As a regular participant, I will interject my .02. First, flight judging has not favored "heavies" in 4 out of the last 5 I have attended. I fly WW1 and I am confident that regardless of wind conditions that I can compete and score. I practice in the wind, most light plane pilots don't. As to static, I have seen glaring inconsistancies and/or lack of education in the judges. That being said, I believe that they have judged competitor's fairly based upon whatever criteria they select. That has created frustration for me based upon loss of points in craftsmanship due to the fact that I weather to reflect in service aircraft. I don't like shiny warbirds. One solution is alternating East and West to a fixed sight, Say Indiana and a appropriate West Coast Venue. That is easy to say as I don't have to organize the myraid of volunteers to organioze and run the event. This is not a for profit deal like Top Gun. The big difference to me is, FT pays to get the judges he wants there and thus ensres consistant judging. I always get what I deseve at TG whether I like it or not. I for one, am more interested in generating interest in participation at local qualifiers rather than at the big show. If we take care of the qualifiers, the cahmpionship eventually will take care of it's self. I for one, am joining Scale Masters to try and activly affect the out come. I am a staunch advocate of the concept but do believe it needs to be updated to reflect our current reality. Before making sweeping statements regarding location, ask yourself, who will do the work? Sorry for rambling on but I have lots of thoughts and concerns on this topic.

DJ