested parties are the only ones present. But I guess that's just me, me, me.
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I agree that if you fly where it's visible people will notice, but what I was saying, is the promotion of our hobby is not what it used to be. The LHS's all USED to promote the clubs, and flying at MAAC sanctioned fields. Every weekend the club I used to belong to in Red Deer would have random visitors show up because they knew we existed even though we were out of town.
In your case, flying more locally has generated interest that ended up with at least one person joining the club. More often than not though, somebody see's somebody flying, has no clue that there are "clubs" that will offer a safe place to fly and instruction, so they go out, buy a plane, destroy it in one day, and never come back to the hobby again.
Of course, you also didn't quote (and perhaps didn't read) the entire points I wrote about.
In point number 2. I wasn't speaking directly about promotion for the hobby specifically, I was speaking about how much more solitary the hobby in general has become. There are many people who would rather just fly in a field on their own than be part of a group at all. If people continue with the solitary attitude, the hobby will continue to shrink. Success comes from help generally in this hobby. I'm not directing that statement towards you either, you obviously belong to a club as well as have another place you can fly and have talked about the hobby with spectators. I wouldn't call that a "me me me" attitude.
Point 3. Again, as I said, I don't think you have the "me me me" attitude based on your statements.
Also, please reread my thread and understand that I'm not simply talking about promoting the hobby. I am was stating what I have personally seen change over the years. There are now many rogue fliers who refuse to join clubs, who have no clue at all that what they are doing may be illegal, who don't understand the consequences of what damage a model airplane can do. They simply don't care, they're out there flying because they want to and have the "don't get in my way" (or "me me me") attitude.
This particular thread that I started was not about how can we change the hobby, it wasn't about how can we get more people involved, it is simply one modelers observations about how the hobby has changed in the many years I have been involved. It's not directed at anyone in particular and should not be taken as such.
And, as always, it is just my opinion.