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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The IMAC contest in ABQ had 30+ flyers, our pattern
contest two weeks later had 16. This imbalance has been in
place since I have lived out here. But Richard Lindberg, Kent Paul,
and I are working hard on continuing to make our contest more and more popular
and we have enjoyed increasing numbers for the past three years. I think
one reason for IMAC's popularity is the abundance of relatively inexpensive,
decent quality ARFs. Now that we are seeing more and more
pattern type ARFs coming to the market, we need to encourage people to
try them, and encourage those that buy them to give competition a try.
Richard has does an excellent job of assisting members of our club, to the
expense of his own flying. And he has helped nurture some of those members
in the pattern arena. Wish I could help more, but three kids and working
at Eclipse Aviation tends to put dampers on being able to get out to fly, let
alone help others. Anyhow, just keep encouraging others, share your R/C
knowledge, and shamelessly promote our version of R/C and that can only help
increase attendance at contests.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mike Cohen</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=joddino@socal.rr.com href="mailto:joddino@socal.rr.com">J.Oddino</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=discussion@nsrca.org
href="mailto:discussion@nsrca.org">discussion@nsrca.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, July 25, 2005 3:40 PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Does Pattern competition cost
too much?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>From time to time I hear folks suggesting the
reason the number of contestants is down is due to the high cost of pattern
planes and support equipment. Well I don't believe that is the
reason. This weekend I went to a relatively local IMAC contest in
Camarillo California and there were somthing like 61 preregistered and 56
actually flying. I'd guess 80% of the planes were 40% scale, meaning
they had $1500 engines and $3000 airframes and $1500 worth of servos.
Then you've got the motor homes and trucks and trailers to transport
them. I still say the highest cost of flying is the driving to and from
the field and that is probably why the park flyers are so popular.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So what is the reason for the drop in attendance
and the drop in the number of pattern contests? Or is that only in
Southern California?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jim O</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>