southern_touch9 or any 3Der

I have been fortunate enough to attend more TOC's than I missed. I see in the posts that Chip and Jason seem to be the roll-models and that the TOC seems to be the level of ability everyone wants to attain, with good cause, IMHO. Something was sticking in my memory, so I went and looked at some tapes I made of Chip at a TOC. He never touched the tail. I recalled reading the rules for the TOC. They are still posted on the Desert Aircraft website. Had he touched the tail, he would have zeroed the round. What he did do was to hover the Ultimate a few feet off the ground and hold it imperceptibly still.. and hold it... and hold it. That is impressive. The only thing moving are the control surfaces. Much more impressive to me than seeing the tail wagging the dog, so to speak, when the local guys tail touch.

Why is it that the act of touching the tail has so much interest when it requires more ability to hold the plane absolutely still a couple of feet off the ground?

It seems to me like what was good enough for the TOC should be good enough for the AMA. Apparently, the SIGs, Safety Committee and EC of the AMA all but copied the TOC rule.

This is the TOC Rule:
SAFETY (Changed from 1999)
Considerations of safety for spectators, contest personnel and other contestants are of the utmost importance to this event. Dangerous flying of any sort or poor sportsmanship of any kind, shall be grounds for disqualification of any contestant involved. (Dangerous flying includes maneuvering extremely low to the ground or flying directly at the spectators at show center. The northern edge of the runway will be used for the zero line. Cross the zero line during the flight and the whole flight is zeroed. At no time can the pilot or his assistant be under or touch the aircraft once the aircraft is airborne. There will also be no hand launches of any form.

http://www.desertaircraft.com/toc02/rules.html

JR