Aero Mail - 2007/10
Parents Will Bring the Young Fliers
Jim Cherry’s column in the August 2007 issue of MA asked the perennial question, “How do we attract new youth members?” I am an adult Scouter and the Boy Scouts ask the same question. Here are a few of my thoughts on youth membership.
Kids today have way too many activity choices. Any activity wanting to succeed must somehow make itself appear more fun and more satisfying than the others. The first caution is not to oversell. If a kid comes along and then isn’t “wowed” as promised, they will leave to do something else.
Typically, kids have short attention spans, so it’s important that they gain a vision quickly of themselves as successful pilots. It is this vision that keeps modeling in the positive-activities file of their brains.
I have watched model airplanes move from an “any kid can do it” hobby to a complex and formidable hobby. We don’t let kids drive cars at age six because they can’t handle the responsibilities of driving at that age. They probably can’t handle multi-channel RC flying either. So the complex modeling can be put in their “vision” while they learn their way up to that level.
The best promoters of any activity are the kids themselves. They can’t resist telling their friends about how they are having fun, and that will sell other kids better than an army of geezers. Kids aren’t interested in politics or squabbling adults—only fun and satisfaction.
If we expect kids to stay with aeromodeling, then we have to get parental involvement; the Boy Scouts has proven this. The first people to hear about how much fun a kid is having are the parents.
If the parents are out of the loop the kid won’t get any encouragement at home, and parental encouragement is essential both for validation of the activity and to help kids get through the difficult times—when the airplane crashes or a building project isn’t going as planned.
Kids are at the start of life’s many avenues and can be puzzled at any moment, and that’s when they need to be restarted by their parents. I understand that not all kids have happy homes, but to begin recruiting with the best prospects will build a base that can absorb the difficult cases later.
The slogan should be “Get ’em Flying”—once hooked they can be led to the rest of the game. The Boy Scouts is basically a stepwise trail of increasingly difficult challenges. As a boy conquers one challenge he is preparing himself for the next. Gradually he not only learns what each challenge teaches him, he learns how to approach challenges. Success builds confidence and confidence yields self-esteem.
The Delta Dart program is a good starter, but it needs the next step once the hook is set.
I’ve been an AMA member since 1959, though I’ve not flown since 1973. I do attend the occasional contest, and one thing I see is dads shooing their kids away while they have the fun of flying. If the kids aren’t allowed to be there with dad, they aren’t likely to think of model airplanes as fun.
Kids will join in with model airplanes if the hobby looks friendly and within their realm of possibility. They need to have a little success right at the beginning and be validated as capable by parents and friends. Then they will stay.
Nic Hallett Coupeville, Washington
Recommendations
- Don’t oversell the hobby; promise what you can deliver.
- Create an early vision of success so kids feel like pilots quickly.
- Offer a stepwise progression: simple starters (e.g., Delta Dart) with clear next steps.
- Involve parents so they can encourage and validate their children.
- Encourage kids to share their enjoyment—peer promotion is the most effective.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
