RC airplanes on TV

[Clarence Ragland]

It's nice to know that possibly millions of people got the opportunity to see RC airplanes on TV. If the hobby was on television on a regular basis, many clubs would be inundated with new members. Instructors would really be busy.

 

Pawn Stars Season 19 Episode 11 | R.C. Model Planes - YouTube

[leccyflyer]

Saw that earlier today - rather disappointing that it was completely phony and not a patch on some of the much better presentations of our hobby that we have seen on TV over here. The model pilot just handing the transmitter to the guy from Pawn Stars and him "flying" the model unassisted, including rolling the model as his "instructor" gave him instructions to just pull back gently on the stick was unbelievable. Not to mention that at 3:40 in the video, the Decathlon that he was rolling - by pulling back gently on the stick - was on the ground right next to him at the time.  ?

 

[Clarence Ragland]

Everyone misses the point that no matter how phony that segment was, at least RC airplanes was there for millions of people to see. Even that might cause large numbers of people to get into the hobby. Imagine if there was a weekly RC aeromodelling TV show, viewed by millions? Club membership could drastically increase everywhere.

[leccyflyer]

The "buyer" twice makes the point that the RC model flying hobby is on it's way out, because of the advent and rise of the drones - most definitely not a positive exposure for the model flying hobby.

 

We've seen excellent model flying exposure on the television here - Battle of Britain Model Squadron was one such example,  three programmes which were very well received. Marcus Brigstocke did a very good programme on  model flying, concentrating on RC aerobatics and there was a very good segment on Susan Calman's Grand Day out programme a few weeks ago, when she visited the BMFA National centre. Those were all good exposure for the hobby - the Pawn Stars segment was not.

[Clarence Ragland]

On my side of the pond, we take what we can get. You're so very lucky to have aeromodelling TV programs. Some times I get the feeling that the AMA doesn't want the masses to see RC aeromodelling. AMA loss 32 million dollars since 2003 just on their magazines alone. Seems like that much money could've bought a lot of TV air time. Like they say, you can't fix stupid. lol

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Three positive things, 

 

 It puts models on the TV and shows that they aren't toys,

 My wife saw that he had more planes than me leaving the way for some new stuff,

And that and idiot can fly them on Mode 2,

 

One negative thing is that my wife thought that a model plane cost less than 100€,?

 

[leccyflyer]

I'm not sure which mode it is where pulling back gently on the stick makes the aeroplane roll. ?

[Christopher Wolfe]

51 minutes ago, leccyflyer said:

I'm not sure which mode it is where pulling back gently on the stick makes the aeroplane roll. ?

Mode 5?

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

1 hour ago, leccyflyer said:

I'm not sure which mode it is where pulling back gently on the stick makes the aeroplane roll. ?

When you are stalling,,,,

[leccyflyer]

9 hours ago, Clarence Ragland said:

Everyone misses the point that no matter how phony that segment was, at least RC airplanes was there for millions of people to see. Even that might cause large numbers of people to get into the hobby. Imagine if there was a weekly RC aeromodelling TV show, viewed by millions? Club membership could drastically increase everywhere.

As has been pointed out countless times before, the lack of new blood in the hobby has nothing to do with factors such as it not being seen weekly on the TV -since it never has been - nor on the availability of particular training methods. The reasons are deeper seated than that and largely rooted in the diversity of alternative leisure interests available.

[Adrian Smith 1]

Are there enough free spaces on club lists to accommodate any potential influx?

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

1 hour ago, Adrian Smith 1 said:

Are there enough free spaces on club lists to accommodate any potential influx?

"Lists" !, when clubs have 30 + members you will probably find that less than 10 will be at the field regularly,

so why limit the number ?.

[Clarence Ragland]

31 minutes ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

"Lists" !, when clubs have 30 + members you will probably find that less than 10 will be at the field regularly,

so why limit the number ?.

There are two clubs in my area whose leaders had no problem directing people to me at one time, that is until these leaders decided that I was teaching more than they were comfortable with and I was told they stopped giving the public my name. I was told this by a hobby shop owner and beginners who I trained. 3 flying clubs have since disbanded and as many flying sites were lost. Safety in numbers. Another club had a member who was head of the town board. That club had complaints from neighbors and went to the town board. They still have their field. This field is 4 miles from my home. This is a county owned and maintained flying field that has been all but deserted and run by a club with 5 elderly members who don't fly anymore. These old hands refuse to send anyone to me for instruction. I was told this by one of the ex-club members who I trained.

 

 

The owner of that hobby shop, Fields Hobby Center told me that on a daily basis he has customers wanting to at least get some flying experience to see if they would like to get into the hobby. The owner was told in no uncertain terms not to send his customers to me by one of the two clubs who share a flying field. He's afraid to go against the will of those two clubs.

Edited January 9, 2022 by Clarence Ragland

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Wow that sounds like the mafia are running your area which is really sad, Modelling to me and the local clubs ( French would you believe ) are

very helpful.  I ran my own model shop locally from 1990 till 2009 when I sold out and taught all of my customers ( Mode 2 ?) free lessons every Sunday morning, that spirit has lasted and our club has picked up to over 30 members ( 70+ in our heyday ) and we have 3 training planes with 6 radios two for every plane, so if you are fed up with your situation, house prices are reasonable here,,,?

Edited January 9, 2022 by Martin Harris - Moderator
Removed insensitive references to past history and political comment.

[leccyflyer]

Hmmm, perhaps it isn't the clubs which is the issue here. IIRC there have been a number of discussions on the claims for success being made for the unique means of flying training. It's already been described in detail what a successful promotion of well organised flting training under the BMFA's Up and Away scheme.

 

Going back to the basic premise of the thread, if the phony Pawn Stars airing of really badly done and poorly demonstrated model flying was held to be a good thing in promoting the hobby, how exactly would that be implemented in terms of increasing the numbers of people able to take advantage of the claimed extraordinary method of flight training, if the local fields are not on board with that? 

[Clarence Ragland]

I had a hobby shop and ran an RC flight school, if you are referring to "my area" you could be talking about the US. I trained over 400 people over the years and all told me the same tale of being in clubs where the membership hasn't grown in years and in fact most were losing more members than they were gaining. Oh, I'm sure there are large and very well run clubs everywhere.

 

They explained how their clubs did not do well with their training programs. They said how clubs in their area had a very difficult time keeping flying fields and too many beginners got tired of showing up and for various reasons were ignored for the most part. So I'm not pulling this information out of thin air. I ask people what would they do if they had a proven and viable solution? Keep it to themselves or attempt to share it with everyone involved? Judging from what I've faced trying to share a proven way to recruit new members, most would keep this information to themselves.

 

 

Written by Dave Scott.pdf

Edited January 9, 2022 by Martin Harris - Moderator
Edited for unacceptable language outside forum C of C

[Denis Watkins]

To help me make sense of this Clarence, how many days in a year do you fly ?

[Clarence Ragland]

My only purpose in this hobby is to recruit new members. I only fly when I have someone to teach. I got rid of my scale and more advanced low wing aircraft and only have 5 LT-40s and 2 electric trainers. There is no pleasure for me to fly alone.

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

I sold out in 2009 as with my wife suffering with Alzheimer's disease gave up with the flying lessons,  the new owner of my shop stocked up with Airsoft guns, the other shop in my town concentrated in cars and the third shop went bust,   4 other shops in a 100 kilometre radius shut down from illness or just went bust, one turning to internet this leaving no shop windows in the towns to advertise modelling so ,

 

No advertising = no customers = no new members,,,,

Don't forget smart phones and video games they have had a huge effect on modelling.

[Clarence Ragland]

I see that on your side of the pond there are still glow powered trainers available. Correct me if I'm wrong. Kits here are at a premiem and glow engines can mainly, if not only be found on eBay or Craig's list.

 

I'm at a severe disadvantage here in trying to get my point across to those not in the US. If a member of the industry were to travel here so I could give a demonstration and show them how to use my promotion method, Which would only take a couple of hours, more or less, they could make very good use of this method for their business. Due to circumstances beyond everyone's control because of the pandemic, it appears that such an event will not happen. I don't know how much a full page color ad cost any member of the industry, but I can promise that industry member that it would very much be worth it for them to take the 3000 mile trip here. No, before anyone says anything, I can't get any member of the industry in the US take me up on my offer, even though many are on the verge of bankruptcy. Hobbico for example. To the industry members, growth is good. To the fear-of-growth club member, my offer is not so good. Who does the industry depend upon for hands-on promotion duties? Imagine if the hobby shop owners or distributors and manufactures had their own RC promoter/instructors.

Edited January 9, 2022 by Clarence Ragland

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Drones killed off a lot of modistes here, or rather the laws which put a damper on model flying with all of the new drone laws being applied to our toy planes,,,

[Cuban8]

6 hours ago, leccyflyer said:

As has been pointed out countless times before, the lack of new blood in the hobby has nothing to do with factors such as it not being seen weekly on the TV -since it never has been - nor on the availability of particular training methods. The reasons are deeper seated than that and largely rooted in the diversity of alternative leisure interests available.

I'm afraid that I have to agree with you Leccy. I believe that putting R/C flying on mainstream TV is OK of course, but TBH a total waste of time. I'd go further and say that in only a very few instances has the hobby been shown in a positive and serious light. Cheap jibes, stereotypical characters, smashed up models and boys with toys makes for much better viewing for  the reality TV hungry masses IMHO and the programme producers know it.

Take the excellent recent Hornby series of programmes - I thought it got the balance of information and entertainment about right, but I'm doubtful if few outside of modelling circles or with a fond memory of childhood train sets and Airfix would be an avid watcher.

BMFA are doing their best with a social media presence and flying the flag for us at airshows etc with demos and exhibitions, all of which in my view are much more effective than a forgettable few minutes within an essentially unrelated TV programme. Perhaps local news programmes do offer a better chance, very often what you might call items of niche interest are covered quite well without the usual condescention, whether it's a local sports club or church bell ringers etc.

 

[leccyflyer]

2 hours ago, Clarence Ragland said:

I see that on your side of the pond there are still glow powered trainers available. Correct me if I'm wrong. Kits here are at a premiem and glow engines can mainly, if not only be found on eBay or Craig's list.

 

I'm at a severe disadvantage here in trying to get my point across to those not in the US. If a member of the industry were to travel here so I could give a demonstration and show them how to use my promotion method, Which would only take a couple of hours, more or less, they could make very good use of this method for their business. Due to circumstances beyond everyone's control because of the pandemic, it appears that such an event will not happen. I don't know how much a full page color ad cost any member of the industry, but I can promise that industry member that it would very much be worth it for them to take the 3000 mile trip here. No, before anyone says anything, I can't get any member of the industry in the US take me up on my offer, even though many are on the verge of bankruptcy. Hobbico for example. To the industry members, growth is good. To the fear-of-growth club member, my offer is not so good. Who does the industry depend upon for hands-on promotion duties? Imagine if the hobby shop owners or distributors and manufactures had their own RC promoter/instructors.

With all due respect, if you are unable to get your local clubs to embrace your methods, despite them being just a few miles away, and you are unable to get any US-based distributor to embrace your methods, why on earth would you have any expectation that a UK-based distributor would fly several thousand miles for a demo?

 

That's without even considering the existence of a very well thought out training scheme which is available nationally here, through dozens of clubs and to which many retailers routinely refer beginners in the hobby.

[Clarence Ragland]

8 minutes ago, leccyflyer said:

With all due respect, if you are unable to get your local clubs to embrace your methods, despite them being just a few miles away, and you are unable to get any US-based distributor to embrace your methods, why on earth would you have any expectation that a UK-based distributor would fly several thousand miles for a demo?

 

That's without even considering the existence of a very well thought out training scheme which is available nationally here, through dozens of clubs and to which many retailers routinely refer beginners in the hobby.

If I could get local clubs to "embrace" my method, that would be the start of everything working out the way I would like. I've said it many, many times, club don't embrace my method because it brings in more members than they want. Also,  because I'm teaching beginners, they don't have to join any club pay club dues. AMA feels the same way. If I train beginners, AMA loses out on dues income. Club instructors will be asked, "why don't you use this method?" It makes them look bad. Ego deflator. I don't have a thing to lose, but what I ask everyone: "Here's my solution, what's yours?" No one has a viable, proven ready to implement solution like mine. Should I try to pass it on or keep it to myself? What would you do? The industry everywhere is paying for ads and promotions and the hobby is still in decline. Hypothetically, if any industry member decided to take a chance and accept my offer and it's bogus, all they would be out is the cost of one full page color ad. If it works, they could use it to drastically increase sales. If it's bogus than all of my detractors would be able to say, "I told you so."  lol 

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

So clubs don't want more members, that would strengthen the BMFA/Clubs position and give Clubs/BMFA the means to spend on their sites and make improvements and the well being of the hobby, Clarence ?

 

And this is because of Bruised Egos ?

 

Hope your teachings better than your sales pitch, Lol.