Stan,
Couldn't agree more[sm=thumbs_up.gif]. I'm personally obstinate enough that I will fly more to the rulebook than I will to judges preferences but I'm not convinced that will ever get me the best scores, especially in the lower classes where the judges are guys who fly bigger airplanes and are used to seeing bigger, longer lines and the like. I'm just basing this on what I've seen and heard from talking to other IMAC participants and the judges comments (again my disclaimer that my experience is limited). When I judge, I don't intend to base scores on the size of a loop, the speed of a particluar airplane or the length of the lines between manuevers as long as there is no question that there is a line. However, I've heard others cite exactly those criteria for downgrading a manuever[&:]. I'd much prefer if we were all judged only on what's in the rulebook and maybe that's what I should encourage, particularly in anyone just starting but I'm not convinced that adviced would be totally practical. Call me a skeptic but I'm all for the cause.
Bye the way, when I talked about judges bias I didn't mean to imply that anyone was doing anything on purpose to lower scores or the like, just saying everyone has bias on how they like to see manuevers flown; what they notice most both to the negative and positive. I love to see a plane that holds the same speed in both up and down lines... just looks better to me. It isn't a judging criteria so I hope it won't affect my scoring but it certainly looks nicer to me. I have to remind myself often which manuevers require entry and exit radii being equal or entrance and exits at the same elevation. Certain manuevers look better when they are done that way to me but that don't make it right!