As you will have read in my last effusion in 'Speaks I am not too enthusiastic

about the treatment of free flight scale competition, particularly rubber powered, by our national body of which of course we are now a part. I was intrigued therefore to see in Bill Dennis's excellent article on scale matters in the Aeromodeller insert in AMI, that it has been suggested that free flight rubber powered scale should be dropped from the Nats at Barkstone due to falling entries, though this will not happen this year due to a heroic effort by Nick Bosdet to revitalise interest and therefore, entries in this class.

As I have said previously I don't feel that the location or the rules used at the Barkstone Nats are conclusive to realistic expansion of interest in free flight rubber scale competition and therefore in the class generally. I have with the agreement of SAM 1066 decided to scrap the present Wallop Bowl competition at the SAM champs and replace it with a rubber powered scale comp to Flying Aces rules. These rules are not dissimilar to the Masefield rules, but there is no bonus for short wingspan, the max flight time is 120 seconds best flight of three, and there is a judged scale score. In addition the flying score is made up of one point for each of the first 60 seconds, half a point for the next 30, and a quarter point for the rest. So you can only score 82.5 points for flight.

If you do not have a copy of the Flying Aces rule book, if you put 'Flying Aces Club Europe' into Google or Yahoo on your computer you will find an excellent site entitled FACE run by Bernard Guest which contains a section devoted to the rules, but basically the lowest creature is a high wing single engined monoplane which gets no bonus and so must rely on a good scale mark to beat anything else. As I have found at Geneseo over the years, a multi- engined model with a reasonable performance usually wins, but not always, so start building! Having said all the above, there is of course always the Peterborough meeting which in the recent past has been a showcase for some of the best free flight rubber powered scale, but it is a small site, as is Old Warden for the Masefield hence the bonus points for small size and the low max. The rolling acres of Wallop will give devoted scalies the scope to really blossom! If anyone wants to know more about Flying Aces Rules, or has no computer, please get in touch. I should also be grateful for a couple volunteer judges !

Lindsey Smith