falcoln trading out of business?

Hi Gang, I was wondering if anyone knew of falcontrading going belly up i tried to get to the website -but no good... they made those kinda plastic planes incase nobody everyheard of them before.. thanks..

Reply to
Gig
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Gig, Another one bites the dust. I've known for years that th hobby was going down the tubes, but I kept getting flamed for sayin so. The Falcon Trading Company also carried some of the Midwest line o airplanes, of which some ARF trainers were sold (out) at a significan discount.

I've had conversations with many members of the RC industry and wa assured that business has taken a significant dive in the last fe years. Not to worry, so many arm chair industry member experts will assur everyone that there is nothing to worry about. lol

CC

-- fliers

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Reply to
fliers1

It's going down the tubes because of the preponderance of ARFs has taken half the fun our of it. If you had the emotional investment in building your own, the hobby would turn into a lifetime vocation.

Reply to
Ted Dawson

When I started in R/C, it was only affordable by those with some money to spend. There were no mass marketed R/C toys like today.

A basic four-channel proportional R/C system with nicads and four servos cost a month's wages. This is not an exageration. Even back then, servos for a name brand system, which was pretty much all there was available, were over $30 each for just a beater servo. That would be like paying well over $100 today for the cheapest sport servo you can find. Prices that dip into your income with such a high percentage of what you bring home made R/C flying an elite club with some serious attitudes about preserving your investment.

Today, I can buy RTF models for a little over $100 with an included throw away R/C system that rivals the best that were made in 1969. Today's servos are throw aways, for the most parts, but they are better servos than the first ones that I used to start flying.

There was a certain magic to R/C flying back then that has been lost. This is perfectly normal, but it changes the hobby in negative ways. At least for the old timers.

Technologically based hobbies are doomed to only live so long and then fade away.

No one has anything to do with when they are born, so berating someone because they fly what is available today is silly. It isn't their fault. They have no choice. I'm sure they would like to have enjoyed what we enjoyed in our youth.

The same thing has happened in amateur radio. I know of a few hams that won't talk to the most recent licensees because they don't consider them "real hams". What silliness.

Ed Cregger

Reply to
Ed Cregger

I'm suggesting we need to spend less time on the internet moaning about how our hobby is going down the tubes and more time enjoying it guys. This great time waster the internet is rapidly overtaking many of the great old hobbies . I've seen the enemy and he is us as they say.

Reply to
Jim+Peggy

OK... Ibought my first plane from them... so this tells me that i had better not crash it.... I hope this hobby is around a long time. thanks for the replies.. Gig

Reply to
Gig

I'd say you are right in one little bit of the hobby, maybe kits. (define THE hobby) To survive you must adapt. I spend more money on the hobbby than I did in 1976. From my arm chair it looks like more money is spent period. Kits are out there but there are many you can't get anymore. Really it's always been that way. You worry about it for me CCR, I flew a bit today. :) MK

Reply to
MK

The internet only takes over when the user doesn't have the energy to pursue reality. I'm in such a position. In fact, if it weren't for the internet, I would no be particpating in the hobby at all most of the time. At least this way I get to talk to others that are interested in the same hobby.

Ed Cregger

Reply to
Ed Cregger

| It's going down the tubes because of the preponderance of ARFs has | taken half the fun our of it.

I never did understand this position ...

If you want to design and build from scratch, design and build from scratch. If you want to build from plans, build from plans. If you want to assemble from kits, assemble from kits. If you just want to fly and do very little assembling, buy an ARF. If you just want to fly and do nothing else, go RTF (or just buy used, or pay others to assemble for you.)

I don't understand how if you fit into one of these categories, how other people fitting into other categories somehow takes away from your fun. Maybe you can explain this to me, Ted?

| If you had the emotional investment in building your own, the hobby | would turn into a lifetime vocation.

Maybe. It could also turn into a serious chore when you realize you don't like building, and so you just stop flying.

Reply to
Doug McLaren

What, me worry? lol. I have no trouble bringing new blood into the hobby, but what everyone should worry about is the continuing loss of flying sites. No sites, so club, no hobby shops, no distributors, no RC industry. For the most part, few people wants to think of such things...only that for the time being, that they themselves have a place to fly. ARFs, or no ARFs, can't be comfortable flying when your flying field is being scoped for another golf course.

CCR

Reply to
fliers1

You must have just missed the pissing contest over at news:alt.teen.gay

Reply to
Ted Dawson

Doug,

Very well put, in my opinion. (Followed by a clever and obviously well-thought-out retort by Ted.)

I like to build and I like to fly. But I don't have a lot of extra time, so I do buy some ARFs.

I'm on a budget. I can buy an ARF for less than the cost of a similar kit, glues and covering materials, so I do buy some ARFs.

Because of this, I'm not having fun? And I'm ruining the hobby for others that are better than I am because they build ALL their models from kits? I really must be missing something.....

I had a fun day of flying today with one kit and two ARFs. (Gee... the kit plane was electric-powered. Did the electric motor suck up everyone else's fun and cause the glow engine manufacturers to go out of business and their CEOs to leap from their office windows to their untimely deaths in the streets below?)

Good flying, desmobob

Reply to
desmobob

I have always considered my hobby to be a personal thing. As such, it is my business what I do or don't do. Anyone worrying about what I do in my hobby needs to get busier in theirs so they don't have time to worry about what I do.

Life is not static. Nothing stays the same for very long, regardless of how hard we try to regain that certain feeling that we once experienced. Life just doesn't work that way. At least not by intention.

With that said, I am not saying that it isn't okay to talk about the future of our hobby. I am just saying that I play this horn for myself and no one else. Whatever happens - happens. Part of "my thing" is helping and sharing with others. I do it because I enjoy it. Not because I feel obligated to do so in any way. I'm not much for guilt-induced behavior. Never was.

Remember when the only way to have a fast car was to build it yourself (street racing)? I miss that too. I stopped racing cars when any clown with money could buy a faster car than what I could build on my budget. It may come to that in this hobby for some folks. However, there are always some folks that will find a way to do things without tons of money and with some innovation. I doubt that the latter group will ever voluntarily die out.

Ed Cregger

Reply to
Ed Cregger

Thank You Ed I see your point now and I applaud you . I really could'nt have said it better.

Reply to
Jim+Peggy

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