Prop mods or damage repair?

From: Bill Gowen <b.gowen_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2006 15:54:21 -0000

Bob
I think you are being way out of bounds as an Event Coordinator if you
DQ a competitor for having a glue joint in the prop spar. Props break.
The Ikaras break and the blue or gray plastic props break. It should
not be against the rules to repair a broken prop. I rarely use the cold
twisting method on Ikaras because the material breaks so easily.

Many teams have very limited budgets of both time and money. It is
often necessary to do repairs on something that breaks instead of
replacing it. Also consider that some teams still use the blue or gray
P30 props scraped and reshaped down to a usable weight. In my
experience it normally took a kid 4 hours to make one of these props.
It was not unusual for one to get broken during the process, Making
them start over at that point is ridiculous in my view.

> Where in that wording do you see an approval for breaking and re-
gluing the
> prop spar? Are props with broken and re-glued spars "commercially
> available"? As co-event director for the Rochester, NY, Wright Stuff
> regional contest (which I have been for the past ten years or so), I
would
> DQ any model with cracked and re-glued spars in a heartbeat. I
believe it's
> been made clear in earlier messages that Ikara prop spars can be
twisted
> using heat to change the blade pitch, with no breakage being needed.
I've
> changed pitch simply by grasping the plastic spar with two pairs of
needle
> nose pliers and carefully twisting in whatever change was needed.
>
Received on Tue Dec 05 2006 - 08:03:10 CET