Well what do you think, American just announced they will start charging for first checked bag, Ford just announced it will make a 90 percent reduction in truck production, and oil just hit 135 dollars. Major, major companies are starting to show breaking points and they hide this stuff the best they can. I don't know about you but we might be in little factories gluing ARF's together for China soon. Everyone in this Giant Planker world is far from poverty but I get nervous when my hobby (i.e. fun relaxing time) will get more expensive and I will have to deal with the stress of money in relation to a hobby. I don't see anyway that our hobby is not going to get more expensive. Thoughts on how our hobby is affected by the economy?

Dave

I think the only way it will be affected is that people will not be willing to drive as far for contests/events or not go to so many. I personally don't think that the stuff we buy will get more expensive. Also not so many people will want to buy so many toys and they'll be content with 5 airplanes instead of 10

I agree. The price of oil drives the price of almost everything up. The increased price of our hobby, I would say, will come in the form of shipping charge increases (those big brown trucks aren't exactly hybrids).

rcgood hit the nail on the head. People will probably buy less hobby items as the price of going to work increases and paychecks don't.

Ahhhhh, the days of driving a big-a$$ truck hauling a trailer 6 hours to a contest will forever be a fond memory... unless I win the lottery!

The more oil goes up, the more everything is affected. Doesnt matter if your rich or poor, everyone will be affected. I bet the attendence at contests are down this year. Maybe people will save money to go to the big ones, but everyone will suffer one way or another.

Were all DOOOOMMMED!!!! Plain and Simple

Someone will have to design a light weight trailer to pull behind a bicycle, sort of like those kid trailers. I am already feeling the pinch here, used to go to the field 3 weekends a month, 3 hour drive one way, but so far this year been there 1 time.

In 2-3 years they will have perfected the Virtual Reality realm of RC competition, and we'll all be standing in our computer rooms, wearing VR goggles, flying our aircraft of choice in pre-programmed wind, light, and cloud conditions. Judges will see the same thing on their goggles, and give us instantaneous scores. No more gas, airplanes or real radios.

The only problem will be. . do we use the latest T10 server connection, or the brand new fangled R97C direct satellite linkup for our communications and Internet access? I've heard that the T-10 is more prone to dropouts, lock packets, and even internet disconnects, compared to the R97C setup. Perhaps the JR or Futaba guys can give us some insight into which system works better for the VR competitions. Of course, it's all a moot consideration if the R97's have REAL cloud cover. . . . .

Oil costs a grand total of about $3/barrel to get it out of the ground, and another 5-7/barrel to transport to the refinery here in the States. The ONLY reason that oil is so high is pure speculation on the commodities market. The Commodoties price does not reflect the actual price of a barrel of crude, merely what the market THINKS it should cost.

You can thank our Democratic controlled Congress, and 25 years of them curtailing oil exploration, regulations prohibitting off shore drilling, exploration of deposits within the North American continent, and no added refinery capacity or Nuclear powerplants in that 25 year period, for the extremely high price of Gas and energy today. Between the Communists, Greenies, Leftists, Liberals, and Democrats they have taken our country down this road of not enough energy and paying too much for it.

The American dollar needs to regain it's buying power! Things will get cheaper when our currency isn't equivalent to toilet paper (not yet, anyway). I can solve the oil problem. Just wait until I become the next oil baron, and drill, drill, drill. There's a lot of issues w/ America that need to be fixed to assure this country will remain uncrappy for its citizens in the coming decades...But yea, we should tell OPEC and the EPA to shove it. Ethanol isn't worth it and it might screw up the diaphragm in my gasser.

Ford is cutting truck production?! The F-150 is Ford's bread and butter, and the most sold pickup in the U.S., so that's just economic suicide.

This one has no place here Al. Sorry mate

any one else see the interview that congress had with the big oil lords, man that was frekaen hilarious BS..
congress: "so big oil what was your profit for last quartar"
big oil: " our profit was only 1-2 %"
congress: " ok what was 1-2% of your earnings"
Big oil: "2 Billio... errrrr 2 million "

or some thing like that.. who the is incharge of this

sorry on a v8 owner rant...

mike

blank post.....

Originally Posted by Al Lewis

This bit I deleted guys. Thread policeman at work :-)

Come on, Al........ Tell us what you really have on your mind and don't mince words! You do have a couple of things wrong in your statement: "Half witted." You gotta HAVE some wit to be at least "Half witted!"

The other thing......The thing about the cattle? You know darn good and well that the sheep are nervous more than the cattle. BAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One other thing: Not all us Texans are millionaires. George would have done better .......... Wait a minute!! You have to PM me for the rest of this...... We aren't supposed to get political here on Flying Giants! However...... I DO like the way you think! Al Lewis for Secretary of Energy!

Originally Posted by Al Lewis

This one has no place here Al. Sorry mate

I did not write this!!! and I do not hold it against my friend Kiwi for deleting it. LOL

I would however have liked to have seen the rehearsal for the "Big Oil" guys in front of congress. Congress: How much did you guys earn.... Big Oil Guy: No, no dummy, don't ask me that!!! You want to see that PAC money disappear???

Ok delete post. I decided friends don't talk politics.

You know I had a very dear old friend once tell me that friends should never discuss politics or religion. I'm beginning to think he was right!!!