OK, heres a few thoughts that I have been having regarding the current level of development in the featherweight class. As you all know the speed of development of feathers in the last 2 years has been nothing short of astounding, we have 2 or 3 HP spinners that carry more energy than some former heavyweights and pushers that can put the better part of 2KW of drive on the deck added to fact that some of these machines carry so much titanium or hardox armour they are virtually indestructible.
Whilst this development at the top level is to be encouraged, as it can only lead to better machines and spectacular fights, were does that leave anyone who has a real desire to become involved in feathers for the first time? If I were looking to build my first feather with limited knowledge and budget and I saw the likes of Little Spinner / Scorpion Evilution doing their thing or Pillow Torque or KR3 push a machine into the arena sidewall so hard that it either flies straight out of the arena or is crushed so badly that it will not run again without major surgery, my first thought would be to hell with that, I cant compete with those machines so why waste my time
Before you all start, yes I have been guilty of developing one or two nasty machines and on the odd occasion I have taken advantage of a less well built robot, but that is precisely the reason why I am proposing the following...

An entry level featherweight class.

These are not hard and fast rules, just my thoughts as to what may work for new builders, I would welcome all constructive comments. If a concessus can be reached I would be happy to write up a formal set of build rules and propose them to the event organisers and subject to their approval, to the FRA for ratification.

1: Current FRA safety rules to apply I.E. must have a removable link, power light, failsafes, use 40Mhz FM , etc.
2: No stored kinetic energy (spinning) weapons.
3: Any pneumatic system to be low pressure only.
4: No titanium or other exotic materials.
5: Hardox will be permitted.
6: No rare earth magnet motors (Astroflight, Magmotors, Thingap motors, etc.)
7: Type or make of speed controllers will not be restricted.
8: Batteries to be SLA, Ni-Cd or Ni-Mh. Li-poly will not be permitted.
9: Should there be a financial limit placed on construction of the robot? (Say £250 excluding radio equipment)
10: These machines to fight within their own class, but will be permitted to fight in the top level if the builder feels brave enough! But no machines from the top level will be allowed to fight in this entry class.

Please feel free to discuss.

Geoff.