That is an interesting comment. To the best of my knowledge, NO airplane has been disallowed if it was designed before 1-1-76, and in fact, Mickey has been pretty lenient. He has given any "benefit of the doubt" to the person requesting the plane. Just research the airplane in question and provide documentation, and it will be added to the list.

Lindy is correct about the seeming inconsistency in allowing the Phoenix 8, Tiger Tail 4, and such; I don't necessarily agree with allowing later planes based on a "legal ancestor", but SPA is Mickey's organization, and that's the way it is. I think somebody "back when" really wanted a P8, and Mickey gave him the "benefit" as I said earlier.

I am now researching and beginning an article about the 20th anniversary of SPA, and how things have changed. Interestingly, the original cut-off date was 1970, and the original age requirement, (yes age requirement) was 45 years, (Mickey originally based SPA on the Senior PGA). For most of SPA's 20 years, rules have been relatively unchanged with a few major exceptions, (such as allowing 4-strokes because of noise concerns in the late 90s).

I believe the current cut-off date of 1-1-76 will remain for some time rather than adopting a 25, or 30 year revolving date for legal models. The reason is that by the mid to late 70's, ALMOST EVERYONE IN THE UPPER CLASSES AT PATTERN CONTESTS NATIONWIDE was using the tuned pipe and retracts, (retracts started around 1970 in the HIGHEST LEVELS of competition, and pipes around mid-decade). Extending the date past what it is now would take us into the CPA-era where these add-ons were the NORM FOR EVERYONE(again outside of Novice). There is a good selection of planes that fall within the pre-1976 time frame.

There is a second very important consideration that defines a lot of what SPA is about. One of the most important guiding principles SPA was based upon is the general idea of "simple & inexpensive"...for example using basic engines as they come out of the box without additional equipment, (yes, competitiveness being what it is, some SPA engines are "hypertuned" shall we say by some in the Expert class, but they don't absolutely have to be in order to be competitive), nor are you expected, (or even allowed), to use a pipe to keep up with your competition. An intentional "technology ceiling" keeps costs from being driven higher and higher, which ultimately results in exclusion of the average modeler, and the formation of an "elite" class of highly competitive modeler. What Mickey really did is take the AMA rules applied to Novice back then and apply them to all classes. That is why SPA remains for the most part "simple and inexpensive" even 20 years later. You can compete with an SPA plane that costs no more than sport planes commonly seen at the local flying field.

The Curare, and Dirty Birdy were right on the edge of the time window, and are the most modern. The Tipo is simply a separate design coming after 1-1-76...that's why it's excluded. Ed Hartley loved the Curare, as does Steve Byrum; it's kind-of "state of the art" in the SPA time window. The Compensator is really catching on lately. The modified Dirty Birdy spoken of earlier was largely responsible for all the discussion we have going on now about building more to "planform" in the future.

Duane Wilson