Sorry to butt in on the USA discussion again but is it necessary to change the rules for FAI?

I think that everyone is (should be) more worried about the development of pattern and smoothing the way for the competitors on their way up. Someone mentioned that most pilots flying F3A (Masters in USA, I believe) are still predominantly developmental pilots. If one considers that the bulk of pilots flying P13/F13 are developing their skills then there is no debate that the weight limit should be increased.

The argument then changes to how the team selection process should change. I believe that changing the weight limit for Team selection events will be counter productive. Pattern is finely balanced with LSA and by destroying the balance we could end up with a mishmash (not good american, I know) which would be bad.

On the other hand I believe that an increase in weight limit right up to the top class is good. In South Africa we have now adopted the FAI sequence of 4 x P's and a 2 xF's for the flyoffs for team selection events. Top three "P" flights are normalised and divided by three to get a score out of 1000. The top 6 pilots then compete in a F schedule fly off. The best two of the F normalised score is added to the final P score to get a total score out of 2000 and determine the winner for team selection events.

I feel that pilots qualifying for the fly-offs must comply with FAI rules but that an increased weight restriction for F3A (Masters) pilots not competing for team selection can only improve participation. Pilots moving up to the top class are given the opportunity to compete with their existing equipment and grow while the 'top dogs'can compete for team placings without disadvantage.