For a few weeks now this subject has come at our club and I feel that at some point it will need to be adressed and was wondering if any other flying sites have as yet taken on this seeming difficult subject? Today in the hobby many people show up at the field with park flyers. some are very good with these planes and solo with one. We have a qualifying test at our field, but here is the delimma. If someone show up at the field and qualifies with one of these planes, say a wingo for example, club rules says he can fly without the help of an instructor. Now if the next week the guy shows up with a forty or larger glow powered plane we by must let him fly because he has the little blue dot on his club card (signifying that he has qualified). But certainly this is much more plane than the wingo. my question is this do some clubs have different qualification for the hand launched electrics as opposed to glow powered and if so what restrictions is there. also now days some electrics are highly aerobatic and a pure handfull to fly (Think of Jason at the worlds). So where is the line drawn, do you used the ability to take off as a criteria, or some other method to determine qualification. I know I would be very nervous if someone who have only flown (and qualified) with a Wingo to sudddenly start a take off run with me on the flight line. So guys what do we do, how do we address this issue and what are other clubs doing?/


Terry

Our club has a limited qualification intended for flyers of handlaunched electrics. It was set up long before park flyers existed and was for motorgliders and other electrics which were of limited power. With this qualification the modeler is only permitted to fly handlaunched planes. I originally qualified with a glow-powered glider and later requalified for use of wheeled aircraft.

The limited qualification routine omits the inside loops and the touch-and-go of the full qualification routine. It has fallen into disuse and probably few members today know that this category exists.

If someone shows up at our field in the manner you stated he will be checked out by an instructor before he is allowed to fly more complicated aircraft. Park flyers and other small electrics can give you a fair observation of the pilot's skills, but when he shows up with a fueled aircraft he will be checked out. We require AMA membership no matter what type of aircraft the pilot brings to the field. If it is a simple "park" flyer he can probably fly it at a park if he doesn't want to mix it up with the "big boys". We fly everything from park flyers and small electrics to one third scale Extras and other 1/4 scale and everything in between. We exercise
common courtesy when using the sky, so the big ones don't blow the little guys away or the little guys clutter up the airspace for the 3d'ers. It has worked that way for some years now without problems.