It has been brought to my attention that a comment that I made on this forum has upset some people. Just let me start out by saying that I have absolutely nothing against electric powered models. As a matter of fact I have flown a few and I was sufficiently impressed. Any comments that I have made in the past regarding electric were all intended to be tongue and cheek, nothing more.
 I made a comment in response to a post someone made, they stated that they predicted an electric would win this years Nats. My comment was "Don't bet on it". Apparently it was perceived that I was implying that there was some sort of bias against electrics. This could not be further from the truth. The comment I made was strictly in the spirit of competition and the only thing that I was trying to imply was that I was going to do my best to win, just as I have done for many years. An electric could very well win this Nats, but so could a PA or a ST 60, or a four stroke. Again, all I was implying was that I was going to do my best to win.
  I can assure all of you that Dave and I have done, and will do our best to run a fair, honest, and unbiased AMA Nationals.  The judges at the Nats are well trained and are told to score the pattern and nothing else. I hope this clears up any misconceptions about me or my intentions.

Derek Barry

There was NOTHING to apologize for:
I saw the comment, it was nothing, and certainly no worse than the comment that it was in reply to.
Sounds like anyone that took offense to that needs to get off of their computer and relax for a while !!

Randy Smith

I have not flown stunt competition so I am no expert.  However what I observed is that some pilots could fly a shoe box powere by a rubber band and out fly me.  So I would think that it will be close and that type of power will not matter.  It will probably, as always, come down to which pilot is on his (or her) A game.