Hi Tony,

The Canadian rules essentially have mimicked F3A essentially because we are a small group and its easier to simply manage it that way. Back in 2005 we changed the weight rule such that electric models are weighed without batteries, at the time lipos were very expensive and other options like A123's were becoming available at lower cost, but huge weight penalty. I made the proposal as I felt it was in our interest to not exclude those who could not afford the TP 5300's and Hacker/Pletty's of the day but wanted to give electric a try.

Since then I have never witnessed anyone taking advantage of that change, it obviously has the potential to give a huge advantage to electric models in Canada....but as you say most of the guys just do what is done in FAI, and most of the lower class guys in my area are flying used FAI models, or simply copying setups used in FAI. I can't speak exactly to eastern Canada because its a long ways from me, but I think the same applies there as well.

In hindsight, I would probably have preferred to have the rule changed to be a max T/O weight in our own classes. Possibly something to do during our next rules cycle.

I happen to agree with you that if you upped the AMA class weight rules to be 5.5 kg T/O weight, you would unlikely see any change to the models being flown. I suppose someone could get very ambitious, and do up their own design, but they will probably have the ambition to practice more and win anyway LOL