Scioly.org

eyeball138 wrote: What should be used for the opaque surface on the back of the plane?

To meet the opaque rule last year i colored my 1/32 balsa ruddder(fin) that measured 3.5 x 3cm with markers. It was pretty cool becuase i used school colors.

I have the rules infront of me and can't find the opaque rule. Can someone please tell me what line it's on becuase i think for this year they added dimentions?

Here's a picture
Here's another link if the first one didn't work

Construction paper is HEAVY. It's going to make up the bulk of the mass of your plane. You won't get good results with it.

Most people prefer mylar. It is light, which is it's main advantage. In the kit planes, you had to use it, or you'd be much heavier than you wanted to be.

In the planes I designed myself, I used Japanese Tissue. I made the rest of the plane light enough that I was still underweight using tissue. Tissue, in my opinion, is easier to work with (it doesn't cling to everything). Plus, if the mylar tears, it spreads, and it's not always fixable. Tissue tends to only tear a small amount, and is much easier to repair.

In other competitions, such as F1D, where the planes have to be extremely light, ultrafilm wins hands down. But in WS, you can really use either, as long as you use it correctly.

The stab is generally small enough that the difference between the weight of Japanese Tissue vs. Ultrafilm would not be very much. So you could do the stab with tissue and the wing with film.

That's what I did with WS last year, although the opaque rule was on the rudder. I had a tissue rudder and film wing/stab on one plane, tissue wing/stab on another, and a film wing and tissue stab on another.

Not that it would have mattered, because my regional judges were so ingenious that they felt it unnecessary to read the rules and they knew nothing of the opaque vertical surface rule. So we got beat by three planes that should have been on tier 2. And when we appealed, they rejected us, saying the judge had no prior knowledge of the rule and because the first planes were allowed to fly as is without the competitors being informed that they violated the rules, so they could not enforce it. Is that ridiculous or what?

Oh, and I had my school logo drawn on the wing of one of my planes, and a name across the stab. It was awesome looking.

Obviously, I can see that construction paper was not the best move...

Last year I thought that you were not allowed to make the surface opque with markers (rule clarifications for BLG.)

Does anyone have the rules for Wright Stuff yet? For Division B, not C

Both the Division B and C rule books are available from the Science Olympiad store at soinc.org.

I'm still having some trouble on finding the rules. are the rules the "Trial Events", because the Scrambler isn't on there. Also are the "Trial Events" the final rules or can they be changed later on? My coach said they didn't get the final rules yet.

dudeincolorado wrote:I personally think tissue paper would work better because it comes in different colors and you need it to be a bright color because to the visible wing rule (the one where the wings have to be clearly visible or you get marked down) and it hard to find and work with plastic film

ya that's what I think...I''l probably use it because its light weight

Yeah after learning that construction paper was not a good idea...tissue paper is good. The thing that I'm not sure about however is that is tissue paper completely opaque? I'm sure some judges are leniant about it but if theres a particularly strict one, you could get put in the second tier.

eyeball138 wrote: that you were not allowed to make the surface opque with markers (rule clarifications for BLG.)

I think we were allowed. I think i remember that my coach had to check the even coordinater to make sure be we were allowed. And does anyone know the line the rule is on?

Wright Stuff rules are NOT on-line this year. If you find a set under trial events, those are last years, don't use them! You have to have a rule book to get them. If you are on a team that has paid its dues, your coach should have gotten 15 copies, insist on seeing and reading them for yourselves! If you are not on a team, you can buy the book for something like $8 from the National SO website www.soinc.org

On tissue and opaqueness. LAST years clarifications specifically stated tissue complied so long as it wasn't white. But check this years rules, I think the opaque requirement was dropped. I'll check when I get home to confirm unless someone beats me to it.

Of course event supervisors are volunteers who really do try to do there best. But people being peolpe this sometimes means variations in rules interpretations. But non-white tissue as opaque should be low risk.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI