[secant0give]

Be careful with the words. It says that it is a park flyer if ALL of the following applies. So if ANY on the list doesn't apply, it is not a park flyer (and can be used in a gold test).

Yes that is correct. I asked Bob carpenter to clarify this for me when I was doing the instructors course. As long as one of the criteria is exceeded or met then it's OK to use this model in the tests for bronze and gold wings. For example Smuzz's Trojan would qualify on power alone and probably on other counts as well.

There is a typo on the wing loading figure, the .83 oz per sqft is way wrong, on the light side. If you take that figure everything qualifies.

I think the park flyer definition was put in place by the MAAA for another reason, I don't know very much about it so I won't speculate on their purpose. I think the spec was then tacked on to the MAAA Wings MOP later.

The idea of "gold wings standard" is that someone who has obtained it, can fly to fly at a level of competency where they can enter competitions and fly in public displays with out causing and distress or distraction to other competitors, judges on lookers, them selves etc.

Note that this is "gold wings standard" and doesn't necessarily mean "gold wings rated". The gold wings standard pertains to a pilot being competent with the aircraft used for the particular display/competition. That's why regardless of weather you have or haven’t got a "gold wings rating" The person who is responsible for any public display would want to see you fly that plane or planes before the day of the display.

The "gold wings rating" is the achievement of being able to safely fly, the designated manoeuvres, with a plane that meets the criteria set out in the MOP. The manoeuvres don't have to be perfect, just recognisable and safely flown.

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As an after thought........

I think the idea of tacking on the park flyer specs was to ensure that when giving out a “gold wings rating” the pilot was capable of holding his own with a reasonably heavy and fast landing aircraft.
The original MOPs were written long before light and easy to fly electric foamies were ever thought possible. Years ago it was almost unthinkable that an electric model would have the performance to fly the gold wings manoeuvres. Back then you would have needed a 46 sized ugly stick weighing around 2Kgs (for a light one) as a minimum.
I think the idea is an attempt to maintain the standard of airmanship to the original gold wings level of competency.

There are other factors that come in to it, especially here, where we fly at McCoy field. Back years ago a lot of people would not have thaught it possible to successfully fly at such a small field, let alone learn to fly. Yet we think little of it even to the point where landings in a decent cross wind are common place. So in a way things have changed and different skills have come to be needed.

Flying the gold wings manouvers with a bit bigger, heavier model, will only improve the skills of the pilot by doing so, when they achieve that rating they will feel that they have earned it propperly, in the traditional sence. I think it's worthwhile to think about it this way.