RE: Risk Takers?
Note: Most of the 'silly rhetoric' has been removed...I think my coffee was too strong this morning.
I had the opportunity to meet the originator of this thread at a fun fly yesterday. I watched in amazement while he and his flying buddies demonstrated their skills...mucho grande skills...it was some of the best flying I've seen, and I attend many events per season that are dominated by 40% ers flying 'extreme 3D' (which end up being mostly TRing and straight-line rolling harriers...yawn). Crash99 and his buddies were vastly superior pilots to the guys flying the 40% 3Ders yesterday. Vastly superior. They were doing things yesterday with some 60-sized profile FF's that had to be seen to be believed...rolling harrier circles reversing the roll direction every 180 degrees of the circle while under 10 feet from the ground...and everything else...EVERYTHING. All within a small box, always in control. These guys might appear to be 'out of control' or 'dangerous' but I can assure you that they were far more in-control than anyone else there.
IT IS UP TO THE INDIVIDUAL TO KNOW WHEN THEY ARE BECOMING A HAZARD. It is also up to the fellow fliers to CORRECT them IMMEDIATELY when they are BECOMING a hazard if they don't realize they are becoming a hazard. There is no way to mandate what is 'safe' and 'unsafe' without severly impacting advancement of the hobby...we can only rely on the perception of the majority of the other flyers at the field. A .40-sized trainer flying straight and level can kill you just as dead as a 40% 3D plane.
-Tom