<html><body><P><FONT style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size=2><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></FONT>I flew my first contest with a GP stik with a YS45. Competive not. I had fun and got the pattern bug. I moved up to a ARC of a 1985 pattern design with a saito 91 for the next year or 18 months. 24 gallons later I got a DH runaround. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size=2>A 60 sized P-51 would be a nice start. We should be encouraging people to start with what they have. Shame on us for putting peer pressure on equipment. I would have loved to have started with one of the current smaller models like the: Showtime 4d, Quest 2, Venus 2, excelleron90 or CA epilson.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size=2>Randy<BR><BR>--- "Thomas D. Simes" <simestd@netexpress.com> wrote:<BR><BR>From: "Thomas D. Simes" <simestd@netexpress.com><BR>Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 08:45:48 -0900<BR>To: NSRCA Mailing List <nsrca-discussion@lists.nsrca.org><BR>Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] ** Klipped to repost ** Equipment costandpartiicpation --<BR><BR>On Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:23:09 -0500 <BR>"Grow Pattern" <pattern4u@comcast.net> wrote: <BR><BR>> This is the group that is still missing in pattern. They were the ones <BR>> that attracted new members. They were reachable and certainly not <BR>> intimidating. It may well not be the schedules. IMAC, with more <BR>> difficulty schedules attracted a large new following because you could <BR>> fly your CURRENT plane in their classes. There are now plenty of <BR>> pattern ARF's but the same thing is not happening, at least not yet. <BR>> <BR>> If we knew why we could probably fix it. <BR><BR>I think being able to fly your current plane is a key for attracting new <BR>pilots. Yea, I know - you can fly anything that fits in a 2M box, but <BR>peer pressure can be a big deal. While some folks would relish the <BR>challenge of using an Ultra Stick (or P-51) to whip someone flying the <BR>latest mega-buck machine, I would venture to guess that most people <BR>wouldn't even get the Ultra Stick out of the truck at a pattern <BR>competition. Why? Well, stating the obvious it's a competition and the <BR>Ultra Stick is perceived as not being competitive so most pilots would <BR>be embarrassed to even give pattern a try with it. <BR><BR>In my opinion that's what we need to fix. Our glacial rule change <BR>process and our collective propensity to obsess over details make this <BR>a tough nut to crack. For at least those two reasons I think the most <BR>effective way to fix this is from the bottom up, one club at a time (as <BR>Terry Terrenoire's post points out) rather than from a national level <BR>down. <BR><BR>A couple of ideas: <BR><BR>What if clubs hosted "one design" pattern primers, cleverly disguised <BR>as "contests". SSCA has shown that this approach is very popular and it <BR>helps level the playing field - who wins is much more about what kind of <BR>pilot you are because everyone is flying essentially the same (low cost) <BR>gear. A few possibilities I can think of would be the Tower Kaos <BR>ARF, the Sig Somethin' Extra, or the CG Tigers. All are very good <BR>flyers and would be inexpensive to set up. <BR><BR>Another idea is perhaps some kind of simple handicapping system to make <BR>sport planes like the Ultra Stick competitive in local Sportsman events. <BR>How popular would golf be without handicaps? <BR><BR>To be clear, I'm not advocating either approach be codified in national <BR>rules, they are just some ideas that could be tried out at a club level <BR>to help encourage participation. Once we get them to try it, they will <BR>likely be hooked! <BR><BR>Tom <BR><BR>====================================================================== <BR>"Z-80 system stack overflow. Shut 'er down Scotty, the system's <BR>sucking mud" - Error message on TRS 80 Model-16B <BR><BR>Thomas D. Simes simestd@netexpress.com <BR>====================================================================== <BR>_______________________________________________ <BR>NSRCA-discussion mailing list <BR>NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org <BR>http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion<BR></P></FONT></body></html>