Originally posted by dcronkhite
Honestly.. I'd REALLY like to see FAI opened up to 6kg. NO OTHER CHANGE. Don't make the airplanes bigger, just allow 1 more kilogram to open up the gas engines to be usable. Actually.. 1 pound more would be enough really.
With every sport out there.. people look at the top of the line, highest dollar airplanes the 'top' pilots are flying and decide "it's too expensive" but in reality, you can put a VERY good, Nationals winning caliber airplane together for UNDER $1000 minus the radio.
It takes a great deal of personal confidence to not buy what Chip, Quique, Jason, Kirk, Sean and others fly JUST BECAUSE THEY FLY IT. There's no argument the airplanes they're flying are very good, but they're not the ONLY good airplanes out there.
-Doug Cronkhite
wow. Well put, and I agree wholeheartedly - there's a lot of common sense there.
Gasoline powered aircraft are the next logical step for the sport, driven by fuel costs. Also, I think the competition from lower priced cheaper to operate gasoline powered engines could only help to reduce the cost of thier overpriced nitro hungry glow counterparts. I cant imagine the gasoline engine manufaturers raising the costs of presently available engines just because pattern folks are buying them. If you look at the trend, the major gasoline brands are all offering lighter more powerful engines at the same prices as the previous version - unlike YS and OS that charge a hefty premium for the newer designs.
For the gentleman that reccomended it, I do have to put in here that a UCD would make a pretty cruddy pattern aircraft even with reduced throws, it seriously lacks precision..... maybe if you built up a different wing tho, the fuse might work..... lol...