Hi Guys,
I guess I am the guilty party who moved beyond just talking about a super seventies ( I hate that name) stunt event and I proposed that my club actually change our rules to include airplanes built through Dec. 1979.
I went back to the original name of Nostalgia to avoid confusion and Ed Ruane added 79 & our new event
"Nostalgia 79" was born.
I then went on Stunt Hanger and announced the event in order to give guys a chance to build a plane if they wanted.
Then some other guys liked the idea and Brodaks and some other clubs decided to change their event. I even heard that some clubs were already using a rolling cutoff for their nostalgia event. Who knew?
!!
I was inspired to propose a change because of an earlier thread by Randy Smith. He said that if you told someone that their 30+ year old car wasn't a "classic" you would be regarded as foolish but for some reason the rules say that a 30+ year old stunt design isn't called "classic". Randy was using way too much common sense for me to disagree.
If you think about any "nostalgia"-based event it is really more about owning and getting the opportunity to fly designs from the past that you liked or you always wanted to fly more than than it is about building the ultimate
competition machine. It is all about enjoying the airplanes and the memories that go with them for older guys and about trying the old that is "new again" for younger flyers to finally experience for the first time.
There is nothing magic about 1969 or 1979, it is all those wonderful airplanes and the memories they create within each of us that are the MAGIC, the real MAGIC.
In regards to being competitive I remember in the 1970's that several Shark 45's powered by Supertigre 46's were more than competitive against the 1970's era ST46 powered designs. This leads me to agree with Randy Smith and Brett Buck that power/prop has a lot more to do with performance than design. I haven't noticed 70's airplanes dominating the 50's-60's planes with modern power at our event so the gloomy predictions of their demise seem a little unfounded.
I have followed several threads on this topic and have come to some conclusions.
1. Don't mess with VSC or even talk about it. People just get unreasonable,nut's & On'ery at the least mention of changing anything.
2. Classic at the Nat's is run under PAMPA rules I presume, and quite honestly I think changing the PAMPA rules is so unlikely that it is akin to "tilting at windmills". It is unfortunate but I think change is unlikely. However,if some other group decided to sponsor and run Nostalgia 79 at the NATS,the possibility of having a NATS event could possibly become a reality.
3. Classic, Nostalgia 79, Old Time are all unofficial events which means except for AMA safety requirements neither the AMA or PAMPA have ANY jurisdiction over the rules a club chooses to establish for any of their own
nostalgia-based events. So, except for VSC and the NAT's PAMPA rules aren't that big of a deal for most contests.
So for example, if FCM decided to add Nostalgia 79 to their Muncie event, they don't need to follow PAMPA rules.
So guy's, there is no reason to argue because except for VSC and the NATS you & your club can have whichever event you want. no matter what PAMPA says. Guys, just enjoy the airplanes because that is the main reason for nostalgia-based events,anyway.
That is just my 2 cents.
Best Wishes,
Pat Robinson