Bryan,

I can't help myself, I have to respond.

I think many of your comments are based on just looking at the surface and not the true underlying reasons, so here goes.

I did do jets for a few years. If they are more popular now, and I'm not sure they really are, it is because there has been an explosion of lower cost ARF's then when I was doing it. Companies like Skymaster, Feibo, TBM and such have dramatically lowered the cost of an airframe compared to say, BVM. And there is much less building being done then when I flew jets. And I can say with I think a fair bit of accuracy that 90% of those model never get flown except at a rally. So rallies are popular for jets and the numbers attending are high. How many times have you seen a turbine model at the local field?

What is the most popular type of airframe at an IMAC meet? It will be CARF or a wooden ARF. Notice the trend. It is an ARF. And not one of those ARF's have a maximum weight limit to go against. Sure, everyone wants lighter, but no one will be illegal if they are over some arbitrary weight limit. And they all run gasoline which has a very low operational cost.

Since we are talking about only changing the AMA rules, not F3A, all that great development will continue. Making it easier for someone to take an F3A airframe, use lower cost stuff in it and compete can only help the event.