Control line promotion.

LAST EDITED ON Nov-24-04 AT 09:43 PM (CST)
 
Up until now I've only replied to posts on SSW...This will be my first "solo" comment/observation.
Just came home from work and found my new issue of Model Aviation. My attention was called to a "letter to the editor" titled, "Concerned C/L Flier." the letter reflected many comments made in recent threads. This individual was a long time RCer that recently returned to C/L. He expresses his concern for the lack of promotion of C/L and the lack of publications dedicated to C/L???(I don't believe he knows about PAMPA or Stunt News). I too, after MANY years in R/C, came back to C/L thanks to re-exposure by some fine people. I still have a deep attachment to the other aspects of model aviation and I belong to a club that is primarily R/C. Learning to fly the pattern, at my age, has been a struggle, but made less painful with the help of those same fine people. Promoting C/L, especially Stunt, is the only way Stunt is going to survive. I talk about it to anyone who will listen and invite them to watch a flight. To say the least...most are amazed, "I thought it only went in circles."
Heck! Who needs Viagra when you got a good stunt ship?
P.S. This issue of MA did not have a Control Line Precision Aerobatics Column???

"P.S. This issue of MA did not have a Control Line Stunt column???
Circlepilot"

Probably Bob feels like he needs to accumulate some page credits toward PTG's "Diva" article next issue or so. Steve

LAST EDITED ON Nov-24-04 AT 09:36 PM (CST)
 
(to CirclePilot)
Flying is fun, but the viagra may actually be better.

No surprise to a lot of people, I agree with what you've said. I got my issue of Model Aviation today, saw the letter you did, and had the same thought about the lack of a Stunt column.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the "special interest columns" such as C/L Aerobatics rotate on a monthly basis. (or some such)

Remember, the number of folks flying C/L is miniscule compared to R/C.
Bill <><

I never gave the "column rotation' a thought...Minuscule?...I Agree...but could be bigger, don't you think?

>I never gave the "column rotation' a
>thought...Minuscule?...I Agree...but could be bigger, don't
>you think?

I sure hope the numbers can increase. The event is "growing old", by that I mean that we C/L fliers are growing older. And not nearly as many yougnsters are becoming invloved as was the case 40-50 years ago.
C/L flying isn't as exciting on the surface as R/C, whether it be planes cars, trucks, whatever.
And neither hold a candle to Playstation, X-Box, or any of the computer generated video game systems. A kid can sit down, plug in a game, and play for hours. There is a reset or replay function, etc., etc., etc.. The grsaphics are more and more life like each day.
What we did to entertain ourselves through creating, building, even just playing games, has long been taken over by electronic gadgets.
I am a high school football coach and teacher. About at the retirement time. What I have seen transpire over the past thirty or so years defines a young group that now has to be entertained.
I have no answer as to how to make C/L and CLPA grow, but it is an answer that HAS to be found. There are a few young people involved in flying C/L now, but that number is vastly too small.
And to the contrary, I am not a "Doomsdayer".
Bill <><

Well stated! I teach Aviation Maintenance for a local university. My students range from 19-30 years of age. Some have the "eye of the Tiger," most of them get bored quickly...They want to be entertained. I've exposed them all to a Stunt demo...the ones really interested, want to learn...RC

As to the monthly special interest articles I am as guilty as all the rest of the control line flyers. The authors of each of the different forms of flying kept begging for inputs from us the control line flyer. I neveer my two cents worth would do any good. So no control line input means no control line flyers to the AMA. - DOC:)

I've been at C/L since the late 50's, with a few breaks in the middle.
I have fiddled with R/C a couple of times, and while it was interesting to me, I never found it exciting. THAT'S NOT A CRITICISM OF R/C, JUST MY PERSONAL REACTION----so everyone know's I'm not picking any fights.

I've thought a lot about why R/C does little for me and finally realized that the main thing I missed was the actual, physical feel of the airplane. C/L is a very tactile endeaver. Every thing is touch and feel, much like flying a real plane is touch and feel. No matter what you do, a transmitter can't relay the feel of a running engine or the pull of the plane, or the feel of the controls when you ask for the 120 degree turn at the end of the triangle. It can't give your brain the difference of loads at low or high speed, calm or wind, or the sensation of an inverted model at 4' when it is the only thing really in focus.

Visually, R/C can never give the intimacy of a world extending only 75' maximum from your brain, with its bottom 4' above the ground. No R/Cer will know what a the first downward leg of a square outside loop 65'away from him with 4' bottoms look's or feels like. That's not a put down of R/C. R/C is simply a different thing. We are not a lower grade of modelling and we should never introduce new people as if we were!

Flying a good PA pattern is a very personal thing. Romantic? Well, make up your own mind. Certainly a few wives have said if we put the effort, subtlety, and concentration we put into flying the pattern into............ Well we won't get going on that! Still, that might help with the lack of junior modelers in 10 years or so.

Anyway, next time you are selling( and SELLING is NOT a dirty word) control line, try painting that dream with your words, THEN let your student FEEL it start to become a "dream come true" as it start's to come to life in the handle!

Try it, you might be surprised.

When I was growing up the department stores and shopping centers would rope off a section of the parking lot and let the control line people fly in the parking lot on the weekend. I use to ride by bicycle 20 blocks every Saturday to watch the control line guys fly in the parking lot all day long that was 1962 in Lansing Michigan. We moved to Tempe Arizona 1963 and it was only 2 blocks to the shopping center where the guys flew control line every weekend. The stores in the shopping center sold control line airplanes and it helped them sell a lot of airplanes it also got a lot of people interested in flying control line.

Now days people look for an excuse to sue their neighbor. I don't beleive flying in the parking lot will ever happen again. Anything that will expose control line flying to others will get people interested.

LAST EDITED ON Nov-27-04 AT 07:37 PM (CST)
 
>Now days people look for an excuse to sue their neighbor. I
>don't beleive flying in the parking lot will ever happen
>again. Anything that will expose control line flying to
>others will get people interested.
>
>Gary Weaver

I am a Harley-Davidson mechanic. My boss has so kindly let me and those who want to fly in our parking lot. I am hoping that someone doesn't call the cops on us to make us stop. Of corse this is a motorcycle dealership and noisy throughout the week.

Dang man, can you get your boss to right the plant here in KC? We've asked about that before and they have said no. They have plant people playing RC cars in their parking lot, but unfortunatly for us none of them want to play CL airplanes. I don't really want to go to work for Harley just to get a flying sight, though one of our members is loosing his airline mechanic job. Hmmmm, wonder if they're hiring and how much they pay?

1962??? For some reason Gary, I pictured you as being much younger.
I used to strap my models and stuff on my bike and pedal to the Elementry school (1962) to fly and be ragged by the local
"Arthur Fonzarelli," who I later taught to fly. See! Exposure works.

OK, I finally understand what happened to us! It was repeal of the "Blue Laws". If you are old enough, you will remember when stores and shopping centers were closed on Sunday and you could go fly in their parking lots. Now they are open 24/7 and their parking lots are used all the time. I recall going to several contests held in shopping center parking lots.

The "Blue Laws", that IS going back a couple years.
Here, in the South, you had better get what gas you needed before the station closed on Saturday or you were walkin'! Ain't much better in some places around here now.
I remember when the Blue Laws started to fall........
Bill <><