Bryan,

The organizers require that the seats in the back of pick-up not be loose, but that is a far cry from proper seats w/belts. The group flying the chopper this year used a full sized van with the roof chopped off ... there are some crazy people out there!

Each leg is designed to be not more than 45 minutes long. You have to stop at each check point/field as you have to put your wheels on the ground to stop the clock. Pilot is pretty much spent by then anyway. Time on the ground is not recorded so you can fuel up, charge up, have a drink, or whatever. We have had teams that did not complete a leg without a fuel stop. A real nice 1/3 scale Super Cub found a place to land in a field, fueled up, brought it out on the roadway, and took off to complete the leg. Shot his time, but he completed the leg.

Most of the aircraft that compete are your basic Sunday sport flyer. 40 - 60 sized high or low wing with an aux tank rubber banded to the top. Simple. The aircraft only gets you through qualification. The driving wins the event.

Bedford