Thanks for the reply Troy, I just wish you could do it in a paragraph or two!

Shorter schedules will only work well if you are going to move on to something else in the contest, just like F3A does in the Semi's and Finals. In Masters, there is no change to the schedule in the finals, so you should not have a shorter schedule. As to judge fatigue, that is another entire discussion, but my answer would be to give them a little more break in between flights. But I guess my real answer is if Masters doesn't have to limit themselves to the F3A idea of schedules, why should they? If the current 09 Masters pattern was created by Masters contestants, voted on and passed, what's the problem? As to your "big" question of Masters separate identity, I don't know or care. Just don't put unknowns in to Masters!

I don't want to see no weight limit, just an ease on it. 12 pounds would make it a lot easier for the ARF manufacturers to build reasonably competitive airframes that are more structurally sound. We have to get away from the need of high price composite airframes to be the only thing that will make weight. They are made of unobtanium for most entry level pilots.

And I'm not going to pay $4K for a bare pattern airframe, no matter how well it flew. It would have to - well you get the idea.

I still say the competition was better when we flew .60's. Main reason - 250 at the Nats, 50 to 60 at local meets. Quantity has a certain quality all of it's own. I don't believe for a second that people will give up their 2-meter models, but all they have done is raise the entry fee to get in to pattern. And this has kept the numbers low.

For years many contests allowed any AMA legal model in to Sportsman or even Intermediate. We've done it at our meets in Lancaster. It gets a few local IMAC guys to fly in your meet, but afterwards I have yet to see any of them ever spend the bucks for a pattern model. Why should they when they can compete in IMAC with the models they have and enjoy. All I have ever heard from this practice were complaints from other pattern fliers for allowing that big noisy airplane in to the contest.