Here's another example Troy, Chuck Hochhalter in district 6 flew a U-Can-DO 3D (40 or 60 sized) at his first couple of pattern contests and he won both of them, even against real pattern planes. After seeing how much he enjoyed pattern he bought a Swallow and preceded to win every sportsman contest he attended this year.

I think the best approach is to go out to your field and fly the sportsman pattern ten or fifteen times (not all in the same day) with whatever you have. If you have someone that can call for you then that would be a great help. Then GO TO A CONTEST!!! If I had been left on my own I wouldn't have gone to a pattern contest nearly as soon as I did. I was talked into going even though I didn't think I was anywhere near ready. I ended up having a good time and learning a lot.

What I learned from this is that you don't need to be flying great to enter sportsman, most the other sportsman fliers are in the same boat. Just get yourself to a contest and have fun. Then if you decide it's something you enjoy you can step up to a new plane if you feel it's necessary. But DON'T wait until you have the ideal plane to get started.

There is some truth to what Tommy S. said that once you go to a contest or two you may not be happy with your plane. However, this doesn't mean you won't have fun and won't learn something. Look at it this way, if I have the choice to go to a contest now without the perfect plane I'll still get more out of it than not going at all!

KeithB