My plan and Another Idea (weight limit)

[BUDDYonRC at aol.com]

OK fellows
I'm going to fess up. A few weeks ago I accepted a position on the rules  
committee, and after some thought decided to float a trial balloon out here to  
try and establish some consensus about what the general feelings were 
concerning  changing the weight rule.
After collecting about 100 opinions (some from the same people trying to  
make their point) from this list, and I purposely slanted my opinion toward  a 
change as I thought this was necessary to get the responses from both sides of  
the issue, I sat down and reread them all. I know that this sampling is not  
representative of the whole pattern group but it does give me a general Idea of 
 your feelings and identifies the problem areas.
I also slanted the issue toward change in light of the possibility of an  FAI 
weight rule change and we all need to be thinking about the effects of that  
should it come to pass.
My review indicates that there are three main opinion groups.
1. Those who oppose the change mainly due to the effects which will result  
in design changes and additional cost which will occur because of it.
2. Those who are for the change to allow the use of gas engines, lower cost  
items such as exhaust systems and leveling the playing field between IC and  
electric power.
3. Those who favor a moderate change to allow for the use of less costly  
hardware items and the use of less costly models mainly of the ARF  variety.
All of these positions have merit, but none of them in my opinion will  
garner enough support to result in a change in the rules either way.
I would like to float another trial balloon in an effort to try to  satisfy 
as many positions as possible and solve this dilemma.
  The main problem as I see it are the cases where someone ends  up with an 
airplane that is slightly over weight that requires them to spend a  lot of 
money to it get under the 11lb limit. This can also occur due to  repairs 
required to repair damage or even changing props which vary in weight by  as much as 
2 or 3 ounces or using one of the many ARF's available that are  marginal due 
to weight variations which occur during manufacturing , [-e.g], You  go to the 
Nat's and your airplane weight is 10lb and 14oz. Wind comes up and you  need 
to change props now your airplane weighs 11lb and 1/2oz and you are  
disqualified. Two years ago I saw one pilot disqualified at the Nat's due to  using a 
very heavy spring to hold his wings on he was in compliance at the  courtesy 
weigh in but had changed props and his margin of overweight could have  been 
corrected simply by using a lighter spring.
What would be the pros and cons of providing a weight rule which  allowed a 
fixed margin of overweight to handle this problem say 2% or  2-1/2% which would 
be about 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 ounces? That way the basic  intent of the rule is 
maintained but it also allows room for those who  experience such issues. 
Buddy       
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