ORIGINAL: PaulD
A buddy of mine went to the WJM in Dayton, OH and while he said there were a few guys like him who were self funded the guys who were in the running we're all sporting teams with a payroll. Kinda takes the hobby side out of the competition IMO.
PaulD
That may be true for other countries, and certainly the Russian Yak that won the WJM was done by a well-funded team (not sure where the funds came from though), but I'm 99% sure that all of the U.S. Team members funded (and built, I think) their own aircraft and their attendance at the event. I think the U.S. Team takes donations to help off-set the travel costs (Roger?), but I'd bet that it doesn't cover it all. Some of the U.S. Team members work in the model industry, but they still did their own thing for the WJM competition.
Its really fantastic to see planes like the Yak, but it would also be nice to have a class at the WJM that had a "builder of the model" rule to level the playing field for those that don't have a "consortium" working for them...
Bob