Growing old or changing?

Model Airplane News, Dec 1998 by Marshall, Larry

FROM MY discussions with people over the last year there seem to be many who believe that our hobby is growing old, that no new people are taking up model aviation and that the hobby will simply decline due to lack of interest. These discussions typically refer to the "graying" of our hobby. But is this really true? I think not.

I have the opportunity to attend many different types of model aviation events and what I've seen is counter to this common view. It's certainly the case that, when I attend giant scale fun fly events, the majority of participants are as old as I am or older than me. But when I was at an electric fun fly in Michigan this year, the guys filling the flightline were mostly younger than I-in their 30s and early 40s. The same thing was true when I attended two helicopter events this year. Jet rallies seem to attract many young people; they aren't teenagers, but they are in their 30s. Even the Flying Aces Nationals free flight scale event had its share of young participants, and those participants were picking up a lot of the hardware at the awards banquet.

As an instructor, it's been the case that over the last few years, most of my students have been in their 30s or 40s. If this is "entry level," that's not an indication of "graying of our hobby"; it's a reflection of the demographics of our country as well as the realities of life. These days, most adults stabilize their lives and families at this age and so they finally have the time to participate in hobbies. I suspect that we would find similar trends in golf.

In talking with Jay Mealy of the AMA, their latest survey showed that the mean age of their membership was around 45-s-ignificantly lower than it was the last time the survey was done. This, I think, is a reflection of what I'm seeing on the flying fields. Their membership is also up by 3 percent this year, by the way.

So people who are joining our ranks are in their ?30s and 40s, and if they seem to end up in venues other than giant scale rallies, does that suggest that giant scale is graying and not the hobby? Maybe parts of it are, but there continues to be an interest in giant scale on the part of younger folks. One look at the growing popularity of IMAC competitions gives a good indication of the interest in giant scale aerobatics, and much of it is coming from guys in their 30s and 40s. The same thing can be seen at many of the warbird meets.

In short, I see considerable evidence that this generation, unlike those that preceded it, are simply entering our hobby at an older age than many of us "old-timers" entered the hobby. These younger folks seem more diversified in their interests than those of us who are more set in our ways. Hence, we are seeing a surge of interest in helicopters, electric power, scale aerobatics, smaller aircraft and even free flight. These varied interests may change the nature of our hobby, but from what I can see, we're seeing an exciting influx of new participants in model aviation. This bodes well for the hobby in general.

NEW HELICOPTER COLUMN

Because RIC helicopters are growing in popularity, we've decided to initiate a bimonthly column on the subject. We were fortunate to have Rick Bell agree to write the column; he has been my instructor as I've tried to learn something about helicopters and helicopter flying. His abilities to explain helicopter setup and flight are well above average. As for Rick's flying abilities, he spent several years on the competition circuit and has a wall full of trophies, including first place at the 1992 AMA Nationals. While he still flies his competition helicopters, he's devoting more of his time to scale helicopters these days. Take a look at his .90-size Hughes 300 in his first column, "Regarding Rotors," and you'll see that he's quite a craftsman. But, maybe best of all, Rick is a nice guy, so if you bump into him, introduce yourself, as he loves to talk helicopters.