Jim,
No personal atacks here just a heated discussion. If you are an "insider" looking out it appears that the majority of people that are attempting to set the rules for ANY activity in the modelling community do not actively participate in that activity. I know absolutely nothing about pylon racing other than what I have read in their rules, so in my opinion I have no buisness attempting to come to conclusions about their rules process or about regulations that govern their activity.
Careful reading of the Jet forum indicates that the accepted procedure in that community is to do maiden flights at sanctioned events with turbines.
Even more carefull observation at those events and you would see those same flights being done on the days prior to the event or outside of the scheduled hours. One of the big "crisis" points that everyone keeps harping on is the incidence of fire upon crash of a turbine model. At EVERY event I attended last year their are provisions for fire fighting on hand. Several of the events had the local fire department on hand, and almost all had at the very least water pack fire extinguishers and four wheelers ready for rapid response. What better scenario than that for maiden flights. As you so well stated this is a hobby wide "problem". Maybe it is time that the safety code is ammended to reflect the fact that in most cases the safety level is higher at an event than at the local flying field. Add to that the fact that especislly with these high technology models that there are almost always manufacturers reps, and highly experienced pilots on hand that can go through a model and spot problems that someone not familiar with that particular model could. Again enforce the rule accross the board and I am sure the turbine community will follow suit.
I have been frustrated at the clear REFUSAL to accept that there IS a problem within the waiver holder community.
I have also been frustrated at the clear REFUSAL to accept the faact that there are MANY problems through out the entire modelling community but the turbine community seems to be the current whipping post.
From conversations within this forum some of the loudest attackers against the attempts to clean up the waiver process claim to have lots of jet time and yet openly state that they have NO WAIVER.
I make no bones about it, I am a waivered pilot, a Turbine CD and an active field rep for the two largest jet related manufacturers. I am an active and high time pilot so I have the experience to back up what I say. If you argue that point you just make yourself look like a fool.
Current turbine rules are not being enforced. The entire waiver process was an attempt to allow the community to police itself and the speed limiter and t/w issues clearly indicate the failure of that process.
Since you have jumped on this bandwagon I ask for your proposal as to how to enforce these rules? The group of modellers that I fly with made a concerted attempt a few years ago to come up with a method to enforce the T/W restrictions. We attempted to come up with several easy methods for measureing static thrust. We implemented our methods at a variety of jet events over a two year period, as a matter of fact we still have one of the thrust "guages" in our trailer. Many airplanes were measured over the course of several events and the discrepencies were noted. Conflicting measurements were the norm. This is when the speedlimiter issue was incorporated. Admitedly not everyone that should be using a speedlimiter is using one but in the vast majority of cases one is also not needed as the airframe is no capable of exceeding 200 mph even with 1.5 to 1 T/W ratios. The problems with speedlimiters and the proper installation of the same has been a long time discussion in the jet forums and I won't rehash them again here.
The claims of safety from within the community are clearly flawed when we consider incidents like the crash into the impound at the Best of the West fly in April or the explosion on crash in New York as recounted by an e-mail from Dave Mathewson in the Jet forum. Of course these don't get counted as statistics since the pilots homeowners paid the claims rather than the AMA.
Currently the JPO has underway a Risk Management Initiative. Through this initiative we are compiling information, in the case of past events some what belated, but in the future all event CD's will be asked to submit details of the event, including number of pilots, number of crashes, fires (if any) and the reason determined for the crash.
We are taking these issues very seriously and even though you seem to believe that we are all a bunch of loose cannons will push for implementation of rules that are actually enforceable in the real world scenario.
I suggest if you really want to make a difference in the turbine community that instead of constanly bashing those of us that fly them that you take a little more involved position and start attending more events. Note for yourself that some of the issues addressed in the current rules just don't seem to be the important issues with regard to safety.