We, as a group, can do better than this . . .

[BigAl07]

First off I'll start by saying this is potentially a long and boring read.

Secondly I'll say this is 100% my point of view and is NOT coming from a position of ADMIN and may or may NOT be the philosophy of the other Staff Members here or the site Owner. This is strictly from ALLEN on a personal level.

I was just reading a thread started this morning by a father who enjoys sharing his Drone Fun with his 5-year old son. So much so he's asking what would be a good "First Drone" for a 5y/o. When I first saw that thread I was THRILLED because it's an opportunity for a Father and Son to BOND on something that they can do for years to come together. What an amazing opportunity to help and promote Drones . . .
Drone for 5 year old son, too young?

***** Allen's Story ******
As stated in the thread, my father started me at 4 years old (1974). He started me with Control Line and then Free Flight and we were in the process of moving up into R/C when I lost him suddenly. Fortunately, by the time he passed away he had already planted the seed for Aviation and specifically R/C aviation so I had the desire to continue on with it. Even though it was "Our Thing Together" I wanted to learn and do more.

Thank goodness there were other men in our community who would take me in and help me to learn to fly R/C because I was NOT doing very well "teaching myself". This was long before GPS, Gryo Stabilization, and Electronic Flight Controllers. It was a time where you learned to fly or you learned to crash, rebuild, crash, rebuild etc etc. If you didn't have the skills, attention span, or dedication it was a VERY short hobby experience for you. On my 13th R/C airplane (the first 12 I was "teaching" myself) was the first time I took off, flew the airplane, and landed it without "rekitting" it. That was thanks to a gentleman who happened to be driving by the Cow Pasture and seeing a young boy struggling with the hobby. He pulled over, gave me some lessons, then we flew the airplane (Cessna 182) to test it out. In about 4 flights I was able to take off, fly, and land with almost no damage. That man and several others invited me to join their R/C Flying club and through them I learned to design, build, fly, repair, airplanes but I also learned manners, SAFETY, Aviation terms and methods all while just having a lot of FUN.

I was fortunate to stay in this "hobby" up into High School and beyond. A couple of friends of mine got into Gasoline powered airplanes (much LARGER size) and developed a process to convert Chainsaw motors into light weight, high power, R/C Airplane engines. We were converting them and shipping them all over the world. We sold that company and several years later (keep in mind I'm still flying R/C airplanes and helicopters many years later) we started putting small cameras on our R/C helicopters. Fast forward a couple of years and my wife and I started (officially even though we had been doing this as a paying hobby for several years) an Aerial Photography company (now on year #9). Because of this "Aerial Photography" endeavor my wife was able to retire from her desk job and start working for our Aerial Photography company at just age 50.

Today we are making a very nice income from flying R/C aircraft. I'm able to teach and mentor local kids into this hobby. And the best of all is I am able to assisst/teach Searcn-n-rescue using drones to help others who are possibly having the worst time of their life. ALL of this is because my father wanted to get into and share a hobby with me, at 4 years old! Imagine what kind of difference we COULD make in a young person's life if each of us picked just one young person to MENTOR and work with going forward. . . .


***** End Of Allen's Story ******

And then I started reading more of the thread I mentioned above and I'll be honest.... I was more than a little disappointed. I was down right SADDENED by what I was reading. Instead of encouraging this member to embrace the bond with his son, develop it and grow in it WITH his son, and maybe create a Life-Long avenue of enjoyment we were snarky, short, rude, and DISCOURAGING. Exactly the opposite of what we SHOULD have been doing.

That's wrong on so many levels. This hobby is meant to be shared and enjoyed by many. Through this hobby we can be SOCIAL and interact with so many beyond just our "Keyboards". This should have been a GREEN LIGHT to be positive, give him advice on best ways to do this WITH his son, and help PROMOTE our hobby/industry.

We ALL need to be Ambassadors for Drone/UAS and encourage the younger generation to go outside and FLY WITH US!!

 

[lensimages]

First off I'll start by saying this is potentially a long and boring read.

Secondly I'll say this is 100% my point of view and is NOT coming from a position of ADMIN and may or may NOT be the philosophy of the other Staff Members here or the site Owner. This is strictly from ALLEN on a personal level.

I was just reading a thread started this morning by a father who enjoys sharing his Drone Fun with his 5-year old son. So much so he's asking what would be a good "First Drone" for a 5y/o. When I first saw that thread I was THRILLED because it's an opportunity for a Father and Son to BOND on something that they can do for years to come together. What an amazing opportunity to help and promote Drones . . .
Drone for 5 year old son, too young?

***** Allen's Story ******
As stated in the thread, my father started me at 4 years old (1974). He started me with Control Line and then Free Flight and we were in the process of moving up into R/C when I lost him suddenly. Fortunately, by the time he passed away he had already planted the seed for Aviation and specifically R/C aviation so I had the desire to continue on with it. Even though it was "Our Thing Together" I wanted to learn and do more.

Thank goodness there were other men in our community who would take me in and help me to learn to fly R/C because I was NOT doing very well "teaching myself". This was long before GPS, Gryo Stabilization, and Electronic Flight Controllers. It was a time where you learned to fly or you learned to crash, rebuild, crash, rebuild etc etc. If you didn't have the skills, attention span, or dedication it was a VERY short hobby experience for you. On my 13th R/C airplane (the first 12 I was "teaching" myself) was the first time I took off, flew the airplane, and landed it without "rekitting" it. That was thanks to a gentleman who happened to be driving by the Cow Pasture and seeing a young boy struggling with the hobby. He pulled over, gave me some lessons, then we flew the airplane (Cessna 182) to test it out. In about 4 flights I was able to take off, fly, and land with almost no damage. That man and several others invited me to join their R/C Flying club and through them I learned to design, build, fly, repair, airplanes but I also learned manners, SAFETY, Aviation terms and methods all while just having a lot of FUN.

I was fortunate to stay in this "hobby" up into High School and beyond. A couple of friends of mine got into Gasoline powered airplanes (much LARGER size) and developed a process to convert Chainsaw motors into light weight, high power, R/C Airplane engines. We were converting them and shipping them all over the world. We sold that company and several years later (keep in mind I'm still flying R/C airplanes and helicopters many years later) we started putting small cameras on our R/C helicopters. Fast forward a couple of years and my wife and I started (officially even though we had been doing this as a paying hobby for several years) an Aerial Photography company (now on year #9). Because of this "Aerial Photography" endeavor my wife was able to retire from her desk job and start working for our Aerial Photography company at just age 50.

Today we are making a very nice income from flying R/C aircraft. I'm able to teach and mentor local kids into this hobby. And the best of all is I am able to assisst/teach Searcn-n-rescue using drones to help others who are possibly having the worst time of their life. ALL of this is because my father wanted to get into and share a hobby with me, at 4 years old! Imagine what kind of difference we COULD make in a young person's life if each of us picked just one young person to MENTOR and work with going forward. . . .


***** End Of Allen's Story ******

And then I started reading more of the thread I mentioned above and I'll be honest.... I was more than a little disappointed. I was down right SADDENED by what I was reading. Instead of encouraging this member to embrace the bond with his son, develop it and grow in it WITH his son, and maybe create a Life-Long avenue of enjoyment we were snarky, short, rude, and DISCOURAGING. Exactly the opposite of what we SHOULD have been doing.

That's wrong on so many levels. This hobby is meant to be shared and enjoyed by many. Through this hobby we can be SOCIAL and interact with so many beyond just our "Keyboards". This should have been a GREEN LIGHT to be positive, give him advice on best ways to do this WITH his son, and help PROMOTE our hobby/industry.

We ALL need to be Ambassadors for Drone/UAS and encourage the younger generation to go outside and FLY WITH US!!

Totally agree, cheers Len

 

[Kola]

Indeed.

I learnt so much from my dad from a very young age and tried to do the same raising my kids.
What we all learnt, the joint experiences and memories - priceless!

 

[March411]

Perfect post, nothing is better then the time I spend with our grand kids and getting to teach them and play.

All of us are ambassadors to this hobby, our goal should be to help others, educate and build friendships. I came here and learned so much here prior to buying my first drone. Most of the folks here are a valuable resource and I just skip past the BS.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

I am sorry but I would have to say that only one of the early respondants was perhaps snarky etc. and I admit I did not read all the responses.
BUT the OP was rude in his response.....
"Looks like this forum is full of paranoid old dudes with "stay off my lawn" tattooed to their face."

I also get the impression he is "blowing his" and his son's "own trumpet" and to a fair degree, especially as he continued to rant.


Just as a question for Allen, do you think it was wrong of me to type
"I would also suggest that you should not be flying your drone if and when your son is flying his drone. You should be watching and supervising your son."
or do you suggest a 5 year old should be flying a drone unsupervised?
If the father is flying his own drone, as would seem the intention, then he can not give his son's flying and drone his full attention.

 

[eoseabee21]

First off I'll start by saying this is potentially a long and boring read.

Secondly I'll say this is 100% my point of view and is NOT coming from a position of ADMIN and may or may NOT be the philosophy of the other Staff Members here or the site Owner. This is strictly from ALLEN on a personal level.

I was just reading a thread started this morning by a father who enjoys sharing his Drone Fun with his 5-year old son. So much so he's asking what would be a good "First Drone" for a 5y/o. When I first saw that thread I was THRILLED because it's an opportunity for a Father and Son to BOND on something that they can do for years to come together. What an amazing opportunity to help and promote Drones . . .
Drone for 5 year old son, too young?

***** Allen's Story ******
As stated in the thread, my father started me at 4 years old (1974). He started me with Control Line and then Free Flight and we were in the process of moving up into R/C when I lost him suddenly. Fortunately, by the time he passed away he had already planted the seed for Aviation and specifically R/C aviation so I had the desire to continue on with it. Even though it was "Our Thing Together" I wanted to learn and do more.

Thank goodness there were other men in our community who would take me in and help me to learn to fly R/C because I was NOT doing very well "teaching myself". This was long before GPS, Gryo Stabilization, and Electronic Flight Controllers. It was a time where you learned to fly or you learned to crash, rebuild, crash, rebuild etc etc. If you didn't have the skills, attention span, or dedication it was a VERY short hobby experience for you. On my 13th R/C airplane (the first 12 I was "teaching" myself) was the first time I took off, flew the airplane, and landed it without "rekitting" it. That was thanks to a gentleman who happened to be driving by the Cow Pasture and seeing a young boy struggling with the hobby. He pulled over, gave me some lessons, then we flew the airplane (Cessna 182) to test it out. In about 4 flights I was able to take off, fly, and land with almost no damage. That man and several others invited me to join their R/C Flying club and through them I learned to design, build, fly, repair, airplanes but I also learned manners, SAFETY, Aviation terms and methods all while just having a lot of FUN.

I was fortunate to stay in this "hobby" up into High School and beyond. A couple of friends of mine got into Gasoline powered airplanes (much LARGER size) and developed a process to convert Chainsaw motors into light weight, high power, R/C Airplane engines. We were converting them and shipping them all over the world. We sold that company and several years later (keep in mind I'm still flying R/C airplanes and helicopters many years later) we started putting small cameras on our R/C helicopters. Fast forward a couple of years and my wife and I started (officially even though we had been doing this as a paying hobby for several years) an Aerial Photography company (now on year #9). Because of this "Aerial Photography" endeavor my wife was able to retire from her desk job and start working for our Aerial Photography company at just age 50.

Today we are making a very nice income from flying R/C aircraft. I'm able to teach and mentor local kids into this hobby. And the best of all is I am able to assisst/teach Searcn-n-rescue using drones to help others who are possibly having the worst time of their life. ALL of this is because my father wanted to get into and share a hobby with me, at 4 years old! Imagine what kind of difference we COULD make in a young person's life if each of us picked just one young person to MENTOR and work with going forward. . . .


***** End Of Allen's Story ******

And then I started reading more of the thread I mentioned above and I'll be honest.... I was more than a little disappointed. I was down right SADDENED by what I was reading. Instead of encouraging this member to embrace the bond with his son, develop it and grow in it WITH his son, and maybe create a Life-Long avenue of enjoyment we were snarky, short, rude, and DISCOURAGING. Exactly the opposite of what we SHOULD have been doing.

That's wrong on so many levels. This hobby is meant to be shared and enjoyed by many. Through this hobby we can be SOCIAL and interact with so many beyond just our "Keyboards". This should have been a GREEN LIGHT to be positive, give him advice on best ways to do this WITH his son, and help PROMOTE our hobby/industry.

We ALL need to be Ambassadors for Drone/UAS and encourage the younger generation to go outside and FLY WITH US!!

I definitely agree with your assessment. Hobbies, good work ethics and many other things like this should be passed down in exactly this manner. If one does not have a father then we who have the ability to mentor them, then we should step up to the plate. How we rather act snarky, short, rude, and DISCOURAGING. That I don’t understand.

Drones in particular need great ambassadors to the younger generation and the public at large.

 

[March411]

I am sorry but I would have to say that only one of the early respondants was perhaps snarky etc. and I admit I did not read all the responses.
BUT the OP was rude in his response.....
"Looks like this forum is full of paranoid old dudes with "stay off my lawn" tattooed to their face."

I also get the impression he is "blowing his" and his son's "own trumpet" and to a fair degree, especially as he continued to rant.


Just as a question for Allen, do you think it was wrong of me to type
"I would also suggest that you should not be flying your drone if and when your son is flying his drone. You should be watching and supervising your son."
or do you suggest a 5 year old should be flying a drone unsupervised?
If the father is flying his own drone, as would seem the intention, then he can not give his son's flying and drone his full attention.

Social media has changed the way people interact but I'm an old guy so I remember a much different way. Making an assumption that someone is going to do the wrong thing has become the standard and telling them what to do (strongly) has followed suit.

Conversations have basically gone away and asking question before making assumptions is generally the rule. Bulldog as the parent has the right to proceed as he pleases, when did general parenting become the norm and we all get to decide what is right or wrong for other peoples children. People are simply tired of not being able to make decisions for themselves without someone (government or otherwise) dictating to them or at them on how they move through there life.

What ever happened to freedom of choice?

Now if Bulldog took his kid to the edge of a cliff and told him to fly with his toes on the edge well that's a different story. The man was just trying to get help from the membership about his son flying a drone, not on safety but that would be an assumption that he is going to do the wrong thing.

Ask questions, be collaborative.....informed and then have the conversation. And just my perspective, I don't see it as "blowing his horn", he sounds like a proud father. He son is given chores and responsibilities, there isn't many parents, most of whom I know that are not doing that very thing for their children. Morales, respect, responsibility and cultivated and it seems like he is on the right path.

My kids are successful in life and business because we instilled values and hard work.

 

[BigAl07]

I am sorry but I would have to say that only one of the early respondants was perhaps snarky etc. and I admit I did not read all the responses.
BUT the OP was rude in his response.....
"Looks like this forum is full of paranoid old dudes with "stay off my lawn" tattooed to their face."

Out of respect I'll be honest with ya here.... you were snarky with your "throw silly money at him" comment. You cast the first stone here.

He was very accurate in his response and I will fully back it from the comments which is ALSO why I started this thread.

Just as a question for Allen, do you think it was wrong of me to type
"I would also suggest that you should not be flying your drone if and when your son is flying his drone. You should be watching and supervising your son."
or do you suggest a 5 year old should be flying a drone unsupervised?
If the father is flying his own drone, as would seem the intention, then he can not give his son's flying and drone his full attention.

All of that you "Assumed". If the son has the skills to fly SOLO then by all means do so. That's up to the father to determine when/if he's ready to go that route and not for us to cyber judge/determine for him. We simply have no clue. Maybe he's not ready for SOLO today but maybe in a couple weeks?

Let's ENCOURAGE a father to share such an AWESOME hobby with his son. There are a LOT worse things he could do or NOT be doing with his son.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

you were snarky with your "throw silly money at him" comment.

Ahhhh, this maybe regional English vs American, "throw silly money" would not be a snarky comment to me especially when I subsequently make what I think is a very sensible suggestion in the same sentance.
It was not meant to be offensive.
If offense was taken for that I apologise.

I will leave things at that.

 

[VenomXts]

Lot of gatekeeping around here..... love most of you. People need to live. All I am gona say.

 

[eaglesurfing]

It is a sad state of the world that we live in. Like I was told by a very wise man, there is no reality but how you perceive it.

Some perceive it differently and then there are ones who do not have a life but wants to live (or ruin it) for others.

I know what you want but you will never find it on here or any forum or social network.

It would be great if we could encourage one another but there will always be that one that will tip over the cart.

Evils lives on and it is a shame that more does stand up for the good.

 

[Dynamic Learning Machine]

Good on you Big A.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

We know that gate keepers are going to Gate, you cant stop that.
I often see new members get hammered pretty hard for there miss giving's on there first or second post.

When it comes to young members on the forum , i feel everyone has done a good job of handling them with kid gloves

When it comes to the Gate Keepers, this forum has a good balance of those who fly with common sense more than just those on Patrol.

Encouragement for everyone should be the goal of the Forum for new members.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[DoomMeister]

First off I'll start by saying this is potentially a long and boring read.

Secondly I'll say this is 100% my point of view and is NOT coming from a position of ADMIN and may or may NOT be the philosophy of the other Staff Members here or the site Owner. This is strictly from ALLEN on a personal level.

I was just reading a thread started this morning by a father who enjoys sharing his Drone Fun with his 5-year old son. So much so he's asking what would be a good "First Drone" for a 5y/o. When I first saw that thread I was THRILLED because it's an opportunity for a Father and Son to BOND on something that they can do for years to come together. What an amazing opportunity to help and promote Drones . . .
Drone for 5 year old son, too young?

***** Allen's Story ******
As stated in the thread, my father started me at 4 years old (1974). He started me with Control Line and then Free Flight and we were in the process of moving up into R/C when I lost him suddenly. Fortunately, by the time he passed away he had already planted the seed for Aviation and specifically R/C aviation so I had the desire to continue on with it. Even though it was "Our Thing Together" I wanted to learn and do more.

Thank goodness there were other men in our community who would take me in and help me to learn to fly R/C because I was NOT doing very well "teaching myself". This was long before GPS, Gryo Stabilization, and Electronic Flight Controllers. It was a time where you learned to fly or you learned to crash, rebuild, crash, rebuild etc etc. If you didn't have the skills, attention span, or dedication it was a VERY short hobby experience for you. On my 13th R/C airplane (the first 12 I was "teaching" myself) was the first time I took off, flew the airplane, and landed it without "rekitting" it. That was thanks to a gentleman who happened to be driving by the Cow Pasture and seeing a young boy struggling with the hobby. He pulled over, gave me some lessons, then we flew the airplane (Cessna 182) to test it out. In about 4 flights I was able to take off, fly, and land with almost no damage. That man and several others invited me to join their R/C Flying club and through them I learned to design, build, fly, repair, airplanes but I also learned manners, SAFETY, Aviation terms and methods all while just having a lot of FUN.

I was fortunate to stay in this "hobby" up into High School and beyond. A couple of friends of mine got into Gasoline powered airplanes (much LARGER size) and developed a process to convert Chainsaw motors into light weight, high power, R/C Airplane engines. We were converting them and shipping them all over the world. We sold that company and several years later (keep in mind I'm still flying R/C airplanes and helicopters many years later) we started putting small cameras on our R/C helicopters. Fast forward a couple of years and my wife and I started (officially even though we had been doing this as a paying hobby for several years) an Aerial Photography company (now on year #9). Because of this "Aerial Photography" endeavor my wife was able to retire from her desk job and start working for our Aerial Photography company at just age 50.

Today we are making a very nice income from flying R/C aircraft. I'm able to teach and mentor local kids into this hobby. And the best of all is I am able to assisst/teach Searcn-n-rescue using drones to help others who are possibly having the worst time of their life. ALL of this is because my father wanted to get into and share a hobby with me, at 4 years old! Imagine what kind of difference we COULD make in a young person's life if each of us picked just one young person to MENTOR and work with going forward. . . .


***** End Of Allen's Story ******

And then I started reading more of the thread I mentioned above and I'll be honest.... I was more than a little disappointed. I was down right SADDENED by what I was reading. Instead of encouraging this member to embrace the bond with his son, develop it and grow in it WITH his son, and maybe create a Life-Long avenue of enjoyment we were snarky, short, rude, and DISCOURAGING. Exactly the opposite of what we SHOULD have been doing.

That's wrong on so many levels. This hobby is meant to be shared and enjoyed by many. Through this hobby we can be SOCIAL and interact with so many beyond just our "Keyboards". This should have been a GREEN LIGHT to be positive, give him advice on best ways to do this WITH his son, and help PROMOTE our hobby/industry.

We ALL need to be Ambassadors for Drone/UAS and encourage the younger generation to go outside and FLY WITH US!!

My sentiments also. Didn’t see this post until after posting in that thread. Kids are smart and if you make learning fun it is amazing what they are capable of doing.

 

[dirkclod]

Like I was told by a very wise man, there is no reality but how you perceive it.

That must have been me
Learned it from Carlos Castaneda

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

First off I'll start by saying this is potentially a long and boring read.

Secondly I'll say this is 100% my point of view and is NOT coming from a position of ADMIN and may or may NOT be the philosophy of the other Staff Members here or the site Owner. This is strictly from ALLEN on a personal level.

I was just reading a thread started this morning by a father who enjoys sharing his Drone Fun with his 5-year old son. So much so he's asking what would be a good "First Drone" for a 5y/o. When I first saw that thread I was THRILLED because it's an opportunity for a Father and Son to BOND on something that they can do for years to come together. What an amazing opportunity to help and promote Drones . . .
Drone for 5 year old son, too young?

***** Allen's Story ******
As stated in the thread, my father started me at 4 years old (1974). He started me with Control Line and then Free Flight and we were in the process of moving up into R/C when I lost him suddenly. Fortunately, by the time he passed away he had already planted the seed for Aviation and specifically R/C aviation so I had the desire to continue on with it. Even though it was "Our Thing Together" I wanted to learn and do more.

Thank goodness there were other men in our community who would take me in and help me to learn to fly R/C because I was NOT doing very well "teaching myself". This was long before GPS, Gryo Stabilization, and Electronic Flight Controllers. It was a time where you learned to fly or you learned to crash, rebuild, crash, rebuild etc etc. If you didn't have the skills, attention span, or dedication it was a VERY short hobby experience for you. On my 13th R/C airplane (the first 12 I was "teaching" myself) was the first time I took off, flew the airplane, and landed it without "rekitting" it. That was thanks to a gentleman who happened to be driving by the Cow Pasture and seeing a young boy struggling with the hobby. He pulled over, gave me some lessons, then we flew the airplane (Cessna 182) to test it out. In about 4 flights I was able to take off, fly, and land with almost no damage. That man and several others invited me to join their R/C Flying club and through them I learned to design, build, fly, repair, airplanes but I also learned manners, SAFETY, Aviation terms and methods all while just having a lot of FUN.

I was fortunate to stay in this "hobby" up into High School and beyond. A couple of friends of mine got into Gasoline powered airplanes (much LARGER size) and developed a process to convert Chainsaw motors into light weight, high power, R/C Airplane engines. We were converting them and shipping them all over the world. We sold that company and several years later (keep in mind I'm still flying R/C airplanes and helicopters many years later) we started putting small cameras on our R/C helicopters. Fast forward a couple of years and my wife and I started (officially even though we had been doing this as a paying hobby for several years) an Aerial Photography company (now on year #9). Because of this "Aerial Photography" endeavor my wife was able to retire from her desk job and start working for our Aerial Photography company at just age 50.

Today we are making a very nice income from flying R/C aircraft. I'm able to teach and mentor local kids into this hobby. And the best of all is I am able to assisst/teach Searcn-n-rescue using drones to help others who are possibly having the worst time of their life. ALL of this is because my father wanted to get into and share a hobby with me, at 4 years old! Imagine what kind of difference we COULD make in a young person's life if each of us picked just one young person to MENTOR and work with going forward. . . .


***** End Of Allen's Story ******

And then I started reading more of the thread I mentioned above and I'll be honest.... I was more than a little disappointed. I was down right SADDENED by what I was reading. Instead of encouraging this member to embrace the bond with his son, develop it and grow in it WITH his son, and maybe create a Life-Long avenue of enjoyment we were snarky, short, rude, and DISCOURAGING. Exactly the opposite of what we SHOULD have been doing.

That's wrong on so many levels. This hobby is meant to be shared and enjoyed by many. Through this hobby we can be SOCIAL and interact with so many beyond just our "Keyboards". This should have been a GREEN LIGHT to be positive, give him advice on best ways to do this WITH his son, and help PROMOTE our hobby/industry.

We ALL need to be Ambassadors for Drone/UAS and encourage the younger generation to go outside and FLY WITH US!!

Yes. On a parallel, my best childhood memories are flying my single channel RC with my father. And while driving home, we had technical discussions of how to correct flight issues. I was 12, he was 40, and we were on equal footing, learning from each other. I’m now 75, and can’t wait to teach my 6 year old grandson to fly my MPP (dual controllers).

 

[Marty Markoe]

We ALL need to be Ambassadors for Drone/UAS and encourage the younger generation to go outside and FLY

5 year old nephew flies Phantom 4
Took this video 5 years ago. Stand by the premise responsible young people are capable pilots. As I wouldn't allow a young person to handle a firearm unsupervised, same for piloting a drone.

 

[Chaosrider]

First off I'll start by saying this is potentially a long and boring read.

Secondly I'll say this is 100% my point of view and is NOT coming from a position of ADMIN and may or may NOT be the philosophy of the other Staff Members here or the site Owner. This is strictly from ALLEN on a personal level.

I was just reading a thread started this morning by a father who enjoys sharing his Drone Fun with his 5-year old son. So much so he's asking what would be a good "First Drone" for a 5y/o. When I first saw that thread I was THRILLED because it's an opportunity for a Father and Son to BOND on something that they can do for years to come together. What an amazing opportunity to help and promote Drones . . .
Drone for 5 year old son, too young?

***** Allen's Story ******
As stated in the thread, my father started me at 4 years old (1974). He started me with Control Line and then Free Flight and we were in the process of moving up into R/C when I lost him suddenly. Fortunately, by the time he passed away he had already planted the seed for Aviation and specifically R/C aviation so I had the desire to continue on with it. Even though it was "Our Thing Together" I wanted to learn and do more.

Thank goodness there were other men in our community who would take me in and help me to learn to fly R/C because I was NOT doing very well "teaching myself". This was long before GPS, Gryo Stabilization, and Electronic Flight Controllers. It was a time where you learned to fly or you learned to crash, rebuild, crash, rebuild etc etc. If you didn't have the skills, attention span, or dedication it was a VERY short hobby experience for you. On my 13th R/C airplane (the first 12 I was "teaching" myself) was the first time I took off, flew the airplane, and landed it without "rekitting" it. That was thanks to a gentleman who happened to be driving by the Cow Pasture and seeing a young boy struggling with the hobby. He pulled over, gave me some lessons, then we flew the airplane (Cessna 182) to test it out. In about 4 flights I was able to take off, fly, and land with almost no damage. That man and several others invited me to join their R/C Flying club and through them I learned to design, build, fly, repair, airplanes but I also learned manners, SAFETY, Aviation terms and methods all while just having a lot of FUN.

I was fortunate to stay in this "hobby" up into High School and beyond. A couple of friends of mine got into Gasoline powered airplanes (much LARGER size) and developed a process to convert Chainsaw motors into light weight, high power, R/C Airplane engines. We were converting them and shipping them all over the world. We sold that company and several years later (keep in mind I'm still flying R/C airplanes and helicopters many years later) we started putting small cameras on our R/C helicopters. Fast forward a couple of years and my wife and I started (officially even though we had been doing this as a paying hobby for several years) an Aerial Photography company (now on year #9). Because of this "Aerial Photography" endeavor my wife was able to retire from her desk job and start working for our Aerial Photography company at just age 50.

Today we are making a very nice income from flying R/C aircraft. I'm able to teach and mentor local kids into this hobby. And the best of all is I am able to assisst/teach Searcn-n-rescue using drones to help others who are possibly having the worst time of their life. ALL of this is because my father wanted to get into and share a hobby with me, at 4 years old! Imagine what kind of difference we COULD make in a young person's life if each of us picked just one young person to MENTOR and work with going forward. . . .


***** End Of Allen's Story ******

And then I started reading more of the thread I mentioned above and I'll be honest.... I was more than a little disappointed. I was down right SADDENED by what I was reading. Instead of encouraging this member to embrace the bond with his son, develop it and grow in it WITH his son, and maybe create a Life-Long avenue of enjoyment we were snarky, short, rude, and DISCOURAGING. Exactly the opposite of what we SHOULD have been doing.

That's wrong on so many levels. This hobby is meant to be shared and enjoyed by many. Through this hobby we can be SOCIAL and interact with so many beyond just our "Keyboards". This should have been a GREEN LIGHT to be positive, give him advice on best ways to do this WITH his son, and help PROMOTE our hobby/industry.

We ALL need to be Ambassadors for Drone/UAS and encourage the younger generation to go outside and FLY WITH US!!

Long, yes. Boring, no!

I'm with you, BigAl. My embryonic efforts to get kids interested in drones early, via a drone lending library, is motivated by exactly the values that you express.

My "kid" intro was model rockets rather than R/C aircraft, but there are a lot of similarities. My first one, a kit no less, crashed, due to defective manufacturing on my part (insufficiently secured shock cord). The nose cone, with the streamer attached, landed safe and sound. The rest of the rocket, not so much.

My father was also very encouraging about this, partially because he didn't want me messing around with making my own rocket fuel, which I was on the verge of doing after getting the formula and process to make it from a book I got in the library.

I was 11 years old when I crashed my first rocket. By the time I was 12 I was designing and building my own more complex rockets, clusters, multi-stage, that kind of thing.

Those are some of the best memories of my life.

Let the kids fly!

*HELP* the kids fly!

Share the joy!



TCS

 

[F00Man]

First off I'll start by saying this is potentially a long and boring read.

Secondly I'll say this is 100% my point of view and is NOT coming from a position of ADMIN and may or may NOT be the philosophy of the other Staff Members here or the site Owner. This is strictly from ALLEN on a personal level.

I was just reading a thread started this morning by a father who enjoys sharing his Drone Fun with his 5-year old son. So much so he's asking what would be a good "First Drone" for a 5y/o. When I first saw that thread I was THRILLED because it's an opportunity for a Father and Son to BOND on something that they can do for years to come together. What an amazing opportunity to help and promote Drones . . .
Drone for 5 year old son, too young?

***** Allen's Story ******
As stated in the thread, my father started me at 4 years old (1974). He started me with Control Line and then Free Flight and we were in the process of moving up into R/C when I lost him suddenly. Fortunately, by the time he passed away he had already planted the seed for Aviation and specifically R/C aviation so I had the desire to continue on with it. Even though it was "Our Thing Together" I wanted to learn and do more.

Thank goodness there were other men in our community who would take me in and help me to learn to fly R/C because I was NOT doing very well "teaching myself". This was long before GPS, Gryo Stabilization, and Electronic Flight Controllers. It was a time where you learned to fly or you learned to crash, rebuild, crash, rebuild etc etc. If you didn't have the skills, attention span, or dedication it was a VERY short hobby experience for you. On my 13th R/C airplane (the first 12 I was "teaching" myself) was the first time I took off, flew the airplane, and landed it without "rekitting" it. That was thanks to a gentleman who happened to be driving by the Cow Pasture and seeing a young boy struggling with the hobby. He pulled over, gave me some lessons, then we flew the airplane (Cessna 182) to test it out. In about 4 flights I was able to take off, fly, and land with almost no damage. That man and several others invited me to join their R/C Flying club and through them I learned to design, build, fly, repair, airplanes but I also learned manners, SAFETY, Aviation terms and methods all while just having a lot of FUN.

I was fortunate to stay in this "hobby" up into High School and beyond. A couple of friends of mine got into Gasoline powered airplanes (much LARGER size) and developed a process to convert Chainsaw motors into light weight, high power, R/C Airplane engines. We were converting them and shipping them all over the world. We sold that company and several years later (keep in mind I'm still flying R/C airplanes and helicopters many years later) we started putting small cameras on our R/C helicopters. Fast forward a couple of years and my wife and I started (officially even though we had been doing this as a paying hobby for several years) an Aerial Photography company (now on year #9). Because of this "Aerial Photography" endeavor my wife was able to retire from her desk job and start working for our Aerial Photography company at just age 50.

Today we are making a very nice income from flying R/C aircraft. I'm able to teach and mentor local kids into this hobby. And the best of all is I am able to assisst/teach Searcn-n-rescue using drones to help others who are possibly having the worst time of their life. ALL of this is because my father wanted to get into and share a hobby with me, at 4 years old! Imagine what kind of difference we COULD make in a young person's life if each of us picked just one young person to MENTOR and work with going forward. . . .


***** End Of Allen's Story ******

And then I started reading more of the thread I mentioned above and I'll be honest.... I was more than a little disappointed. I was down right SADDENED by what I was reading. Instead of encouraging this member to embrace the bond with his son, develop it and grow in it WITH his son, and maybe create a Life-Long avenue of enjoyment we were snarky, short, rude, and DISCOURAGING. Exactly the opposite of what we SHOULD have been doing.

That's wrong on so many levels. This hobby is meant to be shared and enjoyed by many. Through this hobby we can be SOCIAL and interact with so many beyond just our "Keyboards". This should have been a GREEN LIGHT to be positive, give him advice on best ways to do this WITH his son, and help PROMOTE our hobby/industry.

We ALL need to be Ambassadors for Drone/UAS and encourage the younger generation to go outside and FLY WITH US!!

Agreed. IMHO

 

[Deleted member 154956]

Here's my 2 cents on the matter. I started the drone hobby fairly late, into my 60's. I kind of did things in reverse, I started off in real aircraft, got my pilot's license and flew for decades. After 9/11 things changed in the aviation industry and the cost of each flight hour had almost tripled and ever increasing regulations made flying challenging. So after messing around with crappy drones for another 10-15 years, I laid off of them until I thought that they were advanced enough to warrant my attention again. For me, that was last September and as a new drone pilot, I was very excited to get into this hobby full force. And with this hobby, I, like many others before me, sought guidance from forums such as this one. At first look it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for and I went full monty and paid for a premium membership. And I have to tell you for the first time in my life I second guessed that decision. This forum does tend to have snarky, arrogant responses and it is a MAJOR turn off!! I contemplated asking for a refund. You folks that have been at this for decades might have forgotten what it was like to be wide-eyed and truly excited to be taking on something fun and new in your life, but many of us newer drone pilots are just like kids at Christmas time with this. And then we run into some seemingly very jaded, condescending, arrogant judgmental members who seemingly behave as if this a good-old boys club, new members are "maybe" welcomed. I will wholeheartedly support what the ADMIN stated and I for one can tell you that it is true, and maybe some of you can't see the forest for the trees, but all I am asking is that you do tone down your keyboard warrior responses and maybe probe a little deeper before giving an answer that most would consider negative. And if I can tone my rhetoric down after spending decades in the military leading battle-seasoned, hardened weaponeers on nuclear powered warships, I'm sure most of you should be able to do likewise. Thanks for letting me share this rant.