Re: Western Front Rhinebeck

Douglas R. Jones (djones@iex.com)
Wed, 20 Sep 1995 09:29:50 -0500

>Just to clarify my view, for the folks who are actually winning high level
competition approach those competitions that way. For the rest of us,
including some very fine
>modellers who participate in those high level events, this is not
necessarily the case.
>This is why there is still some aircraft variety in those high level events and
>why you see WWI aircraft being flown.

I agree. Caught me in another generality. I suspect there are folks like me
who will attend a competition if it close and convenient. We will fly what
we have, not expect to do well. And generally go to have a good time. But
Top Gun and Scale Masters are a different class of competition, IMHO.

>I don't think anyone would argue that Terry Nitsche's F86 wasn't scale. In
fact,
>this is what has taken static judging out of the picture at the Scale
Masters and
>Top Gun. The entire top 10 will always score within a couple points of one
another
>on the ground.

I agree it is scale. No question.

>Of course they are and there's a whole lot more talk about Bob Violett models
>than there would be otherwise. This is why Bob spends so much money on
sponsorship
>of the pilots. But you're talking as though there are no WWI airplanes at
these
>events in spite of the fact that early on we were talking about a
resurgence and using
>their presence as an indicator of that resurgence. They are there. They
are not winning but they are there and beautiful.

To us they are beautiful! To the judges....well that might be a different
story. This type of aircraft is my personal preference. I think they are
elegant and beautiful in flight. Others (Frank Tiano for example) don't. It
is subjective. I would believe it would be hard for a judge to get this type
of bias "out of his/her system" before judging. It is probably a subconsious
thing.

>No, we just do the numbers differently. You see lots of Mustangs and few SE5s.
>I realize that for every SE5a that's built, there are hundreds of Mustangs
built and
>so the fact that WWI planes show up at all suggests they are being
over-represented.

While I agree with your numbers I am not sure I agree with your last statement.

>I can't remember the actual numbers but it seemed to me that 15-20% of the
planes
>at the Masters this year were WWI. How much more representation could you
expect?

I stated that I was surprised (and pleased) by the number of WWI
participants. I had expected only 3 or 4 planes out of the whole field!

Doug
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