The question is two fold:

1) scale and the Nationals

I was looking at the scheduling for the Nats this past summer and noticed that the scale events were held first, then some helicoptor events. Then there was a 1 week break with nothing, and then all of the other CL and RC events were held. The problem this creates is that if you fly for example CL carrier and CL scale you really have to travel twice due to the week long break between the two events. My question is why are the scale events forced to be so out of snyc from the other other events? I fly Control line scale mostly, but have also flown CL carrier. I did not attend the Nats this year, but if I had I would have pick between two events and dropped the other one. The alternative is to run all of the CL events (scale included) in one time span, thus allowing folks to enter a variety of events with one trip. This also applies to Radio control.

2) scale competition

ARF's have drastically changed the market and it seems that scale competition is taking a big hit due to the proliferation of ARF's. THe heart of this issue is builder of the model rule. What is the AMA going to do to re-align the rules and competition to make the scale competition survive (scheduling the Scale nats 2 weeks before all other events doesn't help either). Somehow the rules for scale competition have to set up to allow ARF's to be flown, maybe repaint the model or something else other than fun scale.

something to thing about,
Fred Cronenwett
CL scale and Carrier