Altered Rules for Havard Invitational

[BalsaFerret]

Apparently the people at Harvard have decided to revise the rules for WS like Mass. Scioly does every year with "Wrong Stuff" (as janky as it can be). Besides official clarification from the event runners themselves, I wanted to see if you guys can make something from these "slightly" altered rules:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... -Rules.pdf

It seems that they most likely just resorted to last year's rules with the 35 cm tandem planes. They completely crossed out the stab section in 3.d., and because of that, I'm wondering if there's any way I could bend the rules to make it a biplane tandem (double wings in front along with one wing with same area in back as stab). I might consider this as they don't clarify anything other than the changes, and it is possible to defend such a claim.

edit: word choice

[coachchuckaahs]

This modified rules still has the "biplane" comment in Rule #1, so a biplane would be legal it would appear.

Last year I believe had a 7cm chord, so the chord is larger than last year. Therefore not a direct drop-in replacement.

They also crossed out the prop limitation, so like last year, the prop is unlimited.

I would guess these planes, under a 40' ceiling, should be able to exceed 6 minutes.

Coach Chuck

[BalsaFerret]

This modified rules still has the "biplane" comment in Rule #1, so a biplane would be legal it would appear.

Last year I believe had a 7cm chord, so the chord is larger than last year. Therefore not a direct drop-in replacement.

They also crossed out the prop limitation, so like last year, the prop is unlimited.

I would guess these planes, under a 40' ceiling, should be able to exceed 6 minutes.

Coach Chuck

Ok, thanks for your input Coach Chuck. Just to clarify, the tandem design would be allowed as they don't specify the stab dimensions?

[coachchuckaahs]

I cannot speak for Harvard. However, last year the rule was clear, as were FAQ's, that the wing was the "single largest surface". These mods do not say that. But the removal of the stab limits would imply last year's rules.

If it were me, and I went with a biplane/tandem, I would make the stab incrementally (measurably, but barely so) smaller, such that it could not bee seen as the largest surface, since you have two wings (biplane). If you choose a monoplane tandem, I would go with last year's interpretation, which means either "wing" is the wing.

But again, this is a different set of rules, not governed by SO, and so these are only my thoughts after a brief look.

Coach Chuck