RC Pilot Burnout By James Goss      How did you learn to fly radio-controlled airplanes? Did you have an instructor with a buddy cord system, or just an instructor? Did you learn by just going out to a field and testing your luck by cranking up and letting it go? I am sure that it would be very interesting to know the truth about how a lot of us old guys really learned to fly. No matter how good a pilot can fly today, at some point in time they had to learn to fly just like everybody else. They where probably just as nervous as we were on our first flight, with our knees knocking and shortness of breath to say the least. I think it is this excitement factor and being a little nervous that stimulates us to stay in this great hobby over the years. This is a gauge that I use to let me know when it is time to change my flying style. If I become too clam or bored while flying a model on a regular basis I will change to a faster or slower model or try some new aerobatics. A year or so back I remember I got into the fun fly planes and it was just as exciting as learning to fly again, with all the unearthly maneuvers these planes will do. Now I am building giant scale planes and again it's just like flying for the first time again. Maybe next time it will be jets, but what I am saying here is that if you start to get bored flying, don't quit the hobby, just change your flying style and you will become perked up again.      Not all, but most RC pilots will develop a condition known as burnout in about five years if they fly and build constantly during that time.  I have seen it happen to other modelers and I know it has happen to me more than a few times over the years. During one burnout period I even sold most of my beautiful airplanes, about 40 of them, and two years later I wanted to kick myself for being so stupid. I told my wife it had to be temporary insanity, or some mental disorder, because who in their right mind would do such a thing? After a couple of years I decided that I had to get back into the hobby. I contacted one of the fellows that had purchased several of my models and pleaded, or a better description would be to say that I got down no my knees and begged him to let me buy a few back from him. Even though the planes were just hanging on his walls and setting around here and there, he would not let even one of them go. With the deal I gave him I guess he thought he had found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, and was not going to let it get away.  I am sure I would do the same thing if the situation had of been turned around. So my point is when you develop this condition I call burnout, and you will sooner or later, do not go crazy as I did and sell your equipment. After a couple of years I can guarantee that you will be dying to fly again and will have to start all over. This hobby is one that will stay with you for all your life if you know how to cope with burnout. Good Luck!

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