Although not involved in comp flying these days, the last advice I've heard going around here is that if you don't have a $4000 model you may as well not compete. Now that's encouraging to a diminishing stable of modellers following F2b here in OZ!
That's another example of the sort of self-destructive nonsense that all the "stunt experts" seem to dispense on a regular basis. Several people jumped all over me the other day for pointing out that issues that are non-existent or trivial shouldn't be incorporated into your plan. At best it's a waste of time, at worst, it's will completely cripple your efforts.
In stunt, you *very rarely* get beat by the other pilots. Almost always, you *beat yourself* for a variety of reasons. It's particularly true when you are not at the Paul/David level, almost anyone has the physical capability to fly just as well as they do, and anything short of that is entirely, completely, 100% under the control of the pilot. All these other things are merely excuses.
From my own experience, I have lost more contests than almost anyone here, many by less than 5 points. Like the 2008 NATs, where I lost on the last flight of the day by 1.25 points. I got a very good score, but made a few mistakes that I could clearly see, and the judges could clearly see and scored appropriately. The reason was that I got over-confident with a big lead, my concentration wandered, and made just enough more mistakes to be overtaken at the end. That was ENTIRELY under my control, it wasn't the judges, it wasn't the sound of my airplane, it wasn't the color I painted the airplane. It was one Brett William Buck losing focus and making mistakes, nothing else.
The Shark is a very good airplane and for what you would have to do to replicate it, cheap. You sure aren't going to see me build a equivalent airplane for someone for a mere $4000. But it is clearly not the best, and the plans for better airplanes like the Impact have been around for a long time, and the article will tell you *exactly* what you need to do. Yes, any airplane takes substantial skill to construct to the quality necessary, but it's not beyond anyone's capability.
Not to be pedantic, but people need to worry about what *they* are doing, not what other people do. If the score it not what you want, then the solution is to fly better (with all that entails). That's far from simple to achieve, but it's certainly a simple concept.
I know that almost no one will pay any attention, and continue to speculate about all this stuff. There will soon be a thread about the Grays from Zeta Reticuli manipulating the judges to prefer pilots with spindly bodies and gigantic heads, or something similar. But maybe someone will actually believe it and take advantage.
Brett