Wow lots of stuff here. In general contests outside the USA are well attended. Contests attendance inside the USA is diminishing. Why?
Outside the USA they typically fly F3J or a local version of F3J with F3B winches that the pilots supply btw. They are strict about being on the line in time; they don't "soften" the task for anyone. They play hardball over there and their attendance is thriving. Inside the USA most of our formats are the same since the late 70's while our models have evolved over the last 30+ years the contests have not. Our attendance is shrinking, we give in to a sandbagger, and we don't want to change anything to keep the pilots we have coming back. We don't push ourselves to try anything new and learn something. Sure the new guy has lots to learn starting from zero but after 6 months what is next? Guys soaring is not difficult. How many of us are significantly better pilots after the first 2 or 3 years? What have you learned the last 3 years? We quit flying if the conditions get a little rough. You can choose your issue all day long as why we get board or why attendance is shrinking. BTW, Each and every contest I have been to is a social event! That's the nature of humans. We tend to have fun when we can. I would say lets play a little hardball and push our skills a bit and move up a peg. The USA was at one time a soaring leader we sure can't say that anymore. Tom Copp Composite Specialties www.f3x.com RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
