Good discussion going here guys. I think before we get all carried away trying to implement a set of truly workable national 424 rules some additional issues need be addressed. As I understand it Jimmy, Gary, Mike and others configured APRA rules as a vehicle to attract new people to pylon and serve as a training ground for an eventual move to 428. By enforcing the existing rules and making small adjustments over the years it has worked pretty well. Gino, Randy, Bill and many others as well as myself started in APRA. As we got better most of us saw it really wasn’t fair to continue flying against the new or not so serious guys and moved up to 428 followed by 422. (Remember we fly all three classes at all local races in the Southwest). An example of what I’m talking about here is as follows. The average “casual” APRA flyer out here runs 10 lap times in the high 130’s to low 140’s. A couple a years ago when all the “Slow 428 down” stuff was going on I wanted to see just how quick I could fly a good APRA plane. I took a VORTEX, APRA legal then, pulled a TT40 from mothballs, set up some poles and gave it a whirl. Got 2 clean heats out of 4 and both were 129 something. Fast enough to lap the field in any APRA heat in the last two years except Whittier this year where Gino was flying. When I moved from APRA to 428 my best APRA time was 136 now after several years of 428/422 experiences I can beat that by 7 seconds. What I’m saying here is we need to be careful we don’t turn 424 into a slower version of 428. We need to always keep in mind that first and foremost we need an event that will attract new people not be a “fun fly” event for seasoned 428 and 422 pilots. I realize we are little different because we always fly 3 classes and therefore can encourage experienced fast pilots to stay away from APRA. We might consider 424 and 428 like intermediate and expert in pattern. Once you move up you can’t go back without permission from the GODs. I can’t stress enough how important I think it is that 424 is not turned into just another expert pylon event.

Just read the post from RPM. He is exactly the guy we need to be supporting.


Just my opinion

Barry