The airplanes will continue to refine and change. They will probably become more expensive as materials change and manufacturing methods are improved. Have servos and linkages reached perfection? No, refinement will continue and cost will slowly increase here too. Titanium alloy gears, whatever can increase accuracy, no matter how small the returns because together, tiny refinements add up to something meaningful.

Gasoline? Maybe. The savings on fuel would be quite significant. Getting the motors perfected at acceptable weight will probably make them very expensive. Most current high end flyers are not going to accept current gasoline motor weights. Maybe it's just trendy, but lighter is and will be the goal for a while to come. Increasing the weight allowance? Why not put the extra weight into something other than motor. More wing and fuselage area? Some folks will run the gasser, others will design a more stable airframe around light weight glow motors. Until the power to weight ratio of gas is close to glow I see people using an additional pound allowance for somethng other than fuel cost savings.

Will cost be the demise of pattern? Why should it be? It never deterred F3A pilots before. It surely won't in the future. F3A has never attracted thousands of competitors. It has been viewed, perhaps appropriately so, as the elitist portion of R/C flying and the natural non-competitive nature of most R/C flying hobbiests keeps them out of competition. It is a small part of the hobby albeit disproportionately responsible for much of the advancement in technology.

(Think about it. R/C is not traditionally a strongly competative sport. Most long time hobbiests have enjoyed the solitude of the workshop, long hours between themselves and the airplane in the night, and often a noticable condecension to anyone's suggesting a"friendly" competition to add stress to the enjoyable past-time.)

As far as the argument for cheap, affordable pattern...I do not see a problem. There are the sportsman and intermediate classes, and no reason why a local club cannot create a local competition limiting competitors to certain equipment limits. The only argument I really understand is what I interpret from reading between the lines which is that many people seem to want is Formula 1 performance and technology at Ford family car prices.

Mark