RADIO CONTROL PYLON RACING - 2003/09

136 MODEL AVIATION
WE’RE HALFWAY THROUGH racing season, and it’s time to
seek a fresh start in better, more organized pit gear. So let’s get
moving! The poster boy for this little makeover exercise is upand-
comer John Z. Williams. John is one of the best pilots I’ve
ever seen, and he always brings fast equipment.
However, as do so many of us, he often fell short of achieving
his full potential because of poor logistics. An accompanying
photo shows John in “before” condition, attempting to extract a
clean airplane from a welter of grubby, disorganized gear.
Notice the full-sized 12-volt car battery powering the electric
starter, the hardware-store toolbox filled with door hinges and
hedge clippers, and, yes, maybe a wrench that could be made to
fit a glow plug somewhere in the bottom. And, of course, there
are the delicate battery-tester leads lying directly on the
pavement, ready for someone’s foot to render them maddeningly
intermittent.
But before you chuckle too smugly at John’s setup, take a hard
look at your own. Chances are you’re not totally optimized either.
What can be done to bring order out of pit-gear chaos? Rule One:
Take only what you need, but everything that you need, to the
starting line.
In Rule One, you may notice an inherent tension between the
“only” part and the “everything” part. You could find a broken
muffler bolt just as the starter announces, “Gentlemen, start your
engines,” yet you wouldn’t want to carry a bolt extractor and
extra bolts with you to every heat; they would be useless 99% of
the time, and you wouldn’t be able to perform major surgery
during the 60 seconds allowed for start-up.
That sort of inspection and maintenance is best done in the pits
after each heat—not on the way out to the starting line before
each heat. Therefore, the muffler-repair kit should stay with your
second-line gear. Keep it handy but not in your way.
Conversely, the proper wrench to tighten a muffler bolt should
be with you at all times. It’s small and light, so the cost (in terms
of time, energy, and potential clutter or distraction) is minimal.
Compare that with the cost of not having the wrench if you
need it—the in-flight loss of an expensive goodie and taking a
goose egg (zero points for the heat)—and the choice is made for
you. Into the pit box it goes! Buy a second one for your “main”
toolbox if you need to.
Duane Gall, 1267 S. Beeler Ct., Denver CO 80231; E-mail: [email protected]
RADIO CONTROL PYLON RACING
Before: Pit-gear makeover subject John Williams.
Is the author building an airplane or baking a cake? He outlines
these low-toxicity materials in the text.
After: With caller Gary Johnson, John Williams is no longer
organizationally challenged. The text contains tips.
Ditto for an extra glow plug and
matching wrench of every type you
typically fly. If you run Sport Quickie
(AMA event 424) with a Thunder Tiger
engine and Quickie 500 (AMA event 428)
with a Nelson or Jett, this doubles the
number of glow plugs and wrenches you’ll
need room for. But it’s better than showing
up at the starting line with a dead Nelson
plug and only a K&B Standard Long to
replace it.
Ditto again for an extra propeller and
the proper wrench(es) to tighten it.
Rule Two: No rummaging! Your pit
kit’s design should allow instant access to
the right tool, with a minimum of cords
and other obstructions to mess with.
I’m a big fan of self-contained starters
such as the one next to John in the
accompanying “after” picture. I also find
vertical storage of wrenches, propellers,
etc. preferable to pull-out drawers. For
glow plugs, consider those translucent
plastic canisters that 35mm film comes in.
You can tell at a glance what kind of plugs
are inside and how many you have.
How do you put these features
together? As an inveterate do-it-yourselfer,
I was going to try to design the ultimate pit
box and publish the plans here, but I’d be
reinventing the wheel. Besides, in a world
in which racers increasingly buy even their
airplanes ready-built, it’s unlikely that
anyone would want to scratch-build a pit
box. But there are at least two
commercially available units that I
recommend.
In traditional plywood, Matney’s
Models (10765 Victory Rd., Erie MI
48133; Tel.: [734] 848-8195; Web site:
www.matneymodels.com) offers a lasercut
assembly kit that goes together in
roughly a minute, thanks to its perfectly
matched dovetail joints. Run some gapfilling
cyanoacrylate along the seams and
you’re finished. You can easily add
vertical storage by installing a block of
medium-density Styrofoam and sticking
your screwdrivers, propellers, etc. directly
into it.
For an ABS-plastic version of the box
shown in John’s “after” photo, try the
Blackbox by USA Micro (3064 W. 12th
Ave. Ct., Broomfield CO 80020; Tel.:
[303] 466-6599; Web site: www.usamicro
inc.com/blackbox.html). It’s available in
two versions—incorporating a small 12-
volt gel-cell battery and power panel or
not—depending on your preference. Both
are designed with vertical storage in mind.
Rule Three: Make your second-line
gear as compact and well organized as
your pit box. It often helps to bring
everything you’ll need to completely
rebuild an airplane (or two) because
sometimes that’s what you end up doing.
But this is not the same as buying a
bigger truck and throwing the contents of
your workshop in the back! If you have
trouble finding something at home, you’ll
have even more trouble extricating it from
the Tossed Gear Salad that results from a
few hours on the road.
Some modelers use a large, heavy
“pirates’ chest” with folding legs that
sprout out the bottom and a folding
airplane stand that sprouts out the top. If
all of your gear is in the chest, there’s no
way you can leave a key component sitting
at home. On the other hand, the box takes a
lot of room in your vehicle, and it will
probably need its own tie-downs to keep it
from shifting and crushing something else.
Instead, consider a modular approach
consisting of six basic components that can
be stuffed into the available spaces
between, and among, your airplanes:
1) Pit box
2) Main toolbox
3) Nuts and bolts
4) Propellers
5) Fuel, pumps, etc.
6) Field chargers/power supply
To store nuts and bolts, you can select
from a variety of boxes and trays at your
local hardware store. For the main toolbox,
look around for the Storestool from
Storehorse: a division of The Lehigh
Group (2834 Schoeneck Rd., Macungie PA
18062; Tel.: [610] 966-9702; Web site:
www.lehighgroup.com).
The clever Storestool features a
removable top that doubles as a stool,
offering access from all sides and plenty of
room for those odd-sized items such as dial
calipers, bottles of after-run oil, sunscreen,
spray cleaner, an extra transmitter and/or
programming manual, etc. Thanks to
NMPRA (National Miniature Pylon Racing
Association) District 4 Vice President John
Sandusky for this tip.
Those are the basics. Assemble them as
September 2003 137
you will into your own little wagon train,
and ride off to a more successful future at
your next contest. Gear ho!
Weapons of Mass Construction: Even if
you don’t build your own models, you may
have noticed that many of the materials we
use to build, repair, and paint them are
smelly, and even dangerous. For years I’ve
wished that I had my own stand-alone
workshop building with climate control, a
paint booth, a $200 respirator, and a
contract for weekly trash pickup by the
police department’s hazardous-materials
truck.
However, as do most hobbyists, I have
to make do with the basement or the
garage. This works okay except in the
winter, when there are other family
members around ... Well, you do the math.
So lately I’ve undertaken a quest to find
substitute materials that are nontoxic, or at
least water-based. An accompanying photo
shows some of them. Following is how
they can help.
• Nelson paints. These are manufactured
by System Three and sold by Jerry Nelson
(not to be confused with the engine guy
Henry Nelson) at Nelson Hobby
Specialties (2900 S.W. Cornelius Pass Rd.
Unit 762, Hillsboro OR 97123; Tel.: [503]
259-8899; Web site: www.nelsonhobby.com).
The manufacturer takes pains to
emphasize that these paints are not “water
138 MODEL AVIATION
soluble,” but are “water-reducible.” This
means that although thinning and cleanup
are done with water rather than lacquer
thinner, they are true epoxy paints that
become waterproof and sport-fuel-proof
after they cure. Similarly, they are not
advertised as “nontoxic,” but as “low
toxicity.”
With these caveats, I have achieved a
nice finish working at night, in my
garage, during a blizzard, using an
airbrush, with no rubber gloves and just a
cheap particle mask, while my daughter
calmly watched a video in the living
room.
The Nelson paint comes with a lengthy
instruction sheet which you should read
and follow, but of course I used trial and
error and still came out okay. One thing
you must do is start with a light “mist
coat”—accelerate the cure with a hair
dryer if you like—then build it up slowly
from there. Each coat dries in minutes.
The finish is comparable to that of K&B
Super Poxy, and it can be rubbed to a
high gloss.
The Nelson primer can be mixed 1-to-
1 with cornstarch and a few drops of
distilled water to create a fine “spot
putty.” Apply it with an artist’s paint
trowel (shown in a photo). As does the
primer itself, this mixture takes a full day
to cure before sanding, but it doesn’t
crack, shrink, or stink as automotive
putties do.
• Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finish.
This stuff is toxic, so use adequate
ventilation, but at least it’s waterreducible.
Use it as a substitute for
polyester finishing resin when applying
fiberglass cloth to wood surfaces.
Sandable in a couple of hours, its weavefilling
properties can be improved with
cornstarch.
• Dap Fast ‘N Final lightweight spackling
putty. Rub it over fiberglass fuselages to
fill pinholes before priming or use it to fill
larger dents and voids. It sands easily, but
it leaves a porous surface that must be
sealed before painting.
• Baking soda. A good accelerator for
cyanoacrylate glues, it can bridge hairline
cracks or absorb the glue to form a quick,
very hard reinforcing fillet for field
repairs. Put some in a surplus squeeze
bottle with a 1⁄16- to 3⁄32-inch opening, and
it can be squirted out in little “puffs” as
needed.
• Corn starch. Substitute this for
“microballoons,” also known as glass
microspheres, to thicken epoxy resin for
fillets. Your lungs will thank you.
• Crisco vegetable shortening. This is
absolutely the best release agent for steelwire
aileron torque rods and other
applications for which spraying on
polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is impractical.
• Goo Gone citrus cleaner. You may have
to look around for this, but it’s worth the
effort. It’s made by Magic American
Corporation (23700 Mercantile Rd.,
Beachwood OH 44122; Tel.: [800] 321-
6330; Web site:
www.magicamerican.com) and is stock
item GG12-DO.
It attacks oil and adhesive tape residue
almost as well as Gumout carburetor and
brake cleaner, but without attracting a
crowd of UN weapons inspectors. It
leaves a nice sheen on the surface too.
• Kitchen Spritzer. This manually
pumped, reusable aerosol bottle from The
Pampered Chef (350 S. Rohlwing Rd.,
Addison IL 60101; Web site:
www.pamperedchef.com) allows you to
spray small quantities of PVA or other
liquids without firing up the compressor
and spray gun.
The Kitchen Spritzer doesn’t produce
as perfect a spray pattern as the spray
gun, but you can smooth out the PVA
with a sponge brush afterward. This
would also be a good method for spot
repairs using the Nelson primer, although
I haven’t had a chance to try it yet.
That’s all for now. Stay healthy, and
keep the shiny side up! MA
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