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<DIV>The historical perspective on this issue might shine some light on the subject - -</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The aerobatic community has not saught to make exclusions. They made special efforts aimed </DIV>
<DIV>at inclusion. Sportsman (called Pre-Novice, and Novice in the past) was not created </DIV>
<DIV>as a "Pattern Class". It was created as a Provisional class with rules designed to provide a</DIV>
<DIV>"give it a try" situation for those maybe interested in pattern, but not yet skilled enough, </DIV>
<DIV>or in posession of a "Pattern Airplane". </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The intention resulted in development of schedules at an appropriate skill level, and do-able by models less capable than state of the art pattern planes. Equipment limitations were sometimes in this provisional class (no retracable landing gear, no tuned pipes) to make it suitable to fly a sport plane in a contest- without being at a disadvantage to, or being intimidated by "real" pattern planes.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The spirit of inclusion has continued- this Provisional class is offered at most every local contest, and is run with same procedures and respect as the offical pattern classes...to the point that Sportsman now</DIV>
<DIV>looks like a "real" pattern class. To the detriment of the original intent of inclusion.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Off my soapbox,</DIV>
<DIV>Ron Lockhart</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">-------------- Original message -------------- <BR>From: Rcmaster199@aol.com <BR>
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<DIV>This is a beef to be taken up with the AMA Contest Board and mostly with AMA Nats Management. Airing your laundry on this list does no good to anybody and appears to be aggravating you. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>For the record, AMA is not excluding YOU. You may fly as you wish but you would have to fly at a higher level. If you can't fly at the higher level, you may want to reconsider what you wish for. For that matter, there are no other qualifications I know of in any other event flown at the National Championship. You may pay your entry fee and enter any other event as well. Point is AMA is not excluding YOU, so don't take it personally. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>THE National Championship has its set of rules that we all have to abide by. As the old saying goes, "You can please some people most of the time....." In this case, the Nats rules ".....please most people most of the time...."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>MattK</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 4/26/2007 6:37:26 AM Eastern Standard Time, shineyobject@gmail.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT face=Arial>Keith - I'm so chilled you'd think I was a watermelon on ice, but I hope my point is not lost amid my sarcasm. It simply isn't right to exclude equal paying, equal participating members from any activity sponsored by AMA. </FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
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See what's free at <A title=http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503 href="http://www.aol.com/?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503" target=_blank>AOL.com</A>. </FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></body></html>