I think we may be over-analyzing the issue in the last couple posts. I know that each of us is different, and we'd like to have the rules so that we can agree with all of them, but with the variety of pattern planes over the years, and the equipment on them, it's impossible to please everyone, and I'm not sure that's what Mickey Walker was trying to do in the first place when he started SPA back in 1991. Mickey was fed-up with the technology aspect of AMA pattern in the 80s through mid-90s, and finally dropped out like many others did. He later missed the competition and comaradrie of the contest, so he got together with like-minded folks that had watched pattern go from simple wire landing gear and stock engines with mufflers to quite advanced, (and expensive) high-performance planes and special version high performance engines. To be a top contender, you had to spend the money to keep up. He envisioned a simple...back to basics...competition like the early days of pattern. He purposely wanted to avoid the performance-enhancing "trappings" that came later...hence the birth of SPA. SPA was never intended to be all things for all people; a bunch of folks agreed with Mickey that technology had ruined AMA pattern, and had made it too tough and expensive to remain competitive, (admittedly cost is not the factor it was back then, but it is still a factor). Mickey's answer was to ARTIFICIALLY IMPOSE LIMITS, (similar to AMA Novice class) on ALL classes of competition to REMOVE the technology aspect from the competiton. The best pilot who "burned the most fuel practicing" won the competition since the planes were all very similar in performance. It's as simple as that.

Originally planes were flown exactly like the originals, but things evolve as conditions change. The small (not major) mods started when the 4-stroke was introduced...the plane was stretched 1-1/2 to 2 inches to help rebalance. Since, (and this is important), the emphasis is on COMPETITION with vintage planes, and not trying to make exact replicas of the original planes, a certain amount of experimentation came about as people"tinkered" with the planes to make a better flying plane FOR COMPETITION. For some people, this is actually part of the fun, to play a little with the design to see if there is improvement. The exact same thing was constantly going on in the 60s, (see Howard Thomb's plane in the attachment). An example...remember that many of the early planes, (including my King Altair), were designed before Knife Edge Flight was part of the pattern, (the SPA pattern maneuvers go all the way to 1-1-76), so rudders were changed fron the 45* angle of the early planes to vertical hinge lines. My King Altair has a vertical hinge line, but the airfoil, etc is the same. This makes small changes in the cosmetic appearance of the planes. LARGE changes, or SCALING-UP of smaller designs is not allowed.

Noise...I've heard all the arguements, but in the end, the PERCEIVED high-pitch whine of 2-stroke engines was irritating to surrounding landowners. Tuned pipes were not an option as they had already been excluded for the reasons I listed earlier. 4-strokes became the norm due to increased vertical performance as well as noise reduction. Now we're seeing some 2-strokes come back at contest sites where noise is not a problem because of better performance, plus some just like the old 2-stroke sound.

People are constantly trying new things...new planes from the legal list...new engines...new prop and fuel combinations etc. Now there is a return to the OLDEST vintage planes and renewed interest in the SPA "ANTIQUE" class of pre-1968 airplanes. As I said earlier, we will have at least one totally "antique" contest maybe two this season.

Please re-read some of the earlier posts. I hope I've helped explain the philosophy and thinking behind SPA, and why things are as they are.

As Mad Mark says....PEACE

Duane