I started flying and racing R/C cars in my teens. It was fun to watch the hobby evolve all these years and I have certainly enjoyed it a bunch.

This hobby seems to be a life long addiction so we used to see all age groups at the club. So much to learn from the old timers, many were WWII vets and the stories behind the club table at the field were simply priceless. Unfortunately most of the WWII vets are all resting in peace these days. God Bless Them and their bravery and heroic actions that ended that terrible war. :yes: The stories were fascinating to say the least. Some flew the bombing raids, some were warbird pilots, others had other stories to tell. I miss those days. :tears:

I have to say one of the most rewarding aspects of the hobby were the few years I volunteered as the instructor pilot and had some students taking lessons under my supervision of various ages. The excitement and the smiles and sparkling eyes as they would get signed off to fly as pilots were priceless.

Unfortunately, the R/C hobby, like many others is simply not seeing the youngsters getting involved and the old timers are departing one by one. Sad but these are the modern days of social media and computer games, not so much the outdoor activities or interest in cars and aviation.

or.....Aviation has a perfect record....we haven’t left one up there yet!

True! :D

I’m assuming you salvage what you can and rebuild? Can these be outfitted like drones and control them from your audio [emoji575]?

Depends how bad the crash was but yes, parts are interchangeable for helicopters. Not so much for planes made of balsa wood. :D

Technically drones are a separate hobby all together but yes, any R/C vehicle or aircraft can be outfitted with first person view goggles to see what the camera sees onboard thus extending their flight or driving range beyond line of sight. There are some regulations in place for that for obvious reasons

Got it and I’m sure parts and pieces add up, just hopefully not on the level of audio.

Years back, my son and I took a stab at a few entry level Helicopter flying, ended up crashing them on neighbors roofs, over the embankment, tried patching things together with tape and glue until that worked no more.

Since then he left me for video games like you said earlier, but after this post think we will give another try.

Not many hobbies get as expensive as AUDIO. :D Especially when one gets carried away and spends as much on a pair of speaker cablea as a new car :D

Helicopters have a rather steep learning curve, drones are much easier and most people flying drones are treating them as a "flying camera" not "model aviation". Different "focus", pun intended, all together.

There are truly great simulators available for training and practicing flight which are very realistic and not very expensive. It is a must IMHO. While some people manage to fly planes after extensive fly/crash/fly/crash trial and error type approach, with helicopters it would be more like crash/crash/crash/fly.../crash/crash/crash... done. The simulator pays for itself with the first crash. :yes: https://youtu.be/Eevltxm3dME

The governing body for R/C aircraft is the Model Academy of Aeronautics. The organization has been around 1936!

Founded in 1936, the AMA is the official national body for model aviation in the United States. They sanction more than one thousand model competitions, and an increasing number of non-competitive Fly-in events for member aeromodelers throughout the country each year, charter more than 2500 model airplane clubs and offer contest sanctioning, liability insurance and the procurement of flying sites.

Here is a link to a local club finder. Bring your kids or grandkids to the local club flying field, let them see all the neat airplanes, who knows, maybe it will spark an interest and the camaraderie at the flying field is just as strong as any other hobby and passionate folks willing to help. All you need is a spark of interest. :thumbsup: http://www.modelaircraft.org/clubsearch.aspx

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http://www.wichitafallstx.gov/ImageR...cumentID=27080

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Just received an email from Tower Hobbies about their bankruptcy filing and sale to Horizon Hobby. Sad to see the end of an era. The amount of hours I would spend going through their catalogs 30+ years ago. I did come back to R/C for a bit with my son but we have just gotten too busy with sports and other hobbies.