Extreme rubber-band airplanes

[darrylhuffman]

The discussion of "no kids in the hobby" was common in the early 1970s when I had my Train Shop but the blame back then was put onto slot car tracks.

The only real disadvantage of no new kids today is that almost all hobby shops are gone.

But those young people who are now into computers have made it very easy for me to buy everything online and to share the hobby with all my friends who live around the world.

The choice for quality models and detail parts has never been better.

A visit to the Narrow Gauge convention next month in Houston will show just how much the quality of the model building has improved over the last 50 years.

I'll go for quality over numbers any day.

Signed,

Cranky Old Man still building models every day.

[Lawton Maner]

Back when I ran a cabinet shop, I created a simple test where the potential hire had a picture of a ruler and 5 measurements.  He had to mark the picture correctly 4 times out of 5 and then add, subtract, or divide 5 measurements containing fractions before I would even talk to him. I am no longer shocked to know that the cash register at McDonald's has pictures of the product on it, or that the local grocery store's cash registers show pictures of what my change is supposed to look like.

Sort of on topic.  When I was much younger, I didn't build rubber band powered planes, but used rubber bands to launch gliders.  The day I discovered gum rubber tubing was a true eye opener as I could launch from my bedroom window and have to spend a lot of time looking for lost planes. Started using cereal box cardboard at that time because it was cheaper then balsa!