Here in lies the problem. "Looks" is quite subjective/qualitative, 10% +/- of known number is objective/quantitative. While scale outline still must be a factor, there is no gray area when it comes to the 10% rule.

Also, it's not about turning away a competitor. Sorry but we're not even sure how you could come up with that one. Every contest I've been to has a contest director that works his/her butt off for MONTHS to get folks to show up and make the contest successful, enjoyable and memorable. Turning away a competitor for the sake of turning someone away doesn't even register in their minds. If they have to regretably do it, it would be for reasons spelled out in the rules. As a matter of fact, most of the CD's that I know would, at that point, offer up their own plane for that person to compete with.

Just out of curiosity Paul, if you were a contest director and someone showed up with a plane that metered @ 105 db at a field where sound is an issue and such was made clear up front, would you turn a would be competitor away?

.........Mark