ORIGINAL: spbyrum

Gentlemen

Read the rule. It says ANY SPA approved airplane or 72" and 15 lbs. The 80" King Altair is an SPA approved airplane. As noted, you need some ponies to fly it.

NEW NOVICE RULE COMING.

We had a new situation in Novice this year. We had a core of about a holf dozen Novice pilots that traveled to most contests battling for the points championship. This created a focus on Novice rules and the need to keep the playing field level. The 72"/15# rule was an attempt, but was easily ignored (or forgotten by CDs. I did this at our October contest. The result was Novice was won by a young pilot flying a 2m pattern plane).

The new rule under discussion by the Board of Directors would limit engines in Novice to max .61 2 stroke or non-supercharged (no YS) .91 4 stroke. Any airplane you can fly with those power limitations is ok. Forget weight limits. Forget span limits. The engines will effectively limit the size of the planes flown.

WORDING IS BEING DISCUSSED AND SHOULD BE FINALIZED SHORTLY.

If a CD chooses to ignore this rule (he has the right. CD is king of his own contest.), he will be required to advertise this point in his contest flyer and post this information on the SPA website. If a CD allows over-sized planes to compete with regular Novice pilots, his contest will not count for Novice points toward the season championship.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN BIG PLANES CAN'T FLY. Non-conforming planes can be flown and will be awarded a certificate of participation, but will not count in the final results of the contest. The point is still to allow new pilots to sample SPA competition with planes they already own. If they like what they see and want to continue to compete, they'll come up with an approved airplane to compete on the same level as everyone else.

Sportsman and Expert both require SPA approved airplanes.