View from HQ - 201209
Background
Editor-in-Chief Dennis McFarlane is a longtime model aviation enthusiast and his wife, Cindy, is the proprietor of a well-known hobby shop in the Chicago area. I share this background because I’ve known Dennis for a while and he has a good handle on what’s occurring in the model aviation community. He sees things from a perspective that comes from the industry side of the table, and I respect his opinion. What follows is an excerpt from Dennis’ editorial in the July 2012 issue of Hobby Merchandiser, reprinted with his permission.
Excerpt from Dennis McFarlane (Hobby Merchandiser, July 2012)
“I have always been a strong proponent of the social aspect of radio control aviation. The claim of self-instructing trainer aircraft is nothing new, but I’ve never been a fan. I’ve always felt dealers should direct potential students to a club and have a knowledgeable individual provide proper instruction.
“Then a series of awakenings happened, entirely by accident, and it has me completely rethinking many of my views. One day I was working with a good friend who had requested some old-school thoughts on tuning his helicopter engine. While tuning and chatting the thought of joining an alternate club became part of the conversation.
“It was immediately brought to light that the club in question required a ‘test’ before applicants would be accepted. We had a riot with this.
“We agreed the written and oral would be a piece of cake, adding the physical dexterity should be easy as well. I chimed in that the psychological can be tough, even for a young liberal fresh out of college, but we both felt we should be able to snake our way through testing and pass the membership requirements.
“On the way home from the flying field I was chuckling as I remembered our conversation, then the flash went off. As hobby dealers and industry leaders we’ve been pushing the idea of club membership to potential radio control customers, but what sane person would even want to be a member of the type of organization I have just described, and we have allowed many of our flying clubs to become?
“All one has to do is travel to any club that is within his store’s demographics. What you are going to see posted everywhere is the word ‘no.’ Examples include:
- No pets
- No children
- No smoking
- No profanity/language
“The list goes on and on. None of the clubs, at least in our area, has a sign as simple as: Visitors Welcome.
“Every club has them and we all know a few. Their real name isn’t important, but they are the pilots with bad attitudes. They can’t wait to rip a new member for an accidental violation of club rules, and are the first to walk up to a visitor and let him know he’s not welcome and under no circumstances will he be allowed to fly.
“Unconsciously we have moved our flying clubs from inclusive to exclusive and this has helped destroy model aviation as we once knew it. Store owners should make an attempt to attend club meetings and when the ‘No!’ is heard, suggest an alternative approach.
“It took years for this to happen and it’s not going to be fixed overnight, but we have to begin somewhere, and now is as good a time as any.”
Commentary
What a message! Frankly, I was more than slightly surprised when I read this. I spent time analyzing what Dennis wrote and thought about hundreds of club fields I’ve visited, trying to decide for myself if there’s any validity to what he wrote. I think there may be.
The majority of AMA clubs are outgoing, welcoming, and helpful to potential new modelers and members; however, I’ve visited a few and seen some of what Dennis has witnessed. Sometimes there are valid reasons for clubs to be more particular, especially if the club is dealing with flying site concerns. But maybe we can all take a look at our particular circumstance and ask ourselves if we are being the best ambassadors for our club and for model aviation that we can be.
New people generally show up at our fields because they have an interest in what we do. Remember, sometimes they may be slightly apprehensive about asking too many questions.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
