6mm foam parkflyers are toys?

Well...  Yes.

I've been to my local club a few times now and it's interesting to see how different guys approach the hobby.  Now don't get me wrong, I walk down the lineup of planes of everything from scratchbuilt 6mm foam planes through balsa gassers right up to a 15 foot turbine powered jet.  I get jealous, as jealous as all get out.  There's some absolutely beautiful planes on display whether they are 3D planes, warbirds or the turbine jets.

I'm sitting on the bottom end of the scale with my $70 odd worth of plane.  6mm foam with electronics stuck to it with hot-glue or strapped to it with velcro.  I'm happy with what I have mind you, even if I had 1000's of dollars to throw at the problem I'm not sure I'd move up for any other reason than I'm in love with the F4-U Corsair and Spitfire warbirds I'd love a beautiful example of each to fly.

Here's the reason.

I watch these guys fly their 1000's of dollars worth of planes and there's one thing they all have in common.  A look of absolute concentration on their faces when they fly.  You work your way down the chain to the many hundreds of dollars and they ease off a bit, the EDF jet and warbird mob who's spent around $200-$300 bucks and there's a smile or two.

Then there's a couply other guys and myself sitting on the bottom end of the scale with our cheapo scratchbuilt foamies (parkjets and warbirds mostly tho there's a 3D flyer in with us) and we are laughing and joking like idiots.

The main difference is that we play with our planes because deep down all of us know they are toys.  That we CAN play with our "toys" without risking large sums of money.  We can get out there, have some fun and even do a few stupid things every now and then.  Crashes aren't accompanied by a chorus of wincing groans and sympathetic comments, we throw our hands up in the air and cheer amid rousing comments like "that looked AWESOME!"

And you guys who like to show us your beautiful planes costing 1000's of dollars?  We see you.  We see you looking at us fly our cheap foam planes, taking risks you never would dream of betting 1000's of dollars worth of planes on working out.  We see the occasional spark of jealousy.

Now don't get me wrong.  I'm not trying to take anything at all away from those guys.  I admire their confidence, getting on the sticks for 1000's of dollars worth of RC plane and taking off, let along looping and rolling.  I'm jealous of their scale and absolutely beautiful planes.  My point is that there's plenty to like on the lower end of the scale too.

Scratchbuilt parkjets like I fly, and I'm told this often, are basically toys.  I occasionally get told this in a somewhat derogitory way meant as a putdown and I have to tell you, it never works.  They ARE basically toys but...  What's inherently wrong with that? 

It's not like I couldn't have afforded a couple decent ARF/RTF parkflyers with the money I've spent on my parkjets.  6 motors at $11 a pop, 6 ESCs at $11 a pop, a case of Depron at $215, bunches of servos at between 3 and 5 dollars each plus all the sundries like connectors, control horns/rods, glues, tapes, printing of plans etc.  So why do I stick to the scratchbuilt parkjets?

There is no doubt that flying a scale warbird or turbine jet around the field is an inherently satisfying thing to do.   It's an achievement to be able to do that, one that everyone who's ever had the opportunity to do so can be well and truly proud of.  Even a nice looking EPO EDF jet carries a certain amount of satisfaction just because of the scale look. But why would you deny yourself the carefree fun of flying a "toy"?

What's to stop you having the best of both worlds?

Just something to think about.