ORIGINAL: jmohn
Stickbuilder,
I totally agree that the degree of accuracy required by a the planes would rule out and ARF, but they are still a plane and if some (brave or foolish) person wants to try and compete with one, then they should be allowed to? I have built planes from scratch, glass kits, made my own molds and put rivets on for weeks, so I do know the time/effort required. I am just trying to say that an ARF (built by someone else) and a glass fuze kit (built by someone else) are exactly that "built by someone else". This argument probably mostly applies to smaller events, not Top Gun. I seriously doubt that someone invited to Top Gun would be bringing an ARF to try and compete.
You obviously have not been reading the posts. You can fly what you wish to in Pro-AM. It is the classes that require static judging where you can't use an ARF. Regardless of what you think, the only thoughts that count with Top Gun are Franks, and his, happen to agree with mine. By your line of reasoning, I should not be able to utilize a fiberglass cowl that I bought from Stans. It was built by someone else. Just for grins and giggles, here is a cowl from Stan's for the YMF Waco in fifth Scale. This is the first time that one has been available for the YMF. All the others are actually for the UMF and all the ARF's and kits to date have been incorrect in that regard. So if someone brings a so called YMF to a scale contest, and they don't have the correct cowl, then they should lose points.
Oh, the solid white cowl, and the one with the red and gold trim are not the ones from Stan's. It started out as a slick cowl, and the blisters are all hand cut, adhered to the cowl and the radius formed with polyester filler. This cowl represents about 40 hours of hard work, but it is a composite cowl, since it was not hand formed from either wood, metal or plastic.
The dummy radial is built from a hair spray can, balsa, lightweight spackle, aluminum and brass tubing, and wire. The cylinders are from a Top Flight fifth scale 9 cylinder radial kit. Is it Composite, or is it a kit. The cylinders are pre=molded, along with the detail, so I guess it is a composite part as well.
Oh, one other thing, I gave the cowl that the Stan's Fiberglass cowl was made from to a friend, who finished the cowl, and sent it to Stans, so that Brad could make a mold from it. Now what kind of part is it? If damifino (Jay) uses the Stan's cowl on his is it an ARF cowl, since he built the mold plug, or is it scratch built? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1