I see you guys are just as incorrigible as ever.

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Chris Boultinghouse

We try.


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It hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll chip in for the RC After Hours podcast, formally Flitetest After Hours.

Cool, I will have to check that one out.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

I've been doing some thinking and I believe there are a few issues with RC themed podcasts.

1 is having new material to talk about.

2 is the hosts are mixing hobby with "work" and after a while it just becomes a grind.

There were a lot of changes in the hobby if you go back 5+ years ago and then I believe we began to see the real effects of the recession coupled with no real new ideas. There was new stuff going in multirotors during that time though and I have the idea that it pulled some people of out tradition flying RC.

Of course in late 2015 there was also the sUAS registration and I do believe this drove a good number of modelers out of the hobby.

Just my $0.02.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

I don't think many people can keep up the weekly episode cadence for very long without it becoming a grind like you say Ben. I remember Chris and Bobby, as well as the RCHN, crew calling it a hobby within a hobby. Which is what it is and should be, but I don't know many hobbies that I could do EVERY week. That sounds like a job, not a well paying one either.

I think what made the various iterations of RCTS and RCHN successful were obviously the people involved. But also, there was always a string of projects to talk about. Airplane builds, new helis, trying out new things, etc. Backed up with in almost all cases by people who knew something about their subject.

Some of these other shows now are a lot about BNF foamies, or dollar store foam builds. Not that they aren't worthy of discussion or time, but there really isn't much there to discuss week in week out. At least you can't really do it and make it interesting to the masses.

But that's kind of the state of the hobby. It's changed. There is a surge in "building" in some areas... but they are with dollar tree foam. Nothing wrong with that. Just not my cup of tea. Seems like the kind of modeling I am interested in is not very well represented in the area of podcasts right now. That's fine, things change. I don't have to be happy about it though.


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I agree with that.

I guess to clarify my response a bit is there was ATTF which did a lot with foam and the BNF stuff. And then there seems to be less of the high dollar stuff like jets and giant scale gassers in my opinion. I just think people had the money at one point and maybe they crashed and didn't have the funds to replace or that much money going in to the ground changed their mind.

And lets face it, if you are in to higher priced items, it's hard to maintain that over a long period so a podcast would have to be largely focused on things that cost less to review and talk about.

Just my $0.02.

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A.K.A. ben_beyer

Well I'd be interested in people just using wood!

At least in my area, there seems to be a resurgence of jet flyers coming back. Just in my local area we have several that quit when the economy was down, and now that it's rebounding some are coming back. But overall, I'm not sure it's just related to the economy, st least not here, but we've seen drops in pattern and IMAC pilots. No new blood, no younger pilots either... seems many disciplines are either in a big lull, or on the way out. Conversely, some like warbird racing (with YS115s) is huge out here!

So with that, I just think people are leaving, taking a break, or like you said can't afford the spendy stuff...

But the interest seems to be on the cheaper foam stuff... it's just more accessible. Fewer people at clubs actually build anymore, hobby shops largely employ people who can't spell the word "build"... so it's slowly going away.

I think that's reflected in those that do podcasts too. Many of these folks aren't airplane nerds, they aren't drawn to airplanes because they always lived for and obsessed over aviation... they just saw somebody fly a foamie at a park and it looked cool. So they tried it. Nothing wrong with it, just different.

Just like there used to be builders (still are but they are quieter now), the tinkerers are still there but they are doing 3D printing and CNC stuff. I do find that really cool. But it's a complete mystery to me.




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One more thing that's changed that this old, cranky, snobbish modeler finds annoying. While still available, forums aren't the favored place these days to post information anymore, Facebook has replaced a lot of this. I guess you see it more with helicopters, RC Groups is still going strong, but Helifreak/RunRyder/RCU seem to be withering at the vine a bit. Hard to search Facebook and frankly, I just don't like it for this ... much more confrontation than we used to see on forums. Though the balsa modeler group is pretty tame.

Ok, enough griping today. Happy Thanksgiving guys!

T


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Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

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A.K.A. ben_beyer