You're not busy between runs, like in racing.

I never toss the same car on the track. I change one thing, every pack, no matter what. Airplanes don't have that. Little maintenance. Zero wear. No tuning, even gas or nitro.

It's a picnic day. Pack a cooler, bring a chair.

One last point about going to the airfield. Going to the airfield is literally like going to a car show. There are always a variety of planes flying and they all do different things. The last time I was at the field a guy brought out a 1/4 scale P-47 with a Moki 250cc radial engine. When he fired it up I couldn't believe what I was hearing, it sounded exactly like a real plane. I'm a gear head and hearing that motor got me excited, there is nothing in surface RC that compares. Trust me when I say that being "stuck" at the airfield waiting to fly is just as much fun as flying.



Hear all those people in the background? Planes draw a crowd.

I was not talking about big events. The bigger the event/competition the less people whine about their equipment does fall outside the rules. I was talking about clublevel, because there is where the feeling for a competition starts. And I have a flying club around the corner I sometimes take a look. The large events they organise are no competitions but so called Fly-ins, just a huge gathering from people from whole Europe, just to make some fun.

hard to believe

a track being open 7 days a week for practice is, IME, the exception, not the norm. this is especially true for tracks that are only set up temporarily for a race and torn down immediately after the event is over.

Most tracks in my region are nowhere near as open/accessible as your example. If I want track time, my only practical option is to show up on a race day because most other times the tracks are either closed, only exist for the duration of the race event, or have open practice days at inconvenient times in the middle of the week.

In comparison I looked up 3 different airfields/clubs in my region. The only "organized" events were swap meets and fun fly's - absolutely nothing competitive. You must be very lucky to have both an airfield and an rc track that are exceptional in all the ways that support your position.

My car club did a car show at a big outlet mall. I organized an RC car race in an adjacent parking lot. We had a huge crowd of shoppers watching. The draw was the competition. But putting on a race in a high visibility area is very difficult.

^^ I used to visit a mall track awhile ago, and I talked to the owner about possibly having parking lot races. He said he wanted to do that, but the issue would be getting permission from the heads to allot parking space for race days. Their concern was about it taking up spaces from paying customers of other businesses in the parking lot. No matter where you want to setup a track, there will always be some kind of push back.

Everything I am saying is 100% true and can be verified. Did I mention that flying at the field is 100% free for anyone who follows the rules at the field? No FCC registration or tags are currently required either. However there is a flight deck and the field is subject to closure if the wind shifts. The airfield is under a flight path. The field is also in a flood zone and was under water at the beginning of the year.


That's a bummer that you don't have access to tracks 7 days a week (not trying to be a dick, I sincerely think it sucks) and I guess I am very fortunate, because when I raced there was always an on road and off road track to practice on 7 days a week and to my knowledge there still is. These tracks are/were located in the San Francisco Bay Area. There is even a couple of proper spots to race boats in The Bay. The only thing I raced that didn't have a permanent course was 1/5th scale. I love 1/5th scale, best scale I ever raced by a long shot and it's too bad the initial sticker shock scares people away, because once you are invested it's arguably one of the cheapest scales to race and there are no motor/ESC/battery wars. 1/5th scales are also very low maintenance, once they're set up they are pretty much hands off and they don't break so time spent in between heats is hang time if you're not martialing.

Now I live in Southern California and SoCal used to be the RC mecca and there are still a bunch of tracks both off and on road within an hour or two of my location that are permanent. I think Hot Rod Hobbies is one of the few that are still standing from days gone by and I'm pretty sure there's an on road track that's been around awhile as well. My bet is the owners of these shops and tracks own the land and that is paramount. Once the land is sold, the track usually disappears. I have no idea what kind of turn outs these tracks get, because as I've stated several times, when I wanted to start racing again I emailed 2 race directors, neither of them replied.

Tracks are closing because they just aren't worth the investment, because they aren't bringing in new people, and they aren't bringing in new people because of people's attitudes and because race directors are not willing to put in the time to grow their program (no, I don't mean spending money on promotion, I mean returning emails when a new and/or potential racer contacts you). I'm not saying everyone has a bad attitude and all race directors suck, because in my experience most of the people I've raced with were really cool and always willing to help and most of the race directors I've come across are the same. The people with the bad attitudes most often have the loudest voices and the most influence. I firmly believe that if someone wanted to race RC they would figure out a way to overcome costs, but the one thing that no one can overcome are the bad attitudes and when you're just trying to have a good time, it's just not worth it.

Yes without a doubt most of the events at the airfield are fly ins, but again people seem to be coming from a far distance for some of these fly ins, and these events always have major sponsors and giveaways. In my experience most club races are not sponsored and if there is a giveaway it's usually for store credit. Not knocking that, props to the shops that do that.

Yep. Occasionally, a new shop/track will open in my area and only last a couple years. They're usually at the mercy of rent. And with the ever rising rent currently, I don't see a new track appearing for years to come. Unless you own the land and building, running a track is cost prohibitive. Rent is ridiculous. It's a multifaceted problem. Every time this topic comes up, the same points get rehashed. But a major one is real estate.

This is a very good point, at all of the ground RC races that I've spectated it's the same three or four brands with the same cookie cutter bodies/wheels, with the occasional "spec Slash" race tossed in.

I've been a big advocate of more vintage classes, or some sort of low end "brushed only" class for kids to run their brand new RTRs. Anything that breaks up the buggy/truggy monotony.

I agree, but the cookie cutter bodies were inevitable. That's the result of time, trial and error, and the manufacturers honing in on what works best. Same for the chassis. You get very identical designs, that aren't immediately distinguished anymore.

I agree with just about everything you are saying except for the fact that shops and tracks are usually at the mercy of the rent and I say this because if a business has a good ROI the proprietor would more than likely be able to handle the rent increase. I am not saying this is always the case, because there are without a doubt greedy landlords who think they can rent out their property/space for more and I've seen that play out first hand. I worked at a shop that closed because the landlord wanted way too much for rent. After the shop closed the space sat empty for years, in fact I don't think I ever saw a business open in that spot. This was a respected shop that supported racers and the owner did everything in his power to grow RC racing.

I believe that all of us have a hand in the health of this hobby. We are the stewards and we need to do better. I firmly believe if the attitudes were better more people would race, more people racing means more money coming in, which means the ROI would be desirable. We are our own worst enemy. Take a look at me as a direct example. I contacted 2 race directors with the full intent of racing on and/or off road. I wanted to race 1/8th scale buggy and one other class in off road, for on road I wanted to race in a class that utilizes a touring car chassis and more than likely an M class, but due to the fact that 2 race directors ignored me I spent my money on other hobbies and interests. That's a lot of money that I intended to spend that hobby shops and tracks lost out on. Do you think I am the only one who has had a bad experience and decided to spend my money elsewhere?

98% of race directors are borderline illiterate.

They can't answer the simplest question on their own Facebook site.

"Whats stock 2wd buggy?"
-"21.5"

Seriously. Can't even form a complete sentence. 21.5 open motor? 21.5 fixed timing? Turned out to be 22.5ft, spec HW Esc.

Ah shit that's funny and pretty much proves my point. Fortunately I have never had first hand experience with RD's like that, but I've seen some RD's social posts, so I believe what you're saying to be true. We need to do better if we want tracks to stick around. We need to give the owners of these tracks a reason to want to pay that rent increase. We need to figure out a way to make RC racing more inviting and inclusive.

Most of the YouTube shills aren't helping grow the hobby, they are preaching to the choir and keeping the perception of what RCers are alive. They are not bringing in new blood because they are not authentic, they are paid spokespeople and/or people who want to become internet famous and that comes across loud and clear in their videos. I've said this before, the hobby needs some online personalities that are genuine and relatable. We need more people like Mark Santa Maria, do I think he's perfect, no, but he's the best we got at the moment. He's the only one that races and shares his personal stories and stoke for the hobby and that comes across loud and clear in his videos. We need more of that and less of buy this because it's great and it's going to be the next thing in RC.

In my opinion when it comes to reviews, no one is better than this guy. Yes he gets free product, but the information he provides is so valuable and the production value is in my opinion top notch. It also comes across loud and clear in his videos that he loves to fly and is very passionate about the hobby and that he wants to help people and that doing reviews is a service he is providing so that we can be properly informed.

Model AV8R

Opening the 1st video, see a lot of affiliated links under the vid. Nope, I have no trust in reviewers promoting stuff with affiliated links because they get payed by every click and sale. In that case reviews are most of the time positive.

To be honest, if there is an event it should be mentioned in the local media. Over here that is w/o any costs as long you deliver the text and a picture. Sad enough most clubs don't do it. Then over here every village and city has an own facebook group. Spam your events on those groups in the neighborhood, it is free, takes almost no effort and you will reach a lot of people. Once my track had an ENS, I did send an email with an invitation to a bunch of local and national media and some of them did come and we made national TV at prime time! The next day we had a lot of spectators.