I'm a little confused here. I understand the concept of the zoneless box, but how will this keep pilots from flying outside of the given Aerobatic Box area???

I mean, for those pilots that always flew outside the box, what is to keep them inside the box. Penalties, education, warnings, threats by AMA at the Nats couldn't keep a number of pilots inside an already HUGE aerobatic area. I was at a contest where the LAW showed up with complaints from the neiboring housing community where a Pilot was flying directly over someones house. The response by some pilots was "screw them" when we were requested to fly a little smaller on the backside of the box. Of course, the field hasn't been able to hold a contests since either. Realize, IMO the most common reason for flying "BIG" was to give the pilot more time to set up for whatever was next, or "BIG" scored better, even though some of it was out of bounds.

The same holds true for the backside of the box. Over the years flying IMAC, many pilots ventured outside the backside but again, no penalty and add to that the "cool" factor to doing TOC size rollers(clearly out of the box) adding on occasion, a higher score.

So, we are back to the original question, If current rules and application of these rules couldn't promote compliance with the rules, will the zoneless box work for the hoped results. I tend to think a resounding NO!! Whether a pilot has a end manuever shark's tooth with 8 pt roll at end or simply a sharks tooth, I believe the pilots that have stetched the box limits(prompting this proposal) will still fly out of the aerobatic box for either manuever, simply stretching the box on the opposite side for whatever manuever is there.

Why not simply zero any manuever flown outside the box, or another thought to zero the portion of the manuever outside the box. IMO, until the penalties are stiff enough to loose contests due to this style flying, IMAC will be faced with the same fly-over imprint it is now.

Am curious on everyone's opinions.

Ed