ORIGINAL: FLAPSDOWN

I just read through the thread tonight, so I'm catching up a bit. The dialog on page 5 interested me most to the point it could be it's own thread if it's not already.

For those of us that flew pattern in the seventies and eighties, well that must be all of us contributing to "Classic Pattern", the radios of today provide a difference from the good ol' days that's obvious.

I remember digging through the box of Kraft servos searching for the one with the magic dot that indicated reverse throw. Differential, exponential, mixing and retracting the gear was done with thumbs and fingers. I'm one of the die hards that spent 30 eBay bucks on a Goldberg retract servo system a couple weeks ago to put in a Royal Marutaka Aquarius I hope to build some day. Why? Because it's stupid hard compared to what we do today. Run a micro switch off the throttle servo and use the throttle trim to retract the gear. Now that's stupid. Back then, it was brilliant.

I say we start a revolution. All we need to do is alter the modern day pattern rules to award more points for take off and landing if you have retracts. More work. We start showing up at F3A events and take over.

Who's in?

Bill