Ok lemme try this again.

First allow me to do a quick recap, and underscore a couple of things:

I'm playing devil's advocate. I said that in the first post, so I hope y'all didn't miss that.

I answered the guy's question. I told him the absolute truth. I didn't compete in the 90s under a different ruleset, I came up through the CURRENT system in the Southeastern United States. I told the guy exactly what I saw, am I supposed to lie and say "all I saw were sport planes?" Sure they were there, but sportsman was and still is dominated by 2 meter planes. More than one or 2, we're talking MOST at some contests.

I don't fly the latest and greatest, I fly a pile of home made sticks with a 2 stroke OS (Not a ZN with a YS DZ) my pile of sticks just happens to be 2 meters and flies really good

Now for the rest. I love to build and design. Flying is an afterthought. I fly for fun, and I compete for fun. But I do enjoy it, as do many others. We're not evil because we like fierce competition. It doesn't matter if it's toy planes, racing motorcycles, football, racing hydros, whatever....we love to compete. Personally I love the thrill of a close contest, going into the 6th round and it's anybody's guess, you fly your ass off and don't blink, and watch the others do teh same, and see where it falls when they call the trophies. *** is wrong with that? It's FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I'll fly with anybody (and pretty much have), I don't particularly care WHY they're doing it or what they're doing it with. But I won't lie to them about anything. I don't think we're chasing anyone away by being either competetive OR truthful. If I have to "sell" pattern, I'd rather sell the thrill of competition, the atmosphere, the people, the skill improvement.....but I won't tell them they can go into Alabama and beat 6 2 meter planes with a Kaos. If he WAS good enough to do it and lived around here, chances are he'd have a 2 meter because that's just the way we seem to be. In North Dakota who knows. Probably.

One last thing, I haven't seen anyone NOT encouraged who was flying a smaller plane. The only times I've seen people leave and not for personal reasons were either they just didn't like the level of competition, OR they felt they were mislead in some way, or they found the people to be extremely arrogant. This one I have seen a few times, and from the most unlikely sources. These are the ones I know of personally.

Troy you spent some time in D3, although a year after I left sportsman, did you not see this for yourself?

-Mike