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Grassroot Airplanes Rule!

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PittsDriver68

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West coast IAC director Jim Bourke did some digging into contest results and came up with the info below. Very interesting.

Best of luck,

Wes

"Hey everyone I ran some numbers for 2018 so far and they were surprising.

When "grassroots" aircraft go head to head with 6 cylinder monoplanes, they usually win!

In fact, 60% of the time across all categories the grassroots airplane is the victor.

The biggest advantage appears to be in the Intermediate category, where the grassroots aircraft wins 71% of the time (12 of 17 matchups).

In Primary the grassroots aircraft won 50% of the time (1 of 2 matchups). In Sportsman grassroots wins 54% of the time (7 of 13 matchups) In Advanced grassroots wins 64% of the time (7 of 11 matchups). In the Unlimited category there were only two matchups, neither of which were won by the grassroots aircraft.

I defined grassroots as any 4 cylinder airplane and certain 6 cylinder airplanes like the Pitts S2B. Also a plane like the Yak-52 is grassroots but to me a Yak 55 is not.

So the lesson to be learned here is that success in competition comes from practice and coaching, not from horsepower or dollars spent. Until you get to Unlimited, probably. But I think at the regional level the right 4 cylinder plane can dominate.

Food for thought.

Jim"
 

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