RTF/ARF Friend or Foe?

In my web crawling the other day I fell over a site selling plans for radio controlled airplanes. It was a good site but I very soon got the message that the editor was not supportive of RTF or ARF airplanes! (To put it in a ‘family friendly’ way!)

I suppose that since he was in the business of selling ‘build your own’ plans, he could be forgiven for feeling a bit put out that folks could just rock out and buy something ready made!

But, I think he is wrong. I think that the arrival of these quick fix airplanes has been one of the biggest boosts to RC flying for a long time. Lets face it, we live in an instant gratification world. People are in the habit of going from thinking about something and doing it in one jump.

RTF is the closest we can get to this. Also, there is the cost factor. These instant flight sets allow someone who is on the outside looking in to accurately figure how much it is going to cost to get into the hobby, and also see a clear path through to the end result of soaring through the clouds!

Compare this to the old way of doing things. Anybody looking in was faced by a bewildering array of choice. Choice at every point along the way. Each choice costing more, (or less!) and leading to yet other choices. (Actually, the right choices were very limited, but it sure didn’t seem that way for someone looking in!)

This huge decision making nightmare was placed right at the entry point, where you were least able to make those decisions! Then you also had to do things that you had no idea how to do in order to get your new purchases to some good end point.

I think that this entry point minefield put off many people who would have gone on to be stalwarts of the hobby. Thing is, there is a huge learning curve involved in flying radio controlled airplanes. Once you can do it, it is enormously satisfying, but while you are on the path to that point it can be endlessly frustrating.

I personally spent many months of frustration getting to the point of being able to enjoy the hobby. Even now some 25 years later, I can still remember the joy and huge satisfaction of taking my airplane home unbroken for the first time!

But, as I say, many people see this as an un-climbable mountain. Had they had some relatively easy entry point, many of them would have joined our ranks. (And, many of those would still be around today)

I think RTF/ARF kits give such an entry point, and I see the huge upsurge of park flying and indoor flying as the proof of this. Many of these folk will graduate to larger more complex models later and swell the ranks for the clubs when they feel less intimidated by the level of expertise they see at those clubs. These folk may not have even tried the hobby without such an introduction.

So I think RTF and ARF are good for all of us and should be supported and encouraged, not frowned upon!

The aim is – FLY! Don’t matter what with!