Originally Posted by
smiley
Tom,
That sounds fantastic. A club owned setup with mentors. Sure beats investing in setups only to find the kids don't have the desire to participate.
I have been in model control-line precision aerobatics competition for the past seven years and newcomers are rare. The building time, commitment is too much for them. You spend many hours building a plane and may crash the plane in 30 seconds. A steep learning curve for many to achieve continued success. My grandkids each built a plane and we flew them last year. Much fun but no takers for continued participation. When approached about boat racing, they jumped on the idea. Now I am getting them involved with the shop end of the sport. Next spring we get onto the water.
A senior racer here in Puget Sound has sponsored two youth over the years with a trailer outfitted with two hydros and a runabout, two motors and all equipment. He retired the sport this year He and the young man are now going to build a sportplane with a Rotax motor. Sounds like great fun.
I was forutunate to acquire all his equipment to get a jump start and will add to it to support our six kids and myself.
The Seattle Outboard Association has sponsored building Sorensen hydros each winter for newcomers. There were six Sorensons built last winter at the hydroplane museum here in the the NW. I guess there will be more built this year. The APBA and clubs have done a great job bringing in new blood. What other ideas around the country have been tried?
Smiley