# of current NAR members

Well, as 90% of the motors I fly are in the B & C range, with an old F100 now and then. I could still live with it. I would figure that like so many other things it'll change over time.

Thanks for the replies and the interesting information and viewpoints. I agree with almost all of it.

Okay, the comment about it not affecting me on my side of the fence was sorta a brain fart on my part. Good reply in the "I didn't speak up when they came for the communists." Glad to see somebody's read chapter 2 :) LOL Anyway, I do see yall's point, especially since I've 'graduated' from much personal interest in ABC motors and am more interested in the DEF end of the spectrum. Even though I enjoy watching and reading about HPR I could never hope to afford it. But who knows, maybe one day I'll hit the lotto and get just bored and eccentric enough to want to dive in and fly M motors. I know that all the regulatory stuff just made my head spin back when it first started and I was like, "hey, it's a HOBBY! Who wants to go to all the trouble to get a LEUP and build a storage bunker and get FAA waivers and all that paperwork and crap?? Sorry filling out gov't forms and complying with regulations and inspections isn't my idea of a relaxing pastime." I can certainly understand if others want to do it and more power to them. Seems to be a lot of folks who do and so now I see why NAR started doing their own HPR cert program. Coming back into the hobby, though, I can see that the polarization is about as bad now, maybe worse than it was when I left. Seems like the 'model rocket' end of the spectrum is totally geared to 8 year olds and everything else is big HPR. The DEF size part of the hobby seems to have suffered because of it. I know I was surprised (bad way) reading a recent Estes catalog because I used to buy mainly parts from them to build my own designs. Now their 'parts section' is only a piece of one page and they don't even bother offering a lot of parts (like BT-56 and PNC-80A's (Phoenix type nose cones) that you KNOW are still in production because they're making kits from them. Anyway, that's just what I'm seeing looking in I guess.

God bless you all in this lawsuit. I sure hope it works out better than it did for us cotton farmers. I have abandoned all hope and belief in our 'democratic' system because I've experienced how badly it's been co-opted. For instance, when the boll weevil eradication program first came out, they sold it as the cure to all our ills. Anybody that bothered to read past the glossy by-line on how it was actually going to be implemented could see it was a total power grab and basically reduced you to a serf on your own land. Only after it started did people see the light. Independent producer groups formed (the lap-dog 'farm groups' like Farm Beaureau et al are totally in big agribiz-gov't pockets and are the main problem certainly no solution) and at their own expense filed lawsuits against it. The TX Supreme Court eventually threw the program out in our area, but these people don't quit. A lot of people were mad because it was a program created by the gov't, run as a private company, but with the power to tax by forcing everyone to pay $20/ acre before you could get 'permission' to sell your own crop. If you refused to pay they used the state ag dept to 'fine' you into compliance. I said when they threw it out, "they'll be back" and while all the producer groups broke their own arms patting themselves on the back and went home thinking it was over, the powers that be sat back, played it cool, let everything chill for a few years, then came back with a new strategy. They came back with the 'new improved' version we would 'vote' on. They'd already fixed the voting rules so that, not a majority of FARMERS (one man one vote) would prevail, but a majority of ACRES would decide. IE, your neighbor with 1000 acres yes vote was worth 10 of your no votes if you were only farming 100 acres. REAL democratic! THEN they wined and dined the 3-4 biggest farmers in town and told them what a great deal it was, how they wouldn' t have to spray their own anymore so they'd have time to farm even MORE land, and voila, it sails through the vote with 2/3 majority, even though 3/4 of the farmers voted against it. (The top ten percent of farmers control roughly 75% of production according to USDA's own numbers) Well, that's what it's ALL coming to. Why do you think we can't even hold an election in this country that is clear cut and honest anymore?? There's a dozen other things I could tell but time forbids.

I've come from bitter experience to know that there are powers out there that want things a certain way and they don't care how they get it or who gets hurt or who is upset or doesn't like it and there is nothing you can do to stop them from ultimately getting their way. That's just life in our 'brave new world'. Good luck! OL JR :)