Radio Control Pylon Racing -- 2004/03

136 MODEL AVIATION
SPECIAL EDITION: My report on the 2003
Nationals (Nats), which was inadvertently
omitted from the December 2003 issue
because of a production error, was published
in the January 2004 issue. So we interrupt our
regular programming to bring you this special
feature. This month I’ll provide a more
complete answer to the spectator’s question
that I mentioned in the Nats coverage; it was
basically, why do we do this?
Why should an up-and-coming, perhaps
slightly bored, sport flier leave his or her
routine of drilling holes in the sky to hit the
road and attend a racing meet? Why should a
club consider including a race in its schedule
of events for the upcoming season?
I’ll start with the individual flier’s point of
view.
1) It’s fun. Of course this is the first
consideration. You have many choices of how
to spend your precious leisure time. If you’re
already a Radio Control (RC) pilot, chances
are that you won’t be drawn away to pull the
handle on a slot machine or raise petunias.
Racing provides an amplified version of the
thrill you already get from flinging your eager
craft through footless halls of air.
So why not just enter a fun-fly? Agreed,
that adds something extra as well. If you’ve
never tried any sort of competition, you
should start there, at least to develop grace
under pressure. Anybody can start an engine
in 60 seconds when nobody’s paying
attention, but it’s another matter when there’s
a clock ticking and all eyes are on you.
Succeeding at this provides a little “Aha!”
moment all by itself.
Add three other pilots with their engines
blazing away on the starting line, and the
anticipation mounts. What will happen next?
Will your caller launch your airplane straight
and true? Will you be the first one to reach the
far pylon? Will you have to steer around
someone who had a tight wheel or a
flameout?
Once in the air, the real fun begins. Then
you’re in charge of a high-performance
machine in head-to-head competition! Never
mind that it may be a little T-34 prebuilt that
you picked up on eBay and it’s only going 60
mph. If that’s the class in which you’re flying,
all other pilots will have close to the same
thing. Then it’s pure adrenaline as the four of
you dice and tussle for the lead.
Winning the heat and landing your
airplane in one piece, ready for the next goround,
brings a glow of satisfaction that can’t
be matched anywhere. And if you keep
everything pasted together long enough to
take home a trophy, that’s frosting on the
cake.
Too many onlookers—and unfortunately a
few competitors—think winning is the only
thing that matters. If that’s your attitude, you
probably won’t last long in this game.
“Racing luck” happens to everyone.
As I write this, I’ve just returned from a
1,000-mile road trip to a two-day contest
where things did not go well for me. To
put it bluntly, I got spanked. Yet it was
fun. I flew an airplane I designed and built
from scratch, it went fast, and I managed
to beat one RFG (real fast guy) in a
straight-up duel once all of the technical
stuff finally fell into place. I hope this will
serve as the new, higher baseline for next
Duane Gall, 1267 S. Beeler Ct., Denver CO 80231; E-mail: [email protected]
RADIO CONTROL PYLON RACING
SpeedWorld R/C Flyers (Phoenix AZ) have earned great reputation by hosting premier events such as NMPRA 2003 Q-40 Championships.
time—and there will be a next time.
Sharp-eyed psychologists may notice that
I’ve just stated the same dynamic that drives
compulsive gamblers. I freely admit this.
However, racing is much cheaper than
gambling. And even at its worst, it represents
fresh air, exercise, and total immersion in a
creative/scientific/logistical enterprise that
rivals any NASA project. It gets you out of
the daily grind and gives you a fresh
perspective. It is fun.
2) It makes you a better pilot. “Oh, come
on; it’s just a bunch of left turns! Where’s the
skill in that?” Well, you may have noticed
that there are 30 turns (three per lap
multiplied by 10 laps), and they all need to be
darn good or you’ll lose ground.
Add in the fact that your airplane needs to
be carefully trimmed and balanced and the
control throws adjusted so that it will fly
straight and true through the turns without
deviating or stalling. And don’t forget that
you must be mindful of the other airplanes on
the course and be able to take off and land
safely in traffic in a variety of wind
conditions.
With all of this, it’s clear that there is
more to racing than just “left turns.” Master
racing and you will automatically become a
master pilot.
3) It makes you a better craftsman. I
would have written “builder,” but in this age
of Almost Ready to Flys (ARFs), Almost
Ready to Covers, and composites, “builders”
have become a rare breed.
Still, the need for a safe, reliable racing
machine will drive you to a level of
excellence in preparing and maintaining your
equipment that you wouldn’t have thought
possible before you started racing.
Experience is the best teacher, and if you
hang around experienced racing pilots and get
up close and personal with their setups—by
attending the Nats or another big contest and
browsing through the pits, for instance—
you’ll learn enough to fill an “Encyclopedia
of Stylin’ Hardware.”
All of the contestants’ airplanes undergo
rigorous preflight inspections. Their engines
are clean. Their radio installations are tight,
vibration-resistant, and easy to check and
maintain. And, as you can see from the Nats
photos, their paint jobs are gorgeous.
If there isn’t much racing in your area,
you can get plenty of advice online. The RC
Universe forum (www.rcuniverse.com/
forum/PylonWorld/forumid_122/tt.htm)
contains questions and answers, often with
stunning pictorials, about engine and tank
installation, wing construction, finishing tips,
propeller selection, fiberglass fuselage
molding, etc.
4) The scoring is objective. Unlike most
other competitive events in which judges
subjectively award scores, racing is scored on
purely objective factors; i.e., the order of
finish, the presence/absence of cuts (flying
inside the pylon poles), and the elapsed times
for each heat. Human error can occur, but the
officials’ jobs are actually cut-and-dried.
For a full description of racecourse
personnel duties, see Addendum A to the RC
March 2004 137
Pylon Racing section of the AMA rule book.
It’s available online at www.modelaircraft.
org/templates/ama/PDF-files/Rulebook/rcpylon.
pdf.
The competition comes down to the
following: go fast and you’ll earn more
points; go slow or cut and you won’t. It’s as
simple as that.
5) It’s not that expensive. Most local
racing involves off-the-shelf sport engines,
such as the Thunder Tiger Pro .40, which
retail for $100 or less. Even high-zoot Nats
power plants (Nelson or Jett .40s, primarily)
represent a $350 investment that will last for
several seasons if properly cared for.
Airplanes range from the $130 Lanier
Predator and Great Planes Viper 500 allwood
ARFs up to $400 composite Ready-to-
Fly models. And if you’re willing to scratchbuild,
you can get by for less than $50 in
materials for a race-legal, competitive
Quickie 500 (Q-500) model.
Compare this to the equipment cost of any
other motor sport—such as $300 for a set of
go-kart tires that last one day—and you can
see why RC Pylon represents a good deal for
your entertainment dollar.
While I’m on the subject I’ll mention
some of the midrange Q-500 models. In
prebuilt wood for $200, Lee Ulinger ([623]
695-1206; E-mail: [email protected])
offers The Force and Pete Reed ([603] 532-
8965; E-mail: [email protected]) sells the
Intimidator.
Going up the scale a bit to $299 is the allcomposite,
conventional-tail ShotGun from
Darrol Cady ([email protected]; Web site:
www.darrolcady.com) and at $350 the INNXS
with V-tail and as many as four colors of
paint by Martin Hoppe ([425] 820-9184).
Other sources for airplanes and hard-tofind
goodies are posted on Drew Telford’s
Web site—http://home.san.rr.com/
thedrewpages/—and Don Stegall’s Pylon
World at www.pylonworld.com/.
Now for this month’s second special topic:
Why should your club add racing to next
season’s calendar?
1) It’s fun. Again, fun is Job 1. Don’t
think you have to go with the Nats classes;
there’s a host of equipment formulas listed on
Pylon World or you can invent your own.
Hand-launched, electric-powered, shortcourse,
two-pole—you name it; it’s been
done.
I caution you to think through what sort of
expense, or “tech,” your rules allow for the
most serious competitor you expect to show
up. If it’s unaffordable or unobtainable by
everybody else, consider writing in a
limitation so that one person doesn’t
dominate the class.
2) It’s educational. See “It makes you a
better pilot” and “It makes you a better
craftsman” in the preceding. The Academy of
Model Aeronautics began as, and still strives
to be, an educational organization—as the
word “Academy” implies. AMA chartered
clubs help fulfill this purpose by occasionally
encouraging activities that go beyond the
ordinary.
3) It brings publicity and prestige. There’s
an aura associated with a big, annual event
such as the (Toledo) Weak Signals’ Silver
Cup for Quarter 40 (Q-40) or the (Phoenix)
SpeedWorld R/C Flyers’ Winterfest for Q-
500. Other names and places come to mind,
some legendary, including Tangerine, Rough
River, Whittier, and Sepulveda.
A great deal of club pride and cohesion—
not to mention local community support and
the protection of those all-important flying
sites—comes by association with such events.
Since the Nats is permanently located in
Muncie, Indiana, rather than traveling around
the country, the way is clear for any club that
desires that sort of visibility to host a “name”
contest.
The National Miniature Pylon Racing
Association (NMPRA) offers expertise and
even financial support, in conjunction with
longtime sponsors JR and PowerMaster fuels,
through its Gold Cup Q-40 program. For
details, log on to www.nmpra.org/. The
NMPRA site also provides free
matrix/scoring software and other useful
information for hosting clubs.
This concludes my special-edition racing
coverage. Until next time, keep the shiny side
up and I hope you had a joyous holiday
season! MA