Hi Bill,
When people say they "can't fly their ARF in a contest", they are really saying (what they mean is): " I can't COMPETE with an ARF in a CLPA contest where the BOM/APs rule is used". AND THEY ARE CORRECT!
I'm posting this in answer to your Topics question. This is for those who have not read the rules section where I originally posted this at the request of Robert for an explanation of one of my prior posts. I hope this answers your original question.
THE BOM/AP RULE HAS A VERY LARGE IMPACT ON “ALL” CLPA CONTESTS IN THE USA!The BOM rule is
THE rule that is used to DIVIDE the models at EVERY CONTEST IN THE NATION into those that get A/P points and those ARFs that do NOT receive ANY A/Ps. (the obvious exceptions are the contests in two regions of the country that no longer use the BOM/AP rule at their PAMPA contests).
Bob Branch said it best: “…. This means that ARFs are allowed to enter PAMPA events but NOT compete. They are “allowed” there for a “Fly-in”, NOT a competition. ….”
For years I have heard it over and over again "..... that ARFs are allowed to enter and there is No significant penalty to do so .....” . This statement, and others like it, are
DEAD WRONG!Many of us have felt all along that the BOM/AP rules had a large impact at ALL contests in the USA, but I wanted to get the ACTUAL FACTS before I made my bold statement in print. The other day, when our winter temps plunged way down into the mid 60s, I stayed inside and spent a few hours doing a little research. The numbers below come from 10 randomly selected contests that had at least 5 or more entries in each class. These 10 came from a group of 20 that I studied. These contests come from all quadrants of the USA and cover the past several years. I have more details in my SS, but below are the important high lights.
HERE ARE THE FACTS:INTERMEDIATE100% of ALL contests had their TOP THREE PLACES CHANGE THEIR ORDER BY 10 POINTS OR LESS.
80% of ALL contests: 15 POINTS or LESS covered 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, place. This means that you could out fly everyone else by 15 points and could still end up in 4th place 80% of the time! At 40% of the contests: 10 POINTS covered 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
80% of ALL contests had the 1st place winner and the 2nd place pilot with 10 POINTS or LESS separation between them. This means that at 80% of the contests the second place pilot flying an ARF would have been the WINNER of the event if the other guy had not received 11 Appearance Points THAT HE RECEIVED BECAUSE OF THE UNDERLYING BOM/AP RULE.
ADVANCED100 % of ALL contests had their TOP THREE PLACES CHANGE THEIR ORDER BY 15 POINTS OR LESS. 90% BY 10 POINTS OR LESS.
70% of ALL contests: 15POINTS or LESS covered 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. At 60% of the contests: 10 POINTS covered 1st, 2nd, and 3rd PLACE.
70% of ALL contests had the 1st PLACE WINNER and the 2nd place pilot with 10 POINTS OR LESS separation between them.
EXPERT100 % of ALL contests had their TOP THREE PLACES CHANGE THEIR ORDER BY 10 POINTS OR LESS.
90 % of ALL contests: 15 POINTS or LESS covered 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. 70% BY 10 POINTS OR LESS.
90% of ALL contests had the 1st PLACE WINNER and the 2nd place pilot with 10 POINTS OR LESS separation between them.
SOME COMMENTSSomeone else's research may show slightly different #s, but they will still be very close. They will still show that THE BOM HAS A LARGE IMPACT ON ALL CONTESTS IN THE USA! ....... So everyone,
PLEASE stop telling us that the BOM does not impact any other contest but the nat's, IT DOES!
I have another request for all those who have said this in the past. PLEASE stop saying: "..... just practice a little more and you can make up those 15 points ...." or something similar to this. ...... I know you think you are helping, and I know you don't mean it to be insulting, but it is. We have all practiced as hard as our schedules and other obligations have allowed us to practice. We have all devoted as much time, money, and effort as we can, under our individual circumstances, to this activity. This is exactly why most sports have several different classes so that people with similar levels of commitment can compete with each other. And those that are VERY committed have a top, usually called "OPEN, or UNLIMITED" CLASS, that allows the very best/MOST committed people to compete for the "top of the heap" prize. ....... Before anyone says this comment to us again, please go up to one of our World Champion American pilots when he places 2nd at a regional contest, 10 points behind the winner, and tell him: " you should have practiced more, and put more effort into this hobby, then you would have easily been able to make up those 10 points", then ask him how he feels about your comment. Then go up to the other world champion pilot that was the winner and tell him THAT YOU ARE TAKING 10 POINTS AWAY FROM HIM, moving him to 2nd place. Then ask him how he feels about it. ..... I doubt if either one will say that these 10 points had NO impact on their results.
AFTER you have talked to both of these world champions "at" the contest, then come and talk to me about these 10 "little" points!
NO $$$. To be clear, "I, and 99.9% of the others who want to see this rule changed outside the Nat's, have ZERRO commercial interest in this hobby". NO ONE is getting rich in the CL industry. In fact, the ONLY person that is making any serious $$ in the entire model industry is the young man who created and owns the "REAL FLIGHT" flight simulator program. I know many of the people in the industry (RC and CL) and most are just getting by. The few successful people are lucky to be making a middle class living, at best. .... It's like most businesses in the world of aviation: "How do you make 1 million $ in aviation? .... Start with 2 million $s. ;-)
Robert, even though this post is an effort to address your request for an explanation, I am not referring to YOU in any of the above examples of prior statements. I am trying to address the many statements made by many different people over the past several years. I am very impressed by, and grateful for, your open-mindedness on this important topic. As I said earlier, for a master builder like you to make such a reasonable statement at the start of your topic gives us all hope that we will be able to come to some reasonable compromise on this important issue.
I think that with over 12,000 ARF/ARCs (mostly ARFs) out there, it is not a "small" issue anymore. It impacts more than a small minority of CLPA flyers. I have always thought that keeping the BOM/AP rule at the Nat's and having PAMPA take the next step from allowing ARFs to enter to actually allowing them to compete equally on a level playing field by removing the BOM/AP rule from PAMPA contests nationwide would be a compromise that may make the largest % of CLPA flyers happy (As if making us CLPA flyers happy is EVER going to be possible? ). At least it might be better than the very low % of happy people in the three+ camps we have now?
Again, thank you and your "staff" for bringing us this wonderful CLPA forum. You have made it very easy for us "retreads" to come back to our roots in CL.
Regards,