In Praise of Morris Dancing

[Greyhead]

Now I don’t want to offend anyone but "I quite like Morris Dancing." can be relied upon to stop dead in it’s tracks the conversation that starts with me bemoaning yet another wet and windy Sunday morning in mid summer and progresses to the better half wondering "why don’t you get yourself a proper hobby?" In the ensuing silence I can slope off to the workshop with shoulders slumped and a long face. Little does she know that once ensconced there I’m as happy as a pig in s…….pite of no flying! But don’t let her know as without the sympathy vote she’s bound to point out all those jobs around the house that need doing!!

The point is that building is an integral and most enjoyable part of this hobby; in fact I find the degree of enjoyment gained from flying is directly proportional to the amount of my personal input to the model. At one end of the spectrum is the foam winged / plastic bodied kit at the other your own designed, finely detailed scale model. In fact it can be very rewarding not to fly such a model but hand over the Tx to a trusted friend and admire the model in it’s element without having the distraction of actually keeping it aloft. Over the past few years I’ve noticed that “newcomers” to the hobby are more and more turning up with ARTF trainers, then progressing to ARTF intermediate models and I’m afraid they will consider actually building a model to be “too much trouble”. This is a great pity as they are really denying themselves half the enjoyment, especially during the winter months, that they could get out of modelling. It’s up to us “old timers” to inspire, encourage and cajole them before kits and plans become a thing off the past. At present most ARTF scale models are dire, although if you’ve got the money you can buy competition standard ones built by skilled Phillipino cabinetmakers, but I’m sure the general quality will improve. Great Planes now offer ARTF versions of some of their Gold Edition kits, how long before the real kits are no longer available? I think it will be a very sad day when every Spitfire is a clone of the model sat next to it on the flight line.

But I digress. Next time you get complaints, be it the smell of dope pervading the home or turning up late for Sunday lunch with the mother-in-law “dressed like a tramp, smelling of methanol and castor oil with a silly grin all over your face!” remember good old Morris Dancing. The thought of sewing thousands of bells to your socks, keeping your hankies gleaming white and being hit on the head with a pigs bladder will soon make aero modelling seem like the perfect pastime!

[wonwinglo]

This is a tricky one Grahame because the retailers and manufacturers say that if the hobby is to survive things must change,the writing is on the wall already with the Great planes series and yes,the intention is to phase out the kits as already sales have slumped,who is going to buy a kit of parts that take the best part of a year to assemble for Mr Average in the street when for a modest sum he can buy a rattle and shake to build variety ? when I was in the model shop trade we used to get people come in,buy a kit and that was the last you heard of them ! my last shop dealt with virtually nothing but the ARTF range,the reasons are many but the fact was you sold the ARTF,engine,radio and within a week they were back wanting some flying tuition,where before I bet that 80 per cent of the models never got built but just got pushed into the wardrobe after a few feeble attempts to cut out some wing ribs.

Like yourself and many more the building to me is a very big part of this hobby but take a look at any modern model magazine and you will see we are becoming a breed of modellers fast declining,I long since stopped buying the mags for this very reason,who wants to buy a magazine full of reports on ARTF models ? no way I want plans and ideas.

As regards the quality the early ones suffered from problems being built with a glue gun,the glue was applied by heat and that would mean dry joints and subsequent failures,on top of this they are not built from balsa but some local woods peculier to the country of manufacture which are sometimes too grainy and brittle,the models are mass-produced in elaborate jigs,everything is pressed into place and a whiff of glue goes on around the joints,usually two dozen fuselages are laid up at one go by female assembly workers who work like bees around an honeypot,the whole industry is a revolution and is on the increase weekly.

The covering side is mostly farmed out to home-workers who assemble around kitchen tables with heat guns,they become very good at negotiating awkward corners with the film material and get paid per 100 airframes produced and completed.

The BMFA are currently having a difficult time in sorting out the poorly made ones,more worrying is the quarter scale examples which mewcomer-loners fit big engines into and fly without any check or clearance as large models,there was a recent case where a Bristol Fighter broke up in flight after it had been looped,the wings clapped hands and thankfully nobody was hurt.

The problem is control over what comes into the country,nobody at the moment is really checking the quality before sale to the public,on the other hand we had a series of incidents whereby the plastic spinners supplied with a trainer model shattered into a thousand pieces when the engine was started,one poor chap got splattered in his face with the debris,luckily he did not damage his eyes,but here is another case of lack of control,when the importers were notified they took no action biut carried on selling the remaining kits despite what we had told them.

You see some of the problems now ? people today want things to happen so quickly sometimes prepared to pay a lot more for the convenience,the commercial aspect seems to over-ride things,the safety aspect starts with the sale to the customer,without going on about this it is important that the dealer informs the purchaser about insurance,where to fly and how to get proper help in learning to fly,yes the ARTF certainly fulfills the need to get into the air quickly,but on the other hand does not promote proper aeromodelling and its many allied skills.

I really dont know the answer to this one but as long as there are plans and there are a ready supply of materials then I will continue to build from them. :sadcry:

[Greyhead]

Barry

I agree entirely with what you say and applaud the fact that the ARTF market has really help to promote the hobby no withstanding the very variable build quality of these models.

What concerns me most is that newcomers won’t progress to become “true” aero modellers, that is why we should do our best to encourage them to do so! A possibly more worrying trend, which is certainly happening in our club, is that some members who are quite capable of building excellent models now seem to prefer ARTF.

As you say, “as long as there are plans and there are a ready supply of materials then I will continue to build from them.” However, how long will the supplies of materials be available? I’m afraid as the hobby moves ever more away from construction towards flying only, it will become commercially unviable for shops to stock the “raw materials”.

Grahame

[wonwinglo]

Barry 'A possibly more worrying trend, which is certainly happening in our club, is that some members who are quite capable of building excellent models now seem to prefer ARTF'.

'it will become commercially unviable for shops to stock the “raw materials”.

-Snip-

Grahame

Yes a lot of club modellers seem to be turning more towards ARTF,it seems to be a trend and they even are allowed to enter them in competitions as well,the builder of model rule now longer applies which does not help matters either.

Raw material supplies will continue to dwindle and only be available from small specialist suppliers aimed at the builder,it happened with small rubber scale when SAMS saw the potential,the whole future of building seems to be threatened,already it is getting difficult to find good piano wire and brass tube stock.

It is doubtful whether ARTF models will ever be built in this country anyway,the importers bringing in dubious quality models from abroad without any quality control,wing warps seem to be the biggest problem at the moment together with poor quality plastic fittings which need replacing anyway.

I agree that we should always encourage real craftsmanship with real builders,but the tug of war with ARTF is a difficult one to get to grips with and I do not really know the answer Grahame ? these new flyers will never know the buzz of flying your own creation will they ?

[Greyhead]

Barry

The ARTFers certainly won’t get the full “buzz” of flying their own creations but then again they could put the extra time they’ve got on their hands from not building to good use, perhaps sampling the delights of Morris Dancing!!

Grahame

[Guest]

Whenever I try Morris dancing I end up slipping off the bonnet and hitting my bells on the bumper.

[Guest]

You can be put in jail for mistreating a Minor....please use felt bells in future.

[Guest]

I thought that too, so I took up tap dancing instead, but that was no good either, I kept falling into the sink.

[Guest]

:smile11: :boxing8: ain: :shoot: :stop: :smile3:

[wonwinglo]

:smile11: :boxing8: ain: :shoot: :stop: :smile3:

*** Who needs words eh with Adz around ! very clever group of smilies.

[Guest]

it was easier than typing , especially after some very social drinks