Counting myself as a newcomer, relatively speaking. I keep reading and applying what I read from my venerable elders in PA (yes, you Brett). This applies to appearance points. Fortunately, as Brett points out, at local competitions there is a small change due to appearance points. And, as a new comer, I was delighted to have beaten my dad at VSC two years ago on flight score, just not on the scoreboard because I was borrowing another person's plane. After all, neither of us were taking home hardware.
However, it did get me wanting to revisit the building board to rectify this for future situations. This is part of the sport which I delightfully accept as the next challenge, because I suck at painting. I have several akromasters and other such ilk which I built for the sole purpose of figuring out how to put monocote or fabric on a wing, how to paint and sand, etc. And just like going out and practicing fifteen foot pullouts from wingovers, I mean, five foot pullouts, I too must practice how much primer, how much paint, how much clear coat, etc., and practice I shall.
If I didn't like it, I'd stick with borrowed planes, but I DO like it. What fun is a hobby you master in ten years?
David
p.s. I just watched the beginning of my nats video where people stood in line with such a wide variety of hand crafted aircraft waiting to be judged. For some competitors, THIS IS THE NATS--Presenting your personally labored over aircraft for judging. I tried to imagine everyone standing around with nearly identically molded aircraft coming from somewhere else, with only variations in color schemes. That would just be stupid.
Just listen to modern pop music where songs are crapped out from song writing factories, given to artists, and have no depth or soul. Do you like it? Or would you take, "God only Knows," by the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson? Point being, you can fly somebody else's planes and have a lot of fun, but it isn't a hobby anymore. Europe needs to move into the past which is really the future. Because even with its faults, appearance points make this a true hobby and discipline.