Last summer at the St Louis scale contest I was told that sliding line clips (see photo) were not legal at AMA contest. Is this true?  Also my Extra 300 weighs 8 lb +.  With the 10 G pull test rule does this mean I have to pull test 80 lb or is their a max?  I believe the airplane can do it but I am not sure I am man enough to pull 80 lbs. 

John, check out the rule book on the AMA web site. If your model is 8.00# the pull test is 6 g, at 8.01# it drops to 5 g. Check the line length requirements too, that's something that I had not noticed during the pull test emergency rules changes a year or so ago.

If the connectors are illegal, I have never been able to find the citation. And I have flown a lot of "illegal" scale flights.

Thanks!  My model is over 8 lb  Last time I weighed it it came in at 8 lb 14 Oz.  50 lb pull test ain't no big deal - that why it weighs over 8 lb.    

I am not a big fan of the slide claps clips but the Brodak snap clips are hard to disconnect.  Some one should invent a tool to remove the buggers. 

The slide clips may be banned in some Speed and Racing events, but they're OK in everything else. 

In the MANY disasterous crashes we have in Combat, those clips DO straighten out in some cases, but only in collisions that doesn't leave anything to fly away.  If we used bulletproof clips, we would just break more lines and leadouts in this type of dustup.

In reallity the only times I ever seen the slide clips fail, is because the person usually forgot to close them to begin with.  Watched a brad new stunter go in on it's first flight because of that.  The other clip was about to straighten out when the plane went in.   I use the scissor clips because I think they are safer.  DOC Holliday

There won't be many legal entries left if all the competators are required to produce hard documentation for every item in the control system.  Most of the stuff is sold by a few well-trusted suppliers who provide neither paperwork nor packaging.

I venture to say that if one contestant that was disallowed under that "rule", he would be well within his rights to demand that all others produce documentation for their clips and gizmos.

Better to forget that business and let the pull test do it's job.

If we're about to allow 23.9 ounce stunters to fly on .008" line and Fast Combat on fish line, slider clips are the least of our troubles.

There won't be many legal entries left if all the competators are required to produce hard documentation for every item in the control system.  Most of the stuff is sold by a few well-trusted suppliers who provide neither paperwork nor packaging.

I venture to say that if one contestant that was disallowed under that "rule", he would be well within his rights to demand that all others produce documentation for their clips and gizmos.

Better to forget that business and let the pull test do it's job.

If we're about to allow 23.9 ounce stunters to fly on .008" line and Fast Combat on fish line, slider clips are the least of our troubles.

Why do you put rule in quote marks?  The rule is the rule - has been since at least the early '70's - it is also quite simple to interpret.  The sliding clips are not adequate for some pull tests -- the burden of proof is on the contestant -- if you bring a profile carrier plane to the circle that weighs more than 2.5 lbs, you cannot use the sliding clip type connectors.  If you bring a combat plane to a match, you can.

As for the competitor demanding anything, it is not his call.  If the event staff and judges are familiar with the ratings on the various devices, they are well within THEIR rights to rely on that knowledge.

I've never had to disallow any competitor in Navy Carrier because they all knew the rule.  But if I had seen that type of connector I would have double-checked the required pull test and then done what the rule requires.  Pull test or no pull test, as the ED or CD it's MY liability on the line.

I merely posted because there were several posts that indicated a lack of knowledge about where in the rule book certain paragraphs are located - yours included.  Also, I wanted to emphasize that no connectors  (other than fishing swivels) are specifically banned in any event - only that there are some circumstances where they are inadequate to meet the requirements of the "rule".