RE: Is It time to delete the weight limit in Pattern?
I'm in favor of adjusting the weight limit for electrics. However, I don't think it's practical to weigh glow powered planes with a full tank of fuel, because it would be onerous have everyone disassemble their planes to prove that the tank is full. I supose that alternatively we could require pilots to fill their tanks just before weighing, and show fuel coming out of the overflow vent, but that would still take time.
So, what I would propose is that we give electrics a weight allowance equal to the weight of the fuel that the average glow powered pattern plane uses. That way we can keep the same 5 kg limit for glow powered planes, and have an adjusted limit for electrics.
However, the fundamental problem here is that if we make any change from the current FAI weight rules, we will be creating two classes of pilots, AMA pilots, and FAI pilots, which would make it harder to transition from masters to FAI and vice versa.