How long have you been flying models?

[David Ashby - Moderator]

It's such an obvious and interesting question after all.....

[Lee Wilson]

Just over 2 years now, gone from my trainer to 1/4 scale petrols in that time and still loving every minute

Edited By Lee Wilson on 02/03/2012 20:34:54

[Gaz Elliott]

Mmm longer than 12 months . 5 years in total learning new stuff all the time.

[Turbycat]

About 32 years on and off. Started when I was 10. Sure it was a tutor trainer. Then on to a Gangster 52 and an Acrowot. Also a 1/6th scale Moth of some sort. The Gangster and Acrowot served me well for many many years! I really like my current scale stuff but am starting to get a hankering for a 3D model of some description.

Andy

[Henry Jones]

Tricky one for me, age 7-13 free flight balsa. Big gap getting drunk and having kids, restarted 1999, needless to say, I'm an RC addict. Mrs had no idea, like my weird little secret.

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Since Pontius was a pilot it seems

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

OMG! What a depressing survey!

Well, like Henry, I started when I was about 13 - building free-flight rubber power, then free flight ic. Went on, had a break, came back, had another break, coame back again,...I'm now 55, so in all I've been doing this 55-13 =42 years on and off - mainly on.

I can't believe it! Where did it all go? Why have I still not built most of the models I want to? Why am I still crashing - OK less often, but it still happens!? Why can I still not cover something with a double curvature properly? How many gallons of fuel have I sent up in smoke? Why do I keep asking myself stupid questions....?

BEB

[Malcolm Fisher]

Built my first model in either 1950 or 51 so that makes it about 60 years.

Malcolm

[Paul Marsh]

I started properly in 1992. Was not until I started to drive in 1994 that I could drive to the field. I had a couple models, a DB Mascot and a free plan model called the Alley Cat which I flew every weekend until it was so old and soaked it fell to bits.

Before I could drive, I used to use my bike, with a model or two on one hand, about 10 miles each way up and over two steep hills, using one hand to apply the brakes. Mad, as I went in all weather, even rain.

[John Privett]

I guess I too started at about the age of 13 or 14. Briefly, and unsuccessfully, with rubber-powered models then on to control line and later radio. Ferrying C/L models around on my bicycle was no problem. I'm not sure I ever transported any of my R/C models on the bike though. Then a few years off and I returned to flying about 20 years ago.

[Lindsay Todd]

I have a pic of me throwing a rubber power model when I was six, but I am told I made my first model plane at pre school so that would have been age 4, so its over 40 years, I'll get the hang of it one day.

[Alan Randall]

I have been returning to the same field to fly for the best part of 50 years.

Alan

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Like BEB I've been a bit off & on....started in 1976 with control line models & then breaks in the mid/late 80s & 90's.....so 36 years all together but not really continuous....

[Richard Harris]

I first had a go with my old man back in the late 70's with a Galahad and a model called Roma? single channel to start with then he purchased a 27mhz 4 channel set. The radio make was Delta and I believe it was made locally in the midlands?

First model I built was a Super Skyman and my first low winger was a Gangster 52 which was a christmas present.

Had a break in the late 80's a I discovered females and got back into it again in the early 90's

Still fly with my old man when work and family don't get in the way.

Edited By Richard Harris on 02/03/2012 22:22:17

[Reno Racer]

Started in 2005 after flying full size, so 7 years RC. Self tought. BMFA B Cert, now AMA (US). Started completely electric; UnoWot then quickly to the WOT4 (both kits) and EDF flat foamies. Very quikcly progressed to larger EDF and sports aerobats, both electric and glow (2 and 4S).

Now fly a mix of electric (small stuff - shockis etc), Four Stroke glow 60-90 size (both aerobatic pattern and warbirds) and petrol 1/4 scale WW1 fighters. Also recently started Helis. Started on Blade MCPX Flybarless, now flying a TREX.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I think I was about 9 or 10 when I started saving up for my first ARTF! It was a plastic FROG rubber powered Buccaneer which I saw in the local toy shop window for 27/6d (that's £1.37p for the younger members) and was something like 10 week's pocket money. It flew superbly from the back of Ivinghoe Beacon but I found out that you shouldn't start running down a steep hill when I went to recover it!

That was (and like BEB I really find it hard to believe) around 47 years ago!

I then went on to a Kiel Kraft Gypsy that my father built for me, built a few small KK/Veron stick and tissue free flights (all horribly warped!) and then at around 12 or 13 got a DC Merlin as a present which I built a KK Snipe for and then a few control line models along with the odd glider. After a short break, I started RC flying for a few years before full size gliding took over. Ten years ago (after flirting with Helis on and off over the previous few years) I got back into RC fixed wing and haven't looked back!

Edited By Martin Harris on 02/03/2012 22:37:54

[Alan Cantwell]

started building models at the age of 8, right mess they were, but had to start somewhere, found out what those funny things in skirts were, and found some foamy stuff called BEER, still did a bit, but only got serious when i got married, wife bought me my first trainer kit, Tyro Major (its still flying too!!!) and an OS 25 motor, never looked back after that, and the wife rued the day she bought the kit and engine!!!! so, realistically, prob the same as BeB, about 42years +

[Danny Fenton]

I had a big gap in my modelling so it is a difficult question. I started when I was around 7 cos my Dad was a modeller, then from my early twenties, until my mid forties I was doing other things mainly involving girls, beer, girls, cars, girls, education, girls, karting, girls, sailing......... Modelling took a back seat. Rekindled the interest in 2007.

You could almost do with gap between modelling poll David?

Cheers

Danny

[leccyflyer]

Like so many of the stories above I started building and flying models in my early teens, Keil Kraft stuff with varying degrees of success and failure, A Cox C/L Stuka that never really got off the ground, some kit and plan built control liners that were a bit more successful, a couple of unsuccessful forays into single channel radio with KK Outlaw and Mini Super and a Gem 1+1 set.

Then, again, like so many, I discovered beer, guitars and girls then college, producing a long break with no model flying.

Came back into the fold 18 years ago when my son was born and thought it would make a great lad and dad hobby - which it has been..

In a fit of nostalgia I picked up a Ben Buckle Mini Super kit and a plan pack for a Keil Kraft Spectre so, if I ever get to my bench, I'll hopefully go full circle this year.

For the poll though I'm only counting the second, succesfull phase of model flying

[Myron Beaumont]

Started in about 1952 by buying and building all the 3s/9d Keil Kraft kits I could get my hands on in. Beecrofts in Nottingham (anyone remember them ?) Spent many years perfecting control line 2.5 cc powered models/ diesels Frog 2.49 etc I then discovered the opposite sex and wasted many years having houses/children etc and the associated grief & poverty until I finally ended up where I wanted to be playing music Newquay area and maintaining Norman Britten Islanders- St Just aerodrome as a main source of income in Cornwall .Lived on boats and oil rig where I'd build each night .Now at last I have found heaven on earth with 'er indoors number three (I I think it is ?) & am lucky to have loads of flying land outside the front or back door .& sheep ,goats and chickens . Now have about 10 models of all sorts ready to fly any time but really prefer the actual building to the flying .Maybe I need a new challenge 'cos that is what it's mainly about isn't it ?

Myron YO13 OK dept

[Martyn K]

I am the same age as BEB and started at the same age. Frightening when you think about it and put the results in context.

What I am surprised about though is that I was expecting a typical Bell shaped Standard Distribution curve. Then I reconsidered the meaning of the question.

What the responses appear to show is that this is a lifelong hobby as the numbers increase proportionally (almost) with age. However, you are missing the hidden question "How old were you when you stopped flying?", logically you need that question to complete the picture, but I guess that a poll raised on a modelling website is going to miss that sample of the population...

 

Good poll question though..

 

Martyn

Edited By Martyn K on 03/03/2012 00:20:26

[oldSmithy]

First model was a Keil Kraft hurricane around around 1957 Then various keil kraft models including jetex mig and sabre. Moved on to control line and diesel engines. Made my own fuel and still remember the smell and how it stings cut fingers.Made a stab at radio control attempting to build an OXO box Tx from one of the mags. I guess that must have been around 1962 but it failed completely so that was the end of the models until 1978 bought a mini super and second hand 27 am outfit and an os 20 and progressed from there, Also built and used a micron fm set set for a few years. Had a few gaps as well but always come back.

[Erfolg]

Martyn

Your assessment seems pretty much spot on, After thinking a little, you would expect some thing approaching a linear proportional relationship of the y=mx^2 +c. That isif the rate of new modellers is constant. The only surprise was the drop after 60 years, yet again you have identified what is happening, we tend to expire after such a commitment to our hobby. So I guess the limits are 10 and 60.

If the available data was plotted, I would actually have expected a curve being revealed, still with a limit at the 60 year region. I guess a much modified y=e^x to flatten the curve and when x= 10 so does y. That is if my suspicion is correct, in that the number of new modellers has been declining, by some proportion over the last 50 years.

[Cyclicscooby]

Gawd, there's some right ol' duffers on here isn't there..

Many many years of experience and knowledge tho... !

I've been playing with RC cars since I was 9, but didn't rise to the skies until 7yrs ago when I got a Heli.. Planes are something more recent, about 4-5yrs...

 

Luv

Chrisie.. xx

Edited By Cyclicscooby on 03/03/2012 03:38:50

[Steve W-O]

I answered the question how long had I been flying models, only when I read the thread did I see that people have included te time they launched models and let them fly themselves, so if I had done the same I would be in the 41+ bracket