Remember John that sadly the RC world and AMA world is much bigger than
soaring alone. I agree that soaring pilots in general seem to compete
more than our powered brethren. But at the power clubs I belong to it is
a tiny group that competes. My local power club has 475 members.
Something like 10 to 15 of us compete at anything, maybe. My other power
club is about the same or less even.
Look at giant scale planes. IMAA membership, which shuns competition to
the point of writing it into their mission statement, has just under
10,000 members. IMAC, which exists for the sole purpose of competition,
has 900 members. Of those 900 IMAC members only 500 compete in any given
year.
Simple fact is that AMA-wide most guys simply do not compete.
Want a real hoot? Look at how many competed in which NATS events:
Radio Control = 630 total
Soaring = 151 (counts multiple event entries)
Pattern = 113
Scale Aerobatics (IMAC) = 107
Pylon = 82
Control Line = 223 total (6 events)
FREE FLIGHT = 348 !!! (nearly the same total as for soaring + pattern +
IMAC)
All totaled only 0.8% of AMA members entered at the NATS. The number is
actually lower due to multiple entries.
I liked the near real time NATS coverage. Hopefully it will expand and
improve as time goes by. Why wait 3 to 4 months to get information you
can get that very day?? Frankly, I'd be OK with the print mag going
away. But that's just me, and you know how I am!!
WEM
John Erickson wrote:
Wow, less than 5%? Sure isn't that number in our club, or the soaring clubs
around Southern California. More like 50%, and in our club that number is
higher. We use competitions as one way to fly together. These are not cut
throat, yet they are competitive. I must be really out of touch with the
rest of the AMA world, because less than 5% is a really small number. So
for every twenty modelers only one flies competitively?
RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and
"unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe
messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email
such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
