To answer your question, no. Heck, my full scale Cessna burns 13 gallons per hour at $4.50 gal! Now that is something I need to look at carefully[&:]. I wholeheartedly agree that transportation costs in Europe are MUCH greater than ours. I also think they are much more fuel conscious than us "gas guzzling, SUV driving" Americans. (They have to be at those prices) However, one thing that I noticed most Europeans don't realize about the US is actually how big our country is. Some of the countries that I went through while living over there could be placed in just one of our states. Alot of friends in Germany would travel over here and marvel at the large expanse of land we have. I do realize they also have to travel great distances to pattern meets, but almost any pattern meet we go to involves a 5-8hr drive and sometimes a full day.

One thing you can do to cut down expenses is to buddy up with someone and travel together. That cuts down your gas costs in half. Just an idea. We try to do it all the time around here in Texas.

Another way that I'm starting to see is drive a very small car (like a Civic or something) and put an ultralight and streamlined trailer behind it for your planes. It's amazing how elaborate and futuristic these can get. I agree with you that it could definitely hurt the number of contestants at our meets.