BMatthews

I don't fly this sort of stuff but I think it would be wise to look at some history of other "low key" competitive events.

Control line is full of them. Combat started out in the 50's as a fun style low key event. It took a while but look at what fast combat is now. Hardly a fun event.... That advancement led to slow combat which worked for about 4 or 5 years. Now slow is pretty much like fast but with hard tanks instead of pressure bladders. The only combat event that hasn't gone way beyond a casual fun thing is the old Fox 35 stunt engine class. It's hard to screw it up when the rules are THAT rigid. But I doubt you folks would want that sort of control on ya.

And then there's Formula 1 pylon, the old Quarter Midget class that it spawned and Quickie 500. More examples of the easy beginner or dabbler classes becoming anything but. As long as speed is involved anything you do to compare performances will be largely hardware driven. This will lead to a specific "must buy list" and boring model similarity. The FAI engine race is another good example of this.

With competition comes structure and with structure comes the need to win at all costs. Sure it'll improve the breed but you'd better bring a fat wallet.

You guys seem to be having a good time just horsing around and getting together for the odd fun fly. If I were you I'd think long and hard about the need for official recognition. After all, how many people do you see flying control line speed for fun on a typical sunday afternoon? The ducted fan and jet turbine crew seems to be making this concept work just fine from what I see.