ORIGINAL: khodges
Since the advent of the high dollar composite structured models with molded in rivets and panel lines has been accepted into the world of Top Gun and Scale Masters, I think someone who takes a run-of-the-mill ARF and details it by adding their own rivets and panel lines, or rib tapes and stitching, modifying the outline to bring it closer to true scale, re-covering it with a prototypical cover (read that as tearing off the MonoKote and putting real fabric on it) should have an equal consideration in a head-to-head competition. Otherwise, require the guys who bring the composite planes to lay up their own carbon fiber fuses and wing sections if they want to equally compete with the guys who built their plane from sticks. If the ARF'er can make a silk purse from a sow's ear, he should be allowed to put it up equally against the designer stuff.
What I see as most unfair in competition is the one who hires out his entire build and then competes with the finished product as his own, even though it's stated he didn't build it. That's like buying a brand new Ferrari and competing against the guys who restored a junker and did the work themselves. The big pockets tend to have the advantage over the shoestring builders regardless of who has the greater talent, and I think the whole thing deteriorates to ego tripping.
Ken,
Top Gun does have the Builder of the Model Rule. In Team Scale both parties must be there with the model. The builder and the pilot. It is not, repeat, NOT permissable for anyone to bring a model that he did not build. Period. In team scale, the builder must sign the B.O.M. Statement. His pilot must do the flying sequences, and still must point well enough to score high enough to place in the event. You really need to attend once to be able to appreciate the caliber of model that is there. The best ARF in the world won't place high enough in the static scoring to enable the pilot to overcome that low score. Static scores just simply count for too much to be able to be overcome. There is not one 3-D model airplane that could begin to make the grade when it comes to scale outline. The control surfaces would kill the points for the model. The scale surface detail is not there, and the wing plan for the majority of them would rob them of too many points.
I know these things to be factual. If you ever bother to enter Top Gun in the Team Scale category, you will meet me, Face to face. I Judge Scale Outline for Team Scale. I see them all, and the ARF's just don't have it (yet). Truth be known, they probably never will, since that level of construction would run the model into the full scale price point. You can't buy your way into Top Gun. You have to earn it.
Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1