S7 Scale Overview
S7 is undoubtedly the most challenging of the spacemodeling events held on the international level. Not only must the models be precise replicas with enormous amounts of detail and flawless workmanship, but they also must be mechanically complex enough to perform many "special effects" during flight in order to score high flight points. Special effects points are awarded for radio control, dropping boosters, heat shield separation, deploying a payload or similar operations performed by the full-size prototype. Bonus flight points are also awarded for staging and clustering, as well as for multiple parachute deployment. To implement these capabilities in a model and still maintain scale quality requires a great deal of planning, testing, and ingenuity. The maximum flight score is 250 points, out of 1,100 points possible for the event. It is not uncommon for the first few places after static judging to be separated by only a few points. The competition is only half over after static judging, and the top places can change dramatically between static and flight judging.
While it is paramount to have a full flight profile that performs according to plan, it is the static score which provides the bulk of the total points awarded. The importance of a good static score cannot be overlooked. In fact a high static score can win or lose a place for a model that does not have all the bells and whistles of the more complicated models.
What does it take to earn a high static score? A model that is accurate, exhibits quality workmanship, and is highly detailed. The level of detail on the top models must really be seen to be appreciated; photographs usually do not begin to capture the surface detail that is added to the top models - rivaling the detail on a good plastic model airplane kit.