ok so finally went to one of those community fly-in events at the local rc airfield and honestly i was kind of nervous going in because i thought everyone would be super serious and judgy about gear or whatever. but it was actually pretty chill, lotta older guys flying traditional rc planes who were super friendly and werent weird about me showing up with a mavic. one dude spent like 45 mins just talking to me about how he got into it back in the 80s which was cool even if it wasnt exactly what i came for. only thing that was a bit awkward is i didnt realise there were like unofficial rules about flight patterns and i nearly cut across someone elses line which apparently is a big no-no. nobody made a huge deal out of it but def something to know before you go. overall glad i went though

yeah the flight pattern thing trips up a lot of people at club fields. at most AMA clubs the fixed wing guys have been doing left hand traffic patterns forever and if you just wander in with a quad and hover in the middle of the strip it causes problems. usually someone will just quietly explain it to you, most clubs are pretty welcoming they just want everyone safe

the older rc crowd is genuinely some of the most knowledgable people you'll ever meet about this stuff. like the guy probably knew more about aerodynamics from trial and error than most people who've read every youtube video ever made. those events are worth going to just for that