ORIGINAL: bafflerback
Okay back to the weight rule. I was flying Pattern back when the first unlimited engine rule went into affect. At that time the TOC was flying larger airplanes with big engines. Dean Pappas has a TOC biplane with a OPS 60 CC Twin that weighted almost 20 lbs. With the short spinner it fit in the 2 meter box. The rules makers in pattern went to the 11 lb rule to keep those airplanes out. At the time they felt it would hurt the sport. As per now I agree the rule needs to be changed.
Bipes are handicapped by a weight rule, agreed. Wing loading would be a small improvement on this legislation. But beware.....you want to see costs go through the roof, try that. That needs careful thought
I think it's curious that Pattern and IMAC have noise laws but Sport and Scale flying doesn't. Consider the sheer numbers game here. Sport outnumbers IMAC/Pattern by what? 100:1? I don't care for loud stuff but spectators eat it up. On the other hand, do we really need to have set-ups so quiet that ANYTHING running in the background drowns you out? Joe L told me that the extreme was at the Worlds....Akiba, I think, with his belt drive at 82 dB. Nice, but why? Because he can I guess