CL is growing

Just received an exciting email from one of my old flying buddies. When I was living in Salisbury MD back in the 70's we had a small but pretty active club. Thanks to my influence Lloyd Gregory and Brad Smith started flying again in a local school yard and people started coming out of the woodwork. The Salisbury Hawks control line club has been resurrected with 7 members. This isn't many fewer than we had when I was living there. Same thing seems to be happening here in Tulsa, we have gained 3 or 4 new members this year.

This probably doesn't mean anything to most of you but I feel real good about the Hawks becoming a sanctioned club again and wanted to share my excitement.

I'm aware of at least a couple of retreads coming back onboard via the Flitestreak ARF. We are seeing slow growth of our flying group here in Austin. I hope it doesn't get like the old days, when you had to wait hours between flights.

To bad we can't get the toy stores, hobby shops, etc. to tell people to contact an experienced flier whenever someone buys one of the Cox things as they do whenever someone new buys a new rc setup. Might get some truly NEW blood in the hobby instead of retreads.

I've got 3 active fliers and a group of talkers in my northtown group. Gettin better.

Hey,
We'll take those retreads!

hey thanks for the plug bob. we have 7 of us that fly most every sunday looks like we might have to start 2 circles. we have had some kids come out and i always bring along a 1/2 a and put the kids up on that they love it. things are looking good. looks like we all are planing to go brodak this year were making plans now. if any of you come through salisbury md drop and email and get togather with us.

I'd have to agree, our club the HAMS, has gone up and down over the years. Started with half a dozen adults and half a dozen kids. Went to 15 or so mostly adults, hit a low point a few years ago with no more than 5 active members. Now we often get 15 out at a weekend funfly.

Biggest single thing- regularly scheduled flying sessions at a specific place!! People can't find you if they don't know where to look.

>Biggest single thing- regularly scheduled flying sessions at
>a specific place!! People can't find you if they don't know
>where to look.

We've picked up half dozen or so new members since moving to a location with high visibility.

The North Coast Controliners, Cleveland, Ohio have grown to over forty members in the last five years. I agree with the fact that someone has to see you. Our field at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds has done that for sure. We dont always pickup a new member but someone always has there interest rekindled. We are working on our second field for the east side of town. Its an old landfill with quite a crown on it but it could be a mecca for the combat and carrier guys, of which we have a growing number. Might not get the recognition as the fairgrounds but having two fields will be great if it all works out. Keep the faith and keep working. "Build it and they will come."
Wayne Buran

We have picked up a few guys by putting out sign-up sheets in the local hobby shops.

LAST EDITED ON Dec-26-03 AT 08:28 PM (CDT)
 
In 2001, some of us started working on Ultimate Hobby (Auburn, Washington) manager Bruce de Chastel (you Ozzies will recognize the name) to stock some CL supplies, Powermaster GMA mix fuel, etc. After awhile, they were surprised to find that 8' of island space sold 20% of the shops gross sales for several months. It got their attention! We've converted a bunch of R/C guys that used to fly CL and were unhappy with the R/C club scene, and gotten a bunch of old CL fliers back flying. Pretty cool! Steve