Muncie NATS attendance


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jj
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by jj »

Well guess perhaps I take a turn at stirring the pot a bit.

First, while all comments are welcome I think that means all comments related to RC combat. The "go packers" comment is clearly out of scope and not worthy of this forum. :lol:

Of course the economy and gas money has an impact but people choose where to spend and where not too. If it is more important to spend money on your kids band participation or whatever, that is your decision and you should feel good about it. You decide what you want or can spend money on. Perhaps you can only afford a long haul drive to a combat event every other, or third year. Once you deicde that, live with the decision and be comfortable with it.

Along those lines, making it to the Nats for a 10th anniversary is a pretty good way to rally people for this being a year to consider for the extra expense. It is a lot more fun to go to an event if you know 20 to 30+ combat buddies will be there than to plan for a big expense with the possibility of 15 or maybe 20 people might show. Given a tight economy it is best to have two or three kick butt events (maybe even just one) rather than a lot of smaller ones. Now if you have a few people in your area interested you can carpool and share some travel expenses. That would help.

Now Idianoplace is a long drive from Colorado and I'm not sure if I'm going to go or not, but it would be good to know that either Paris or the Nats will have a good turnout. It at least makes me think about reviving the old fleet. While I've flown a fair amount of slope combat in the past few years, powered combat has gone into hibernation in CO. If there was enough interest in the Nats to get a few people heading that way we might even have a contest or two ahead of time to see if we can keep the planes flying for 5 minutes.

So lets not bemoan things and instead see if there is enough interest to have a fun event. If an event seems like it will be fun, then more people might join in. It could build into something interesting. Will it? Not sure.
Moving it to some other location would probably kill it off. Further, if we have a reasonable showing at the Nats we might even get some interest generated in combat in new places.
jj (John J)
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by boiler »

I like your attitude jj. :D My second event ever was Paris Texas. I teamed up with Jay Fromm from Cinci. I teamed up with him the next year as well. Jay dropped out and I car pooled with Dr. Evil , Roid and a couple of Buckeyes the next couple of years when it was moved to Ft. Worth. After that I drove straight through once. Now I take two days to get there or look for something closer because it is a big expense going it alone and the attendance has been down. I made a trip to Southern California a couple of years ago for the Pearl Harbor Classic. Took me 3 days to get there and the trip wasn't cheap. I did meet a lot of great guys who I only knew from the forum. I had tentative plans to go this year and share the ride with the Dominator. My surgery two months ago destroyed that hope. I plan on flying again after the first of the year if therapy goes well. The NATS is a worthwhile event at the best field I've ever flown at. It would be great to see more combat pilots that I know from different regions to meet each other at the 10th anniversary NATS.
Bob (Longhaul) Loescher
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by Hat Trick »

Looks like the 10th annual Nats may be more international! Some of the Russian Pilots I've flown with are thinking about coming this year! Nothing for sure yet but it looks promising! They plan on bringing planes along so it will be a real barn burner in open B! They will get a chance to try out SSC and Limited B as well so it will be interesting for them too!
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by Team_Oz »

I just have to throw in my .02 and really the problem is bigger than the NATS...

I may be wrong, but I think the price of fuel is just an excuse and just a part of the reason that combat participation is down. I agree the economy is not good, and everyone has to make decisions on where they are going to spend their hard earned dollars. I believe that what is happening to our group is really just a byproduct of a lack of promotion, can we really expect we can stay within our circle of flyers and interest new people to give it a try? It seems to me that when we saw gains in participation, it was because there was some kind of excitement within our sport. The beginning of ssc is a good example of this, and there are some that think we need to "add a new class" to create growth. I personally don't think this is looking at the entire problem, and will in reality just cost most of the extisting flyers more. What the changes really do is create excitment within the existing group of flyers and they promote the events, this attracts new participants.

What brought you into the world of combat? Was it because of the group creating a new class, or was it because you heard/saw the fun that can be had flying combat? I know the peron that really got me thinking about joining this group, doesn't even fly combat anymore. But, because of the great group of guys I got to fly with, it did not take long for me to become hooked. If you are not lucky enough to talk to one of these "excited" combat flyers, how will you find out just how much fun it is?

So how do we fix this? We need to learn how to promote the events beyond our tight knit group, and then find ways to get people to try it.

My question to everyone else is, how do we do this? Can we get monthly articles published in Model Aviation magazine? Can we get articles published in other RC magazines? Can we include a schedule of upcoming events in these articles? Can we build "loaner" planes to let visitors try what we love? Do we have media kits and procedures created that CD's can use to notify the local media to promote attendance at their events?
What else can be done?
Really did you think I would go there.
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by Dane McGee »

Team_Oz wrote:I just have to throw in my .02 and really the problem is bigger than the NATS...

I may be wrong, but I think the price of fuel is just an excuse and just a part of the reason that combat participation is down. I agree the economy is not good, and everyone has to make decisions on where they are going to spend their hard earned dollars. I believe that what is happening to our group is really just a byproduct of a lack of promotion, can we really expect we can stay within our circle of flyers and interest new people to give it a try? It seems to me that when we saw gains in participation, it was because there was some kind of excitement within our sport. The beginning of ssc is a good example of this, and there are some that think we need to "add a new class" to create growth. I personally don't think this is looking at the entire problem, and will in reality just cost most of the extisting flyers more. What the changes really do is create excitment within the existing group of flyers and they promote the events, this attracts new participants.

What brought you into the world of combat? Was it because of the group creating a new class, or was it because you heard/saw the fun that can be had flying combat? I know the peron that really got me thinking about joining this group, doesn't even fly combat anymore. But, because of the great group of guys I got to fly with, it did not take long for me to become hooked. If you are not lucky enough to talk to one of these "excited" combat flyers, how will you find out just how much fun it is?

So how do we fix this? We need to learn how to promote the events beyond our tight knit group, and then find ways to get people to try it.

My question to everyone else is, how do we do this? Can we get monthly articles published in Model Aviation magazine? Can we get articles published in other RC magazines? Can we include a schedule of upcoming events in these articles? Can we build "loaner" planes to let visitors try what we love? Do we have media kits and procedures created that CD's can use to notify the local media to promote attendance at their events?
What else can be done?


Good post Bill.
I agree that more promotion by any and all means is crucial to well attended events. I plan to do my part to help.
Dane "Mad Max" McGee
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Don Holmes
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by Don Holmes »

A club in Baltimore just had Pearl Harbor Day. So Bill and I with two others put on a combat demo and people loved it.
You can tell the hot spots like FLA, TEX, CAL, (MidAticlantic = DEL, MDand VA) And that is because in these areas we are promoting it and I can see that in these forums
I know Treneff RC is mailing AXS to MD, Wayne is mailing Lethal Weapons and lets not forget Chris and those 2548 scale
warbirds. Hat Track and the Spads out west,
This Helps the most to get newbies in. I started 3 years ago with the Battle Axe.
Don Holmes RCCA #957
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by Big Dog »

Great Post Bill..Promotion is a good place to start.. Chris and myself have been active with a Combat show team. People have found it interesting but no real new pilots have joined from these efforts. It is still good PR and we will continue. But lets face it news coverage and a "media" package, and some promotion materials that CDs can use at club meetings would be a great start to get people in the door. I know as a CD I would be more apt to visit a larger circle of clubs if I could bring an interesting video or power point to present and maybe a tri-fold brochure, with information on how to get started.

Now keep in mind that if we had these materials today it would probably have a minimal impact on the 2012 Nats but it could sure up future contests.
Craig Buttery
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by boiler »

Ed Kettler created a tri-fold in Word format. I have it in an edited form which I make available at the Toledo show and at the NATS. I have sent it to a couple of other people as well. If anyone else wants it emailed to them as an attachment, just let me know. I usually print up 100 for the Toledo show on my printer and get rid of most of them at the show. I may print up some extras later, especially before the NATS. There is a section for upcoming local events. I usually fill the space with anything within a 12hr drive from where I'm distributing them. Costs of travel really get reduced when you carpool. It also makes for a nicer ride as you can talk combat on the trip. Heck, take a newbie along to get hooked.
Bob (Longhaul) Loescher
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by draftman1 »

There are a few of us from the west coast that would love to go to a NATS. but there are alot of factors why we havnt.
someday, some of us will.

as far as promotion, we promoted the heck out of combat in the last 4 or 5 years, in the west coast and it still has dropped off by about half. this is what we did

Build partys/ that also included kits to build, that helped promote combat the best.
demoing the planes, the guys in Palomar would take there combat planes to the field all the time and show what they could do

AMA show, we had a booth at the west coast AMA show, planes were on display, the cutting edge videos that a member made, the trifold brochure that we made up and plenty of guys at the booth

we had alot of contests, roughly one per month.

we gained alot of pilots with the promotion. combat was super hot in CA!

and of course everything started to drop off a little, less disposable income, burn-out, health issues etc.. all had its toll.
we still have alot of pilots but not like it was,

we would only have a small handfull of travelers too, most of the guys wouldnt travel more than 2 hrs each way. I was driving up to 5 hrs. I had the most driven miles on the west coast to attend the events. Thank you Bob for coming out!

now the newest SSC plane has made it possible to get guys back into it. its an easy to build and cheap to build spad model. the new guys are loving it and it has sparked new life back into combat here
Andy Erwin
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by Big Dog »

Bob I would love to have a tri-fold but at 90 bucks to put ink in the printer I dont see myself printing 100 to pass out. Self promotion should be a priority of the RCCA. a DVD and some printed materials should be budgeted, and distributed to CDs to use at shows like Top Gun. Joe Nall, any RC swap Meet or even club meetings. I would be happy to volunteer my time promote the SIG at meetings and events just not pay for the materials out of pocket. Getting published monthly in Model Aviation might help. I think Don is doing a great job but RC Combat needs to be there every month. The results may be slow to measure but I believe will pay off in the end.
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by draftman1 »

[quote="Big Dog"]Bob I would love to have a tri-fold but at 90 bucks to put ink in the printer I dont see myself printing 100 to pass out. quote]


we handed out about 400 at the AMA two years ago. it wasnt cheap but we all chipped in.

we do have some awesome videos that a combat guy did here. they would be availiable for promotion also
Andy Erwin
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by Serg »

boiler wrote:Ed Kettler created a tri-fold in Word format. I have it in an edited form which I make available at the Toledo show and at the NATS. I have sent it to a couple of other people as well. If anyone else wants it emailed to them as an attachment, just let me know.
Bob, please send me file to amocsoffice(at)yahoo.com we will distribute it locally (between store visitors).
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by Team_Oz »

draftman1 wrote:
Big Dog wrote:Bob I would love to have a tri-fold but at 90 bucks to put ink in the printer I dont see myself printing 100 to pass out. quote]


we handed out about 400 at the AMA two years ago. it wasnt cheap but we all chipped in.

we do have some awesome videos that a combat guy did here. they would be availiable for promotion also

Andy, is it in a format you can electronically send or upload? I would like a copy of it

Bill
Really did you think I would go there.
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by draftman1 »

We had some of the regular RCCA brochures but we did make one that was more for the west coast. It had combat info, where the events were hosted and links to combat related planes and supplies. That helped a lot because most of the attendees to the event were from the west coast.

The regonal brochure is a great tool, along with the regular RCCA one.

I will have to get it from another combat member
Andy Erwin
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Re: Muncie NATS attendance

Post by cshepherd »

Hi guys, I just rejoined after a several year hiatus due to family (twin 6 year old boys), financial and other considerations.

With this coming Nationals being the 10th anniversary, we (the RCCA) need to be hitting this one hard to make it a memorable event!
As I have not been in the loop, I have no idea what the current treasury holds to support purchasing awards, etc.

Back at the first couple of RCCA Nationals, we hit up the vendors for donations for prizes and had great success with that. Perhaps with a mention of it being the 10th anniversary, vendors would be more willing to pony up?

I know that most people go to these types of events for the fun and visiting with fellow pilots, but I also know that pilots like to walk away with something, be it for being the furthest traveled, best dirtnap, etc. It is nice to be recognized!

So... with that said, I think the following needs to happen to make this a successful 10th Anniversary:

- solicit vendors for donations
- contact members and promote that it is a 10th Anniversary event and arm twist them into coming... LOL
- expand the number of places that awards are given out based upon preregistration numbers
- have a awards ceremony banquet subsidized by the RCCA (no pizza party, thinking along the lines of pulled pork and chicken bbq, etc)

If you want people to attend, PROMOTE, PROMOTE, and PROMOTE! If you keep the topic in the forefront, people are more likely to attend.
Chris Shepherd
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