The stooge line failed one other time this yr practicing the beginners pattern, I think I just skipped the over head eights .So sadly I didn't really learn anything from both times now that you mention it. But I do plan to fail proof the line now. Hopefully next time I'll stop and fix the problem, sometimes you can't fix stupid...
It's a process
What is FAI?
PAMPA contests are strictly AMA right?
In this context, this means FAI stunt rules, which are used for World Championships and the Team Trials, and essentially nowhere else in the USA. They are used for foreign contests. The primary difference that matters here is how the flights are timed, and the fact that you get 7 minutes from engine start, instead of 8 minutes from the hand signal. The scoring is different but (so far...) the maneuvers are all the same and the conduct of the flight is the same with one very minor exception.
"PAMPA" contests use the conventional AMA rules (AMA official events 323-326), usually straight out of the rule book, with the rare and unfortunate exception that some East Coast contests omit appearance points.
I included the comment because other people read this thread, too, and many people in the US have massive confusion about what the differences between FAI and conventional rules are - and it amounts, from the pilot's perspective, to the difference in the flight timing. It's much more critical to get the stuff we are talking about here correct in FAI. Otherwise, and to your good fortune, no one in the USA really needs to know about the FAI or the FAI stunt rules, until you want to try to make the WC Team.
The FAI is the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the self-appointed arbiters of all things in "world" aviation full-scale to model. Not surprisingly, it was started/was an outgrowth of early French aviation enthusiasts clubs.
"World Records" are issued by them for anything that has the word "airplane" in it. Neil Armstrong had to go get himself an FAI sporting license in order to be recognized as the first man on the moon by foreigners, for example, and they recognized Yuri Gagarin as the first man in space*. They don't consider some of the X-15 space flights to have been "real" space flights because they exceeded the recognized (but arbitrary) altitude threshold of 50 statute miles, but not the "FAI" requirement of 62 statute miles (the equally arbitrary 100 Km)
The FAI is a collection of "international aero clubs". For the USA, this is the NAA, the National Aeronautic Association, which covers all forms of aviation from full scale to models. The AMA is a subset of the NAA, for example, as is the IAC (International Aerobatics Club) and some others.
As it turns out the NAA is *by far* the largest National Aero Club in the FAI, and the AMA is *by far* the largest subset of the NAA, by orders of magnitude. So, the AMA is FAR AND AWAY the largest distinct section of the FAI.
To further confuse the situation, PAMPA is a "special interest group" of the AMA. So as a hierarchy:
FAI
NAA
AMA
PAMPA
IMAC
LSF
IRCHA
...
IAC ( International Aerobatics Club)
BFA (Balloon Flyers of America)
...
French Aero Club
...
Canadian Aero Club
MAAC
....
etc Brett
*the issue of FAI "spaceflight" records is particularly ridiculous and illustrative. The USA provides astronaut wings to anyone who goes above the almost entirely arbitrary altitude of 50 miles. The FAI chose the equally arbitrary 100 KM (62 miles), and later came up with the "Karman line" that is calculated from standard atmosphere parameters t justify it - which just happens to, through random luck that the universe apparently approves of, 100 Km, to justify it. The difference is negligible from the standpoint of aviation, there's no consequential air at either altitude .
Also, well before the fact, the FAI had decided that to be a "true" spaceflight, the astronaut had to launch from the ground and stay with the spacecraft all the way back to the ground. Why they felt it necessary to define it that way, who knows, it's not like any of the other FAI member nations were doing anything at all to achieve it. Anyway, the USSR, being a proper "international" (read European) power, of course got all their cosmonauts including Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov FAI sporting licenses so they were "official" participants by FAI standards. As far as anyone can tell, no one in the USA bothered with that, "cowboys" that we are, although it's possible that some of the Mercury 7 were FAI members by extension of NAA or AMA membership.
So, off goes Gagarin, first man in space. Of course, the FAI observers were nowhere to be found (and weren't invited) to his flight. Turns out, Gagarin (and later Titov) both ejected from their Vostok capsules because if they stayed with the capsule, they would probably be killed or heavily injured in the *far too hard* landing on the ground. It wasn't possible to meet the FAI rule of staying with your craft, so the ever-lovable USSR lied to the FAI about it and said they did, who was going to say different? So, technically, they hadn't met the FAI standard and didn't make an "official" space flight.
Next up, month later, Alan Shepard. He exceeded both the standard 50 miles and the FAI 62 miles, landing with the capsule. So, the "real" first man in space, an FAI hero, right? Oops, he doesn't have an FAI sporting license? Disqualified.
Later, Joe Walker gets to 57 miles in the X-15. Less than 100 KM, non, disqualified.
Of course, the real answer (which is the one the world currently goes with) is that ALL of these were "official" flights, the FAI rules be damned, they ALL went to space, Yuri Gagarin was first, it "counts", and the world moved on without the FAI sanction. You still get pissy little arguments about the X-15 flights above the threhold but below 100 Km, but for the most part the right thing was done - without FAI input....