Trostle referred to that infinitely subjective idea of "spirit of the event," when he opined that retracts were not appropriate. Everything follows, far as I can tell, from his judgement that retracts are not in the "spirit of the event." Seems to me many would judge electric power to be not be "in the spirit of the event." Yet. The dental drills are a flyin' in Classic and Old Time. Keith is making an opinion. Nothing hard and fast there. I would check with the CDs where you intend to fly. Get an opinion from them. If they judge that to be sufficiently in the spirit, they can state that is so.
Granted, I am stating an opinion. The rules for both Classic and OTS speak of "the spirit of the event". I will stand by my "opinion" that retracts for Classic are not within "the spirit of the event" and I think some, maybe not all, ED's would not allow that. Now, we can go back in history and find that there was an article in the British Aeromodeller magazine in 1949 for electric powered* control line models. So, there is justification, regardless of the rules or opinionated interpretation of the rules, to use electric power for our toy airplanes, even for OTS models. I think it is fortunate that electric has not evolved into the OTS circles. Evolution has given us electric power in the Classic event to be more or less accepted even though many still feel that it is not within "the spirit of the event". I can imagine that it will only be a matter of time that electric OTS models will be accepted much the same way it has been accepted in Classic. Now, we can go to the question about tuned pipes in Classic. It has been done, in fact a piped Chizler was flown at VSC some time ago after a survey of some pilots asking if they would object. No "formal" objections were made among those competing, but there was some "discontent" and that particular arrangement was subsequently never flown again in competition. I think to this day, that most will consider or have the "opinion" that a piped system is not in "the spirit of the event". There has not been any migration to allow or to use pipes in the Classic event.
The Classic rules are somewhat convoluted and not faithfully adhered to in several areas. In one case, the rules state:
"It is expected that contestants will comply with the spirit of the event and enter only qualifying models which as closely as possible accurately reflect the aerodynamic layout and appearance of the original. In order to assist the judges, it is suggested that contestants provide reasonable proof that the model presented was actually flown during the period of eligibility as defined in Paragraph 1, and that the model accurately represents the model as flown during that period."
I have never seen contestants "provide reasonable proof that [his] model presented was actually flown during the period of eligibility" in a Classic contest though the rules encourage such.
In my "opinion" that does not leave much room for justification to use retracts when retracts were not used on the design prior to 1970 though electrics are now commonly used in Classic stunt. Granted, use of electrics do not change the "aerodynamic layout and appearance of the original".
In another case, the Classic rules provide for a concept called "fidelity points".
"Fidelity points from 0 to 20 will be awarded for fidelity to the concept of the original design and confirmation of the spirit of the event. Obvious and/or gross distortions of the original design of any eligible model in order to gain an actual or perceived performance advantage over the original design will also be subject to reduction of fidelity points. Again the decision as to the level of distortion and the penalty appropriate for such will be at the discretion of the on-site official and not subject to dispute." Fidelity points have seldom been awarded, if at all, in the Classic Stunt event. Award of such fidelity points would either require considerable documentation by the contestant or require vast amounts of detailed knowledge/awareness by the "on-site" officials of what was flown prior to 1970. I have seen some cases where what could be called "stretches" of the rules in Classic which have been handled by deduction of what could have been received by the appearance judging.
Some purists feel that the "spirit of the event" should require only period engines, period wheels, period materials, period finishing methods and on and on. Some who participate in OTS enjoy doing things this way, but that does not dictate how most choose to participate in the event. I will admit, the demarcation between what is and what is not within the spirit of the event gets fuzzy.
Mr. Moritz can play with words all he wants, but in my "opinion" retracts on a Classic ship that did not originally employ retracts is still definitely not within the "spirit of the event".
Keith
*Note: The March 1949 Aeromodeller magazine had an article for "Electric 'U' Control". A battery was held by the pilot and current run down insulated lines to the electric motor in the model. Probably not very practical, but it was done.
Topic: Electric retracts for RSM Shark 45? (Read 7478 times)