RichD

If I understand the rules correctly, you must have a pilot and instrument panel in your cockpit. Does the pilot have to be lifelike? or can wiley cyote sit in there? (not saying I'd put him there, but you get the idea) Also, can the canopy be tinted smoke grey and the pilot still be viewable?

Thanks,
RichD

Silent-AV8R

Rule 5.5 reads:

5.5 A realistic three-dimensional human pilot and viewable instrument panel shall be appropriately installed in all Scale Aerobatic aircraft. (A one (1) percent flight score penalty will be assessed for non-compliance).

This means either/or by the way. You must have BOTH in order NOT to be penalized. And it's clear that Wiley Coyote ain't going to cut it.

Having said that, many contests ignore this rule and do not apply the penalty. It is a nonsense rule that has nothing to do with precision scale aerobatics as far as I can see. It is a holdover from the days when having a scale pilot involved adding weight to the plane and the rule was intended to account for that. We no longer have this problem.

You can argue that it makes the plane look more scale, and that's OK. Just tell me why you'll then allow a plane to fly without wheelpants. You hardly ever see a scale aerobatic plane without pants, Yaks and Sukhois aside. But in the end it has nothing to do with the precision of the flight or the performance of the plane.

Add to that how few "really" are scale and it makes it all the more silly. Absurdly enough I have seen a tiny Williams Pilot figure in a 35% plane and that plane was counted as complying with the rule. Go figure.

Check with the CD of contests that you plan to fly at to see what they intend to do about enforcing the rule.

famousdave

My Feedback: (61)

I agree with Aresti... this is a rule that is seldom enforced... although most flyers have pilots... I guess I will find out as I plan on flying Basic this year and all my planes have blacked out cockpits with no pilot.... I think its a lame rule myself...

1% isn't going to hurt me either even if they did enforce it

DP

RichD

I have actually read that rule before, but the word human was missed, my fault there.

and I am like you Desertpig, starting in basic this year, I very seriously doubt a 1% decrease in points is going to kill me.

I like the looks of a dark tinted canopy myself.... so I think I will paint the cockpit black, and tint the canopy. Thats the way I want it too look

PaulBK

since basic allows any aircraft, the rule does not apply to the class. The rule is supposed to apply to the upper classes. as bill said, despite the rhetoric, few CD's pay any real attention to it - which saves them from getting sucked into a meaningless debate as to whether a cockpit (that thing that is supposed to be under the canopy) - is realistic.

another interesting argument is the unintended result of impressive judging on enforcement of the rule. The inflated scores that define Impression judging create a closer field than might actually be the case if the scores were more accurately determined - a point that i am willing to bet that every IMAC judging school has never addressed. the other problem is that no one has ever figured out what the rule means - yeah, Wiley Coyote might not cut it, but neither does a 30% pilot in a 40% airplane, or some of other bizarre interpretations that exist. Ignore it, we did.