Well, the funny thing is that OpenA, the way we were flying it out here is that it was a lot like SSC now. However, there were differences. The mid-airs did almost do damage, the planes were lighter, and only a hair faster than SSC, so they climbed better, but the furball spread out more than SSC does, so there were less mid-airs and we spent less time repairing and needed fewer planes to survive a contest. SSC is like bumpercars sometimes, with constant mid-airs, and contests decided among the top pilots mostly by how well you do at avoiding heat-ending early mid-airs. We didn't have that problem in A class here.

(We flew with a sportsman's understanding not to use the super expensive exotic .15s developed for various FAI events. We are able to be competitive and sporting at the same time out here, but that's apparently not possible in some parts of the country)


As for the new Magnum XLS, it is more powerful than the old Magnum and way more powerful than the LA if it was allowed to run as it was designed to. Since SSC has an RPM limit, you have to work to get the engine down under the limit and keep it running well at the lower RPM. Part of this comes from the larger carb and exhaust openings. Those larger openings allow more fuel and air in and out, but they also reduce fuel drawing ability. I run a standard clunk tank, so the engine's fuel draw ability is a small issue for me, I need to make sure I launch slightly on the rich side to avoid getting lean towards the end of the tank. It's not a big deal, and I'm thinking I might reduce the exhaust opening to improve the backpressure a little. The new XLS has a better carb than the old mags, but it still leaks around the needle valve o-ring after a little while. The first few runs will be fine, but I ran mine, then let the engine sit a couple of weeks and when I ran it again, it was leaking like crazy.