The first time I ever attended a pattern contest, I noticed that all of those sleek pattern ships had squared off trailing edges. I asked several of the pilots why they were not tapered to a sharp edge as are pylon racer wings. I got two answers.

First I was told that blunt trailing edges prevent the control surface from stalling at high defelction angles. (Not a problem on pylon racers since they are usualy set up for smaller control deflection.) Second I was told that in pattern plane design, one of the goals was to make the airframe *clean, yet draggy* so that they do not gain too much speed in vertical dives.

Correct me if I am wrong.