What happened to general aviation. 3d Sickness

[flynbye]

invert you make a good point about only being big 3d birds out there. others companys have been poping up aeroworks has some and tbm, bill hemple has a cub i would love to get a hold of. mostly i think it is just supply and demand. this hobby is getting more younger with the new people comeing in and when a new person comes out to a feild to watch people fly they see a yak hovering or blenders etc this will draw more eyes then the cadet senoir just turning left for 15 min. but all that said i do like 3d becuse no matter how well you do you push your self to do it lower slower cleaner

[go29kev]

I like all kinds of flying. i do a little 3d a lot of just flying and some go fast turn left. in the 23 years i have been flying i had enjoyed it all. i agree that you just dont see as much normal ( non 3d) planes in arf's anymore but i my self rather build my own plane anyway. to me thats a part of the hobby that has been lost. i myself feel better about the plane i am flying if i built it instead of just geting it out of a box and flying it.
as for the $ of 3d arf planes over others well sit and realy look at it a good 35-40% plane and engine that eveyone is flying is just as much if not more as my 1/5 scale byron's corsair and engine. and all the high end servos and batterys and electronics that is being run in the 3der's over the normal gaintscale servos and normal batterys that is used in scale/warbird type planes is a lot more $ to get. so the money issues of 3d planes are cheper is not realy correct IMO.
and as for skill related flying yea 3d is hard and takes a lot to be good at it ( i wish i was better) but so does flying a plane like the plane was ment to fly. ask a 3der to fly a p-51 or a corsair like they realy flew and i bet most would not be very good at it. scale /warbird flying takes just as much skill as anything.

3d is the hot thing right now just like warbirds were the big thing a few years ago and just like everything it will fade to something new and different ways of flying. to many times i have seen 3der's and warbird guys bad mouth the other we all should just enjoy the hobby and fly to have fun no matter what you fly....

[kevinf2501]

Troy Built Models has a whole line of large arf warbirds they just came out with.

[dougpeck]

I can understand the original question ... at times , it seems like the 3D stuff can be shocking - especially to those of us that have been flying for 50+ years !

One of the most important reasons I love to see it is the incredible number of young pilots it has brought into the sport ! To me, it is wonderful to see these new faces and their amazing skills . I am quick to say although I am one of those 50+ year veterans I LOVE to work on my 3D skills (which have a long way to go ). It has given me new skills to work on that are very difficult and take lots of time (spell that F-U-N ) to develop.

It also is great to see some of the general aviation stuff at the field. We had the most beautiful scale biplane from the 30's that was scratch-built by owner. We all gathered around it w/wonder and watched one of the first flights of this smaller glo beauty. The skill level of the builder was awesome to see . That day it was the highlight of my 'flying' .

The tremendous improvement in motors and especially electronics , I believe, is in large part due to the increase of interest (spell $$$$ spent ) by these thousands of new 3D'ers ( including me ! ) .

Long live general aviation , scale, sport , IMAC , 3-D , 4 and 5D ? .... what a great hobby !