This will nail the coffin on me for any hope of making an event this season.
I understand the reasons for the 4-cycle at Knoxville, and their SPA growth in general, I have a surpass II in my fleet, and I've been flying 4 cycles for probably 10+ years.......in my sport planes. I grew up with 2-cycles in my patternships, I really prefer them especially in these non-draggy classic patternships. That is what the planes were designed for, they're less expensive, and to me it just rekindles a feeling from my youth, they are in their purest form, classic pattern. A good, clean, precise maneuver is a good maneuver whether it's flown at 75mph, or 105mph.

I would like to go on record as saying I fully support everything the SPA is currently doing, I've recently sent in my dues, I'm talking about it at my field, I brought it up with my AMA district VP, I'm trying to get the word out there and raise awareness any way possible.

I live in Columbus, Ohio. With the current schedule, I can realistically drive to one event, Knoxville. Let's say I put together a Thunder Panzer with a muffled .61. Small plane, 61 should have plenty of power, even on a muffler. At 13krpm, I may still not be able to make the Knoxville sound requirement. So if I want to fly my one contest a year, I have to fly something I'm not that crazy about, which kinda puts a damper on the fun factor for me, which is why we all do this after all, correct?

The SPA needs to grow to continue on. There needs to be more choices available to the modeler. If the rules were augmented to allow pipes and retracts and the like for even one class, more flyers will come out of the woodwork. More flyers means more contests. More contests means broader growth and what is now a regional sensation could then become a national sensation. We get enough flyers that we get more contests, in more locations, we get more people interested in flying all classes, including the existing classes. Suddenly the older gentlemen at my field flying tower kaoses have a whole new group of friends to fellowship with at the contest that would never be possible without more flyers. With more flyers and interest we would all have more contests closer to our home bases where we wouldn't be bound at every field by a noise requirement that prohibits us from running what makes us happy.

Many of us have families, sometimes making db regs is cost prohibitive for many in this situation, which is one reason NSRCA pattern is dying. To make .91 4-cycle power from a 2 cycle 60 you need a pipe...really to even get close, you may still not exceed the thrust of the larger prop, but it levels the playing field considerably. This does not need to be expensive though, and can be done rather easily. For example, you would way undercut the price of that .91 4-cycle with say a GMS .61 for a whopping 79dollars, add a macs header and pipe and you're making similar pulling power at literally a fraction of the cost.....probably less than half. That is huge for many of us. With regard to retracts, if you can fly, you can fly. What we had in the 80s was judging that was used to seeing wheels up and the way those planes present, which was very advantageous to those of us that had retracts. In this modern day of SPA under my ideas, we'd all be flying in front of judges that are used to seeing all the classes, but one, fly gear down all day, so the judging will not be biased against seeing wheels. If you can do the maneuvers, you can do the maneuvers, and the judging would be fair.

What the SPA is trying so dearly to preserve is pure, and should be preserved, but I think that goal can be achieved and grown exponentially with some forward thinking, and a lot of flexibility from the real decision makers. If my proposals were implemented, or at least considered I feel that a lot of fresh blood would be brought to the SPA table, but more it would help to further grow a legacy that SPA has worked very hard to establish.