This thread sounds like the 'discussions' we have at scale society meetings. There are two types of competition scale modellers, those that can get their act together & be competitive & those that imagine that they can be.

The second type attend meetings & campaign to drop the standard so they may have a chance & complain that the same old people always win.

The result? If they bother to turn up at the new 'simple contest' (few do!) they are still not competitive, their engines don't run properly, their wheels fall off - they finish last (because they deserve to) complain about the judges/weather/field/anything & we never see them again. And it all goes quiet, things get back to normal & things run smoothly until the next bunch of dreamers turn up & it all starts over again.

What they fail to realise is that the competitive guys are competitive because they work harder to achieve their goal. All the competitive guys started flying *****ty models too but stuck with it. Their next model was a bit less *****ty & so on they went, learning, competing & practicing. The 'Elite' scale modellers are at the top for one reason. Like all forms of competition they work harder than the others & reap the rewards.

Let the ARF's compete, sure. But if they only put in half the work they should be rewarded accordingly. - John.