Karlton; Charlie's still around, but chooses to focus on his Motorcycle business. I use to do all the composite work for Charlie (Renegade, Raider, Contender, Turbo, Raptor, etc.), but have done a total of only one wing (for his personal use) during the last year. The sad truth of the reality is that you can't earn enough money to live comfortably in Southern California by making toy airplanes. This is certainly true in Charlie's case as he's still relatively young and raising a family (perhaps less true for an old fart like me). Charlie's found that he can work for a much higher hourly rate by restoring Motorcycles and fabricating high performance Motorcycle parts than by making gliders. Apparently, he also has a much larger customer base as he has more than enough work to keep him busy. Unfortunately, this trend seems to be typical for cottage industry glider vendors as many have abandoned the arena just when their products reach prominence. A few examples of this phenomenon are as follows: Steve Hugg of FuseWorks now makes molded parts for the Motorcycle and Auto industry and no longer accepts new orders for glider fuselages, Mark Hambledon of DCU is expanding to support the military effort where the rates of return are staggering, Frank Weston of WACO now tunes piano's as he's fed up with customer interaction. In fact, it's a wonder that Sal of NSP has stuck with it after all the harassment he typically sees. Ed Whyte of Whyte's wings chose another profession after he couldn't make ends meet in SOCAL. Mark Levoe of Levoe Design prefers the steady pay check and full benefits at Aeroenviroment. Brian Mclean now works for a full scale glider company in Bend, Oregon. R&R spends most of their time supporting the Remote Pilot Vehicle (RPV) industry and gliders are left as the orphan child. Several others also work in the RPV industry as their skills translate perfectly to the slightly larger and much more lucrative products. This list is probably far more expansive as I've undoubtedly forgotten several (Bob Dodson, Mark Allan, Ron Vann, Mark Smith of Dynaflight, etc.) and will probably include my own name sometime during the next year.
It's certainly nice to have all the exotic European gliders available, but there's no way we in America can compete with the low cost of labor, materials or facilities in third world countries. Reviewing this post shows that it has a pessimistic or negative tone. That certainly wasn't my intent. I merely wanted to highlight the futility of trying to make a living in the small glider arena and it's hard to do that in a positive way. Obviously this post doesn't extend to the low end of the spectrum where manufactures use inexpensive material (EPP) or high volume to make up for low profit margins. Please enjoy our soaring products while you can as we're definitely an endangered breed. Fred RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
