I had an RC plane in 1986, and was in an RC plane club

[Recursion]

There were about a dozen of us, and on any given weekend five or six of us would be out flying them in a field. Why weren't there trend pieces about "drones" back then, like there are now?

[Travis_0004]

1. They were more expensive

As such they were more rare. Somebody with money to spend on one was probably more responsible than drone pilots today.

[Recursion]

2. We mostly made ours; I could afford it as a 10 year old

I mean, we had to buy the RX/TX and the servos, but we just formed the chassis and wings and stabilizers out of polythene and styrofoam. I could buy the parts at a Radio Shack with my lawn mowing money. The drones of today seem pretty expensive to me by comparison.

[Lars39]

3. The need wasn't there. RCs started being called drones to innoculate the public about military drones.

People think drones now and they imagine something no larger than a RC or as something they can buy at Costco.

[jberryhill]

4. Skill level required

To fly RC planes, you have to know how to fly a plane. It was relatively expensive, and the odds of initial expensive failure were significant. It was a "club" in the first place, because the members shared information and tips on RC gear, small fuel burning engines, flying, etc.. Like model rocketry, you'd go off into remote fields somewhere to do your thing.

Now, for less than 100 bucks out of the box, I can capture video of my neighbors sunbathing in minutes with no special skills.

[Recursion]

5. Huh. I picked it up because you could do it cheaply

My first one was a glider I would throw with a servo for the ailerons and another for the rudder; I ended up buying a small-ish electric motor from a junkyard for about $15 (the real fun was deciding where to embed the battery to keep the attitude right). There was definitely a nerd factor involved then that seems to be less now (we would sometimes retire from the field to go play Dungeons & Dragons), which may be part of it.

[jberryhill]

7. The point being...

For someone whose skill set is "plug things in, work joystick" then it's not cheap.

The number of people who "wanna fly stuff" is much larger than the number of people who want to muck around with all that.

Making your own sugar/KNO3 rocket engines is fun too!

[Recursion]

8. Ooh I made one of those, too. Forgot the order of operations on launch

It's "First remove face from over rocket, then release". I had that backwards. 14 stitches...

[jberryhill]

9. "Go over and see if the igniter fell out...."

[Recursion]

18. Literally, my "friend's" exact words...

That's disturbingly close to "hey, watch this!", which were the last words of about 90% of the men in my family....

[Fumesucker]

14. Flying a quadrotor requires considerable skill, it's not an easy thing to do

I've been flying RC planes on and off for over three decades and I'm pretty good at it, a quadrotor in some ways is a bit easier than a plane but in many ways is more difficult, orientation is much more difficult with a quadrotor than with a plane for instance.

To a big extent the internet has replaced the clubs for the "sharing information and tips" part of the RC experience, I can find out more in ten minutes online about any subject I can think of to do with RC than I could in an entire day at the field.

The equipment is much smaller than it used to be, the first private "drone" I ever saw was a plane with a seven foot wingspan carrying a camcorder, now you can get a helicopter for instance that just barely covers the palm of your hand.

Most of the people who go out and buy a big expensive quadrotor without prior experience smash them up or lose them very quickly, often on the first attempt at flight. My first quad lasted just about long enough for me to start to get the hang of flying it and I practiced inside with comforters thrown over all the hard bits in the room. I had already spent time on the simulator to get the hang of orientation and it still took long enough to wear out a couple of rechargeable batteries to get competent.

Try flying over your neighbors house without a lot of previous practice and the chances that you'll lose your quad are close to 100%. The smaller "toy" ones that are more crash resistant are twitchy and easily blown away by even a slight breeze, the bigger ones have enough energy in them that the first crash (and you *will* crash) breaks a lot of stuff (assuming you can even find it after the crash).

[Recursion]

19. They're pretty popular in India; I was consideeing getting a cheap one

But after building my own for years it just seems weird to buy one.

[Blue_Tires]

16. +1

[oldandhappy]

6. volume

I get buzzed by six just driving across on San Marcos Blvd. the airport in Oceanside.

[Thor_MN]

11. Buzzed driving is drunk dri... Oh. That's different, nevermind.

[ReasonableToo]

10. Did you have cameras attached to your planes?

[petronius]

12. I think the difference is "five or six of us ... out ... in a field" on the weekend

versus the extent of the modern hobby. While I'd say this has become the 'panic of the day' to some extent, sort of like the Summer of the Shark, there's enough potential for injury, damage, criminality, etc that some regulation is required. And there's enough potential for pleasure, art, civic engagement, and research that the regulation should proceed cautiously...

[Adrahil]

13. That reminds me....

Back in the early days of what we used to call RPV's (remotely piloted vehicles), almost all the R&D engineers working on prototypes were R/C airplane hobbyists.

The main difference between R/C's back then and civilian "drones" now is the ease of entry. Back then, it required some considerable expertise. Not so much anymore.

[WiffenPoof]

15. Never liked "power" planes...

... Always been into gliders. More specifically, slope planes. They can do anything power planes can do without the noise, smell, headaches, etc. The real thrill is in dealing with the environment.

My slope business...

SlopeSoarer.com

[Orrex]

17. Did you fly them into stadiums or at active airfields?

Did you fly them over your neighbors' properties with the intent to spy on those neighbors?

[LanternWaste]

20. today's drones are as far removed from RC planes as laser pointers are to flashlights.

Possibly due to market conditions. While RC planes and helicopters have their limits, the uses of a drone exceed so much of what has previously been thought impossible (e.g., not many RC planes had a 12 megapixel fisheye camera, and a two kilometer range with first person view flight). There's also the current legal ambiguity of recording video and taking pictures (regardless of one's own position, there are more than three hundred cases of privacy and property rights pending due to drone use) being redefined and refined to keep pace with the availability of more modern tech.

More use=more concern. Saturation of use=saturation of concern. I think today's drones are as far removed from RC planes as laser pointers are to flashlights.