RE: Is combat dead?
Some of what you deal with is the mentality difference of people that want to do ribbon cut combat such as the "official" classes versus "full contact" combat. I find newbies tend to like the idea of smashing their planes together more than those that have actually tried combat already and have experienced the challenge of snagging a ribbon. Flying wings with pushers do survive better, but ribbon snagging and recovery from collisions tend to be less. I prefer to minimize my rebuilding time, so I typically try and promote the ribbon style. Not to mention the AMAs stance on intentional contact in regards to safety. It's a ll a compromise...