Jim,

You are missing the whole point. The turbine community stepped up to the plate long ago and increased the level of safety. The majority of the turbine guys don't hesitate to spend extra $200 as you put it on their airplanes to insure they have the best and most reliable equipment. Proper rigging, fuel systems installations, turbine installations, heat sheilding are all topics that are routinely addressed in the jet forum here on RCU as well as at jet events with new and old turbine pilots alike. No one is trying to cram anything down anyones throat but we also want a little consideration for the effort that we as a group have spent attempting to make our segment of the hobby one of the safest out there. There will always be fires associated with turbine operation, full scale has not been able to prevent that why should we even think we can? We have however made quite a few attempts to minimize the probability of fire. The BVM Bobcat is a good example, the engine mounts are designed to be frangible and a pair of deflector plates will direct the engine away from the fuel tanks in a crash. Will it still catch fire in a crash, yes. I have seen glow powered planes crash and burn, and have also seen gasoline powered models crash and burn as well, I have even seen an electric powered model catch on fire.

My question to you is what are more rules going to accomplish? Do you want to regulate the turbines completely out of the AMA? If so why? Do we really pose that much more risk than a helicopter, or giant scale plane with a 32" prop spinning at 8000 rpm? The shear numbers of giant scale aircraft statistically suggests that their is more likelyhood of an accident occuring than with the relatively low number of jets.