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Old 01-28-2015, 05:25 PM
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Ironnerd Ironnerd is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: ATL
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STATIC JUDGING!!! I would not have thought of that! Awesome. But we'll need to work up some judging criterion.

Just off the top of my head, I would go with a "Lifting Body Biathlon"
1: Static Judging
2: Flight Duration

Maybe make it a "Grass Roots" competition where we just build them and fly them at our sectional launches for a couple of years, then present to NAR.

For a more "Extreme" event, we make it a Triathlon
1: Time to build a flyable X-24/HL-20/X-RV at the event starting with just parts.
2: Static Judging
3: Flight Duration
(Yes, I've gone barking mad, but we do need some fun events)

I agree on the Squirrel Works X-RV . Also "Official" Scans of the shrouds for X-24 and HL-20 need to be posted on the NAR contest flight web site - assuming we can get permission from the owners of the designs.

To be honest, it's pretty hard to mess up an X-24/HL-20. It's MUCH easier to buy the X-RV kit than it is to build from scratch, so that $10 kit saves you some time and frustration. Also, building from scratch does not save very much money over the X-RV. One thing to keep in mind is that above "B" impulse, one needs to consider some enhanced structure to prevent the dreaded fold-n-burn.

As an aside Doug, I agree on the Comanche 3. VERY cool to build and REALLY cool to fly, but it will bite you. I have seen a lot of them do the dirt dive.
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