Technology and Paticipation

[Bob Richards]

I agree. Back when there were engine displacement limits, nobody (to my knowledge) ever bothered weighing the planes. Anything more than 5kg for a .60 was going to be a real performance problem.
 
As I understand it, the size limit was imposed to keep the models small enough to be easily transportable -- a big (no pun intended) problem in some countries due to the size of cars/roads and prices of gas. I also think having a small size limit keeps the sport more attractive/affordable to the general modeling population. The TOC competition may have had something to do with the size limit mindset.
 
What does the weight limit accomplish? I think it has a negative effect. With the engine displacement limit removed, we have more than enough power to make 2m size planes work very well, but people are having to shave weight to meet the 5kg requirement. Structural integrity becomes an issue. What is the positive? Safety, maybe? But that excuse does not really wash since we allow any AMA legal plane to fly in Novice/Sportsman at most contests.
 
And we all know that heavier airplanes snap better. :-)
 
Bob R.


rcaerobob at cox.net wrote:
Unneeded weight has never been anything other than a hindrance, has it??
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.f3a.us/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20050110/915bbda8/attachment.html