PAMPA RULES or AMA,FIA

This could be part of the discution in another post BUT, HOWEVER, COMMA, It seam to me that PAMPA and the AMA should TALK and get an idea on how to proceed with the future of CONTROL LINE PERIOD. Racing is at an all time low, carrier is not appeling any more,Except Navy Carrier, Combat holds it's own but it's the same guys at every contest. AND Stunt is going BALL to the WALL but not enought NEW faces. I'M just talking about local contests. I fly all of the PAMPA classes and I do enjoy them.
My question is this ...Should AMA ADAPT FIA rules,Keep the rules AMA, or should PAMPA take on the rules set by AMA for ALL of control line. Should PAMPA, Carrier, Combat, Speed, Racing,and other control line orgazations get together and RESET the rules. This is 2001(almost) and it could be time to move foward. We now have 4S, Piped engines, Faster piolets, Bigger planes, and New technoilges. RC flyers have set new rules, it's time that we need a change.
sorry about the spelling it's late and I'm Painting and wing.Scott PS be kind

>My question is this ...Should AMA
>ADAPT FIA rules,Keep the rules
>AMA, or should PAMPA take
>on the rules set by
>AMA for ALL of control
>line.

#1 Adopt FAI rules. For stunt, I can safely say that most people would not be in favor of this. The pattern is the same, but the K-factors add nothing positive, but do require much more tabulating. I think that they definitely distort the event into a square 8 and hourglass contest. And some of the judging rules are just idiotic - the most offensive being that the judges don't move to match the wind.
For other events, I'm not qualified to say, but I doubt that anyone wants to limit themselves to 15's on no-nitro fuel, or diesel racing.

#2 PAMPA take over other events - EEK! I think the adherents of the other disciplines might not be entirely on board with this plan. I doubt that most of the current PAMPA leadership is qualified. I know I'm not.

I think the relative success of stunt compared to the other C/L events have more to do with the nature of the events, as opposed to inadequate leadership. Stunt News is great but it depends on haqving new things to publish, and new airplane picture to share. I think a 120 pages of Mejlik combat planes, all identical, might not be a big draw.

I think Stunt is pretty healthy, given the hostile nature of the social environment to modeling activities. I don't know what if anything could be done to help the other events. But I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't like experts in other events telling me what the Stunt rules should be, and so I doubt they would like us telling them.

Great POINTS. It's going to be along haul to IMPROVE on any thing OLD such as AMA RULES. AS for stunt guy's telling the SPEED guy's new rules NAHHHA I don't think so. BUT it would be nice IF us STUNT people make a system to make classes more deserniable. Local events ARE FUN. Outside of local events, is this a hobby or a sport. Sports are very competive,have rules, age groups, and even Point systems for classes. Hobbys are FUN. Scott Riese

Scott,

>>I fly all of the PAMPA classes and I do enjoy them.<<

Well, that explains why you have such high season totals. You fly in all PAMPA classes.

The reason (IMHO) that Stunt is doing better than other CL events is that Stunt has a true beginner and intermediate class. Seems everytime combat or carrier or other events try to institute a beginner class, before long the "Pros" move in and that's that.

Just a thought.

Stunt is the only area of CL that is healthy and growing. The major reason is the wide-spread use of the PAMPA skill classes. This does several things: it allows the serious newcomer to experience success and develop a supportive group of peers. It provides mileposts for progress. Moving from Beginner to Intermediate, etc. gives one a certain sense of accomplishment and pride. The flyer whose main interest is another area, such as speed or racing, can fly stunt as a relaxed, "on the side" event, and stay in a skill class forever if they wish.

Old Time Stunt and Classic Stunt also have been helpful in keeping stunt alive.

Stunt can be flown alone, though this is not the best way to go about it. The other events, except Scale, require a team effort and/or specialized arenas. You can't practice combat, or race alone. For Carrier, you need a carrier deck, and for speed you need someone to set the needle and someone to fly the airplane and a pylon to fly it out of.

The furthur problem in racing is that racers want to go fast, and will figure out how to do so under just about any set of rules. And the ways they figure out are expensive and exclusionary. Look at what has happened in reed-valve Mouse, for example. Now that I think about it, the same is, of course, true of speed and combat as well.

On the other hand, you can take a Twister and a Fox 35, and have a lot of fun competing whilst becoming a more capable flyer.

I wish the other CL areas well, and hope that they will figure out how to survive. Speed-limit combat may work. Quickie Rat may work. On the other hand specialty engines are already available for Quickie Rat.

As far as being competitive in FAI events, read Dave Brown's column in the latest Model Aviation. What would be wrong with flying Expert stunt under FAI rules at some of the major contests? Give our guys a little more practice.

Jim ...good points. I'm not trying the invent the wheel, however I would like to see it "MORE ROUND". It's the other events that I'm worried about. And it comes down to protect the HOBBY or the SPORT. If we start to portect the SPORT we will need alot more then a few up and comming stunt flyers. We'll need sponcers at the state and local levels. If we protect the hobby we'll have to do the at the club and local event levels. Thank god for Brodak, RSM, Stuka Stunt, and all of the others that keep stunt ALIVE! Scott

I think that along with the "PAMPA classes" two other things have contributed to the sustained growth of CL stunt. One already mentioned is the ability of an individual to be competitive without a HUGE outlay of money. The second has NOT been mentioned, and that is that the rules that we fly by have been relatively stable for several years and are somewhat easy to understand. (at least they don't take a bettery of lawyers to figure them out)
Keep em. Low cost, skill classes, stable rules.
Bigiron