ORIGINAL: Flyfalcons
As a rule, it should be followed. The original idea of IMAC is to be scale, and a pilot and panel should be part of the price to pay when calling your aircraft "scale". After all, how many opaque canopies do you see at IAC competitions?
How many 2 bladed props have you seen on Extras, Edges, Yaks, etc. at an IAC contest??
How many of the above have you seen in IAC with no spinner??
How many of the above have you seen in IAC with no wheel pants (designs that have them)??
How many of the above have you seen with absurdly disproportionate control surfaces??
Point is that we allow all of the above, but somehow it is the pilot and panel that makes it scale. Having seen some of the junk people put under their canopy in an attempt to meet this rule it is simply laughable to say that this is what makes us scale. Plus, given today's engines there is simply NO performance penalty for having a cockpit/pilot, so why reward it??
Amusingly enough not even SCALE REQUIRES a pilot panel. They suggest one, but there is NO downgrade for NOT having one.
Beats me why they came up with the clear canopy requirement. It makes very little sense.