[RKDinOKC]

Most hobby shops that catered to men went out of business when the VCR and movie rental got popular. Women's sewing, crafts, and decorating stuff only took a small hit. The men's hobby shops are having a difficult time now because people are buying stuff from the internet instead of their local hobby shop. I hope the good ones can stay in business.

The RC flying hobby has changed. Planes used to be big enough that it was much better to join and club and fly at a flying field. Now with the smaller electric stuff people tend to do the park or parking lot flying thing. They get something off the internet and go crash it until they get frustrated and quit.

When you joined a club you had to start with a trainer, it was inspected, and an instructor made sure you could fly before you were turned loose minimizing the crashing part. If it was a good club you were required to build a trainer instead of using an ARF. That way you learned how to setup and repair your planes.

When i started I got the trainer, motor and radio that the club guys recommended. When I had problems they were quick to help fix it and I rarely had problems. There was a couple of guys that used different motors and radios than the other guys used. They would come out and mess with the motor trying to get it to run right. Then once they did get it flying they would invariably have some sort of radio glitch that would crash their plane. But they claimed those were the best motors and radios.