After having read in the background all the issues, and having been involved in most of these type contest, in my opinion, everyone has skirted around all the issues and they have never made their points. In fact, they have missed the points enitrely. I offer a my opinion of having fought the wars for contest changes in southern california when NOS was real, F3B was in it's infantcy, MOM was tried, and competitive pilots have been finding all the loop holes in ALL soaring competitions. So here goes.
ALL the events that require one or more assistants, and more than just a simple launching system will never have sufficient numbers of contestants to justify all the arguements people have put forth so far. The question is WHY major events/types of contests attract pilots? NOS, RES, TD all attract people because they have a common launching system. Over 90% of the contestants at Visalia I will say are there for the fun, sharing of knowledge and fun of new planes and designs. THEY support the sport. They may do well enough to win, but in general they are the hobby. HLG attracts people because each pilot lanuhces his own plane, and with the new DLG even those people who before could not compete with the Joes of the world, NOW can. Planes are simple or complex, advanced or just old ships, but if they can launch high they can have fun and enter. F3X (not including the HLG event) all require one or more assistant to either launch, time, or call the events. F3X events cannot succeed because they are too labor intensive. I have seen this for over 25 years. I have tried to find ways to eliminate the pylon people, and the shear number of people required to just run the contest, but until that happens, F3X will be a very minor event. Compare this to Indy racing, as opposed to say simple afternoon racing people do with their street cars. Cross country cannot be flown because one pilot flys, the rest of the people support via driving, launching, etc. The hand tow events require towers. I can never compete in these because I cannot have towers, and if I were to compete it would be hard for me assist with towing. Then could I fly against these same people? My conclusion is to do an analysis of those who enter the launch system provided events and how many opf those pilots fly multiple events, versus the same pilots that fly F3x type events. It is not rocket science. If I were to attend a contest at a distance, I would fly all the events I could, and these would be those event that I would not require alot of support. Just look at free flight. Each pilot will fly in one or more events. Obviously some prefer to be more dedicated to a single event, but the majority will fly multiple events. So what about Man-On-Man and seeded events? Pure Junk, that is aside from HLG. Thermal events will always be flight times that qualify you for a landing, a landing which determines a winner. For MOM and seeding, let's take me. I cannot make enough contest to establish a seeding, yet I would not enter a contest where the way rounds I fly permitted me to have even a chance to obtain a high position, or perhaps win. HLG flying might come close to a seeding event like tennis, but we do not see Indy type qualifications in order to get a seeding prior to a contest. The heck with MOM, it has one of the biggest loopholes that has ever existed in competiton. You cannot put the top pilots against eachother because of frequencies. This was discovered 20 years ago, and is in effect today. Also, my timer might be also in the top so he/she cannot assist me during my flight and I cannot assist them in their flight, therefore we have both lost. For MOM we would need frequency control and be able to set frequencies to 3 or more at any givenm time. Why is Visalia, and the other big contests so successful? Over the years they have developed. You can come to Visalia and try to win, and you can come to Visalia to have the big social event. Just look at the fun that occurs after the rounds are complete. Look at the planes, look at the number of people flying other types of planes, look at the fun, that is what Visalia is about. Until the Nats, or any other event, gets this social and competitive combination, they will not increase yearly. If I were going to the Nats, I would fly NOS (I fly it now all the time), 2M (perhaps event with the same plane as NOS), and TD/RES (perhaps event with either 2M or NOS plane). I would fly HLG because it fits in the same case for shipping as the other ships and I can luanch it. I might event fly a Nostalgia, R/C Texaco, or even an electric event that has a common thread. We see electric associated with sailplanes more than we see electric associated with pattern don't we? In my opinion, all the stuff you guys have been talking about is pure hogwash. You have missed the issue entirely. As Paul Seigel says, flame on. Thermals, Chris Adams LSF 348 Lvl 5 (#8) RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
