Two year trending


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Lou Melancon
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Two year trending

Post by Lou Melancon »

Right now (9/02/2004) we have 261 RCCA members. Each member is given an RCCA# when they join and we do not reuse numbers.

Today the highest member number is 787. In October 2002 we added member number 600. So we have added 187 "new" members in the last two years.

The conclusion I draw is that the membership is roughly 60% new members and 40% who have been members more than two years.

The next trend I wanted to look at was contest participation. I wanted to see how many were flying each class, how many were new members, and how many rounds were flown. What follows is by no means complete, it is simply a starting point or snapshot and needs to be more fully delved into to get the "full" picture, but here's what I have found so far, and my limited conclusions:

<b><u>2004 8 months of contests</u></b>
<ul><li>Total Open B NPS Participants - 111</li>
<li>Total SSC Participant - 119</li>
<li>Open B fliers who have joined since 10/2003 - 55 </li>
<li>SSC Fliers who have joined since 10/2003 - 67 </li></ul>
My conclusion here is that the new members are close to equally divided between Open B and SSC. When we take the number of rounds flown by the new members in 2003 we get a much different comparison:
<ul><li>New member Open B rounds, 2004 - 864 </li>
<li>New member SSC rounds, 2004 - 1,681 </li></ul>
My conclusion here is that although the number of participants is roughly equal the amount of combat flown by new members is twice as high in SSC than in Open B. I have no definitive explanation for why this is so.

<b><u>Full year 2003 NPS Participation:</u></b>
2003 was a banner year for Open B with a total of 144 participants, SSC in its first year had half that many, with 72.

2003 had 58 new pilots in Open B and 24 new pilots in SSC. Looking at 2003 and then overlaying 2004 shows that the total participation of new members was 82 in 2003 and 122 in 2004 (some flew two classes so are counted twice) we see that overall participation in terms of number of members flying in NPS contests is up. We also see that SSC has the most rounds flown in the last year, and that SSC is the class most flown by new members.

Your thoughts?



Lou Melancon
Alpharetta, Georgia
aseaholm
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Post by aseaholm »

Lou,

With all due respect (I sincerely mean that because you deserve a great deal), your bias and slant towards SSC is not beneficial to RC Combat. This type of spin has already contributed to a lot of hurt feelings and bitterness. Why don’t we just promote what we like in our areas and move forward promoting and supporting the sport as a whole…

I believe this SSC vs. B, .15 vs. .25 crap is hurting us far more then it is helping... I'm as guilty as any.

A.J. Seaholm
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Post by Jimbo »

I think that the number of people traveling more than 4hrs to a contest is down and will continue to drop, and drop fast. I think local combat and club level combat will be the future. I think the RCCA had better start looking at ways and reasons to get everyone that flies combat to join up. Maybe state by state NPS. Maybe a One-on-One NPS. Maybe trophies or prizes for each of those NPS's. I also think the membership fees should be higher if necessary to do whatever it is we have to do. I don't know if my ideas are any good but if y'all have better ones lets hear them.

Limited-B
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Post by Lou Melancon »

AJ,
I don't think in the post above I mentioned displacement.

What I wanted to know and why I did the exercise is what the majority of the membership is doing. The number of folks on this forum do not constitute a large enough group opinion to represent the majority of the membership.

The alarming statistic to me is that 60% of our membership is less than two years as members. Where did the 527 members before October 2002 go? There were 241 members in October 2002, so 167 have been lost on my watch alone. Another way of saying that is out of the 241 members then, only 74 continued with the organization.

My opinion is that people get tired of building. I might be wrong. It may be that folks only have a committment span of a couple of years.

Lou Melancon
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Post by Jimbo »

Maybe some dropped out of the RCCA and not combat as a whole. I know lots of guys that fly combat that are not RCCA members. I can't think of many good reasons to be a member.I don't need it to fly combat at any contest.I guess I just LOVE getting on the soapbox and chatting with y'all.[:D][:0][8D][:I]

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Post by cshepherd »

Lou, you didn't have to mention displacement. It is implied with your comparison of SSC versus B. There is no denying the fact that you are Pro SSC. This is a plus for the growth and evolution of that particular class. What is not so evident is that you unofficially "abandoned" the 2610 and B classes of combat when SSC was formed.

What kind of message is broadcast to its members when the leader of the organization does not even fly the classes on a regular basis and uses the pulpit to preach about the virtues of one class over the other?

Your opinion about people getting tired of building is spot on. I got flat burnt out of building after the 2003 Nats. Prior to that I had been flying combat for 10+ years. I have not built a combat plane since.

As it stands right now, there is only one benefit that I can see to being a member of the RCCA and that is having access to the members only area on the website, which is currently no big deal. In my mind, until the RCCA can come up with some <i>real</i> benefits to being a member, the numbers will remain stagnant.


Let's face it combat is a contact sport and planes and equipment will be lost in the heat of battle. Until such time that our aircraft our made out of unobtanium we will always have the debate on how to make things more survivable. Comparing one class to another is not the solution, but one of the problems facing combat today.



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Post by Lou Melancon »

Chris,
I do fly scale. I built a twin and a single for Paris and flew them both. I flat ran out of time to do anything for Havoc. I am building scale planes now for the Nashville event.

At best I can fly scale at Paris, Havoc, Dixie, and the Nats in most years. I CD most and flight marshall Dixie and the Nats so I don't fly much in them.

I love scale, and will continue to fly it. I think my web site has more scale than anything else.

Lou Melancon
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Post by Hat Trick »

If Limited B gets any level of promotion at all I think you'll see a large shift of both SSC flyers and Open B flyers into limited B.

As AJ posted in his betond 2004 comments I think you'll see OPen B limited B and 2548 as the classes of the future.
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Post by montague »

What I find most striking about those membership numbers is how closely they mirror the membership numbers of other clubs and organizations I've been involved with over the years. Roll over is normal and to be expected. I honestly don't find those numbers alarming at all.

Here's a fun one, find a newbie at your club field and get his AMA number. Compare that number to someone who's been around for about 2 years. Then look at the total number of AMA members.

As for why guys fly the classes they fly, it has everything to do with where they are. Why are there more rounds of SSC flown? because the parts of the country with the best weather and the best facilities to throw frequent contests with lots of rounds have been doing a lot of SSC.

The numbers are interesting, but I honestly think there are too many variables for them to actually prove anything or to be used to compare anything to anything else.

So, lets all take those numbers as "oh, isn't that neat", and get on with our lives and not get in to another "class war".

Lou, if you have a moment, can you give the same numbers for 2610? I'm curious how many new pilots are flying scale these days. Not because I want a "is scale/2610 dead" discussion, just because I'm curious about the numbers.



Kirk Montague Adams
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Post by MLaBoyteaux »

This place could use some fresh air, how about a sneek peek at what's in the near future.....
http://www.rccombat.com/template/prototype2.asp


Mark LaBoyteaux
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Post by wparmenter »

Wow Mark, that looks great. One more request added to all the others. Some websites allow you to 'subscribe' to threads. Then when someone posts to a subscribed thread, it emails the subscriber to notify them that someone has posted. Can this be done with the RCCA site?

Wes 'Sheepy' Parmenter
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Lou Melancon
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Post by Lou Melancon »

Kirk,
To do comparisons go to the NPS area. Bring up the class you want to look at, by year, and then copy and paste it into Excel. I was pleasantly surprised that you can easily do this.

Once in Excel you can sort it down to the data you want to compare.

Lou Melancon
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Post by MLaBoyteaux »

Looking at the database, we have entries from 2001 and on. I looked at the numbers of "sorties" per class for each year. A sortie is one pilot/round.

In 2001, there were 4201 sorties.
2610 had 1730 sorties
Open had 2471 sorties
Of the sorties for 2001, 750 were flown by pilots who joined the RCCA in 2001. For these "new" pilots, here's how thier sorties break down:
2610 = 145
Open = 605


In 2002, there were 4993 sorties.
2610 = 1043
OpenA = 231
OpenB = 3469
OpenC = 250
Of the sorties for 2002, 895 were flown by pilots who joined the RCCA in 2002. For these "new" pilots, here's how thier sorties break down:
2610 = 79
OpenA = 58
OpenB = 717
OpenC = 41



In 2003, there were 8245 sorties.
2610 = 1203
Open 1/2A = 100
OpenA = 306
OpenB = 3609
OpenC = 223
SSC = 2804
Of these sorties for 2003, 2108 of them were flown by pilots who joined the RCCA in 2003.
For these "new" pilots, here's how thier sorties break down:
2610 = 204
Open 1/2A = 40
OpenA = 122
OpenB = 936
OpenC = 46
SSC = 760



For 2004 there are 4818 sorties so far.
2610 = 507
OpenA = 88
OpenB = 1591
OpenC = 35
SSC = 2597
Of these sorties for 2004, 569 of them were flown by pilots who joined the RCCA in 2004.
For these "new" pilots, here's how thier sorties break down:
2610 = 42
OpenB = 176
OpenC = 7
SSC = 344



Looking at these numbers, here are the percentages of sorties flown by "newbies" for each year:
2001 - 17.8%
2002 - 17.9%
2003 - 25%
2004 (YTD) - 12%


Mark LaBoyteaux
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Post by MLaBoyteaux »

Also for 2003, there were 54 pilots with sorties that joined in 2003.

Of those, 7 flew SSC exclusively;
10 flew Open B exclusively;
1 flew 2610 exclusively.

The other 36 new members who flew sorties, flew more than one class.



For 2004 (YTD) there are 28 new pilots with sorties that joined this year.
Of these, 9 have flown SSC exclusively;
5 have flown Open B exclusively;
2 have flown 2610 exclusively.


Mark LaBoyteaux
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Post by Ben Morrow »

Mark,
Awesome looking front page!!! Bert up in the left corner pitching that plane is TOO COOL!!! Nice Job!!!!!!!!!![:D] Did you get the mail I sent you??

Ben Morrow AKA "Hillbilly"
www.downhomerc.com

"Furballs" are for me!
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