I’ve been watching the FAI competition with great interest from viewing photos & short video clips on this site to YouTube videos.  I figured Argyrios’s incredible Ryan SCW made out of aluminum & riveted together just like the full scale aircraft would be a shoo-in.  But then I see this amazing Grumman F3F-2 with its complex folding reaction gear, then I see this colorful Albatros, Japan’s Avro AV-504 with its turnbuckles safetied just like the full scale ones & that fuselage lacing plus a video close up of their presentation showing “Proof of colours”  via paint swatches….. & the list goes on.

How on earth do these static  judges differentiate their points?  Each model is nearly impossible to separate.  

Do they tell the contestants how & why the contestant’s scores reflect their judgment? 

As amazing as the plane is, it still has to match the documents, so you get point separation there.  

And then there is the old Dave Platt rule: It has to fly! Which may be a bigger deal this year than usual. 

They are not competing against each other either. They are competing against themselves.  One plane might look better than another, but that does not guarantee victory.