[BigBird]

TeamFlatout,
Your living in a dream if you think that your field cannot be lost. There are many reasons you could loose any field. Noise is without question #1 right now.
I must confess that I was a stubborn convert to cans mainly due to the simplicity of standard mufflers. I build a 40% Carden 330 in 04 and put MTW's in it. That was the best move ever. I have an AW 260 35% with stock mufflers that I cring to fly because it so damn loud. There is no good excuse for not running/ self policing sound at this time. If we don't quite down the places to fly will be lost faster than ever. Granted a lot of field losses have to due with towns growing around them. I'm positive that many of those places could have nursed at least one to two more years out of a site if they were were not as loud. Here are some of the excuses and answers to why people need to hush and lump it. Weight penalty/ MTW's weigh 1.25 pounds more than stock mufflers. Giving the mounting a large allowance of .75 pounds you add 2 pounds over standard diverters. On a 40 pound airplane that is only 5% of the total weight. The weight of standard mufflers is 2.5% of the total. So basicly your telling me you can't give up 2.5% of the total weight of your airplane that has 2:1 power to weight ratio? That one doesn't hold any water does it. Granted if you have a pig adding weight will not help the wing loading. But that doesn't matter if you have no where to fly it. Next excuse is they don't fit. There are 100's of diffrent can/header combos that will get them into just about anything. A Carden Cap is one of the toughest due to the low wing placement. MTW has 110k that are shorter and fatter and slide right in. Just because you buddy has a set that won't fit does not mean there is nothing that will fit. Throttle response is not as clean/ First try making the throttle linkage have some resolution. Temptation is smiling right now. If your ATV on the throttle is not at least 130% both ways the linkage is garbage. This is true with any engine regardless what muffler/pipes it has. If that still isn't clean enough fire up that 1200 dollar Tx and turn on the throttle curve. A lot of the midrange claims are due to the fact the sound is less so you think the engine is not putting out the thrust.
I know this will stir up some crap but it is time we do something now. I don't care if you like it or not we have to get the noise down or quit flying at the sites that are reasonably close to where you live.
BB