Originally Posted by
Hamish Galloway
I talked to Micheal Ramel about this topic at the last AOC in Thailand .. The governing body for F3a were worried that if the weight limit is increased it will make for very big biplanes that fit within the FAI rules, he said the biplanes would have an unfair advantage being much larger .. This would intern make the cost a lot higher and also harder for the monoplanes to compete..
Hi,
Maybe a wing area rule could prevent that big 2 meter wingspan biplanes get any advantage?
Like 100 dm2 (square decimeter) wing area limit. Most 2M F3A biplanes today has less then 100 dm2 wing area, usually between 90-100 dm2 (9.688 - 10.76 square foot, 1 395 - 1 550 square inch).
A 100 dm2 wing area rule would not give any negative effect for 2M monoplanes since they have usually wing area (including any top/lower small canard wing) in intervall 60-90 dm2, mostly between 60-70 dm2.
Examples:
Biplanes:
Citrin ST EP 93.9 dm2
Acuracy Bi-Plane 96.9 dm2
Finals Touch Bi-Plane 91.3 dm2
Ascent Bi-Plane 92.6 dm2
BJ Craft Passion 84.8 dm2
Monoplanes:
Galactika EP/GP 59.1 dm2
Allure 67.74 dm2
PrometheuS 89.3 dm2 (including top and lower small wing)
MythoS Pro 63.3+6.7(top wing) =70 dm2
BJ Craft G2 Invitation 57.5 dm2 (probably without top wing area)
BJ Craft Essence and Agenda CD 58.6 dm2 (probably without top wing area)
Another possible solution would be to allow higher weights but then with a system for point reduction as weight increase over 5000 grams. That way one can encourage F3A flyers to keep weight under 5000 grams if that is desired. The point penalty should then be so that it hurts a little to be at 5500 grams (if we assume that would be a new weight limit). This would for sure have the top flyers weight pros (maybe higher flight points) and cons (weight point penalty). Probably the weight point penalty must be so it is rather clear that one get an disadavantage that is rather hard to compensate by flying very good.
Just a thought, might be unrealistic.
/Bo