Phil Barnes wrote:
John raises an excellent topic in his last post. This is an area where the woody guys and I agree. I too have wondered; how does a newbie to RC get into soaring? And especially; how does he get into the kind of soaring competitions that I participate in? I don't have the answer.
Three words: hand-me-down. I've only been in this sailplane racket for the last 3 years or so (competing for only the last 1.5), and the only way I have been able to learn and compete at the level that I have is because of the generosity of clubmates and the rest of the soaring community. I'm not necessarily talking about gear, either -- advice, tutelage and general encouragement has pushed me to the point where I am today (hopefully still very early in my soaring career). I have also been fortunate enough to have used (some gently, some not) gear sold to me for cheap or loaned under two rules ("you break, you fix" and "you gotta fly it!"). For a young dude who doesn't have a lot of extra dough, this is a godsend, and has greatly expanded my horizons.
Whether you hand down experience or an old kit, it all helps the newbie pilot. The competitions will come later once they are indoctrinated -- I know first hand :)
-- ben wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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
