I was the chief cheerleader for getting rid of this rule. As written it is too broad and ambiguous For instance, at a contest I went to a couple of years ago the CD allowed points for a 40% planes equipped with a 1/12 scale William jet pilot bust - UNPAINTED no less. His reasoning was that at least he tried. So he gave him the points.

I agree that the full face pilots, while they look cool, do not meet my idea of a realistic pilot. But they DO meet the requirements of the rules.

My reasoning was either write this rule to CLEARLY define what is and is not "realistic" or get rid of it.

Unfortunately the Scale Aerobatics Board failed the attempt to get rid of this rule. Part of the reasoning is that this is what makes us "scale". I'll say this as clearly as possible, that is just plain stupid. We allow absurd power to weight ratios, disproportionate flying surfaces, a B/W photocopy of a 747 dash is OK, and all kinds of other variations, but it is the PILOT that makes it look scale. OK, got it.

But for now we are stuck with it and it is 100% up to the CD to decide what meets the rule. Good luck at figuring that out.