RC Pylon RACING
Duane Gall, 1267 S. Beeler Ct., Denver CO 80231; E-mail: [email protected]
Sideline Judging — mandatory
Effective immediately, by action of the AMA Executive Council, all racing must be done with the flaggers and cut judges on the sidelines, off the racecourse.
Only the pilots and their callers and the starter and assistant starter may be on the course while a heat is in progress. This includes three-pole and two-pole pylon racing.
By the time you read this, the Nationals will already have happened, and it will have happened with sideline judging.
A few of us pylon racers began exploring this method in earnest a year ago. There were the usual objections, but the initial trials worked out great.
The most positive response came from the racecourse officials. They learned that rather than spending their time in fear and bewilderment under the pylons, with airplanes whirling over their heads at top speed, they could sit back and observe the race from the comfort of a lawn chair in the shade, a few paces from the hot dog and soda stand.
The officials also learned that cuts were easy to spot, and the perpetrators couldn't escape easily. If there was any doubt about the identification of an airplane at the moment of the infraction, the judges could visually follow it down the straightaway, and if need be, wait until the next turn to get a good view of the top and bottom of the airplane.
Once the pilots realized they couldn't bluff their way out of cuts anymore, they started flying better.
By the time you read this, the basic course layout and officials' positions should be posted on AMA's Web site at www.modelaircraft.org/Comp/1999Pylongurent.htm (yes, there is an extra "g" after "Pylon"), under "XII. OPERATION OF THE RACE."
I cannot overstate the importance of this development. It is the first significant change in pylon since the invention of Formula I more than 30 years ago. And it is long overdue.
It gets local clubs out of the business of hauling semi-trailer loads of heavy equipment to the race site, setting it up, using it for a few hours, tearing it all down, hauling it off, and storing it somewhere. That's always been the biggest pain.
Now not only can all the necessary equipment fit into a small trailer, but a club can adopt a permanent or semi-permanent racecourse installation at the local field without disrupting normal flightline operations.
You would just need to put judges in the correct spots on the sideline, walk out onto the field and stand three pylons in predetermined locations, put on your hard hat, and go to it.
Of course, you will need to prearrange a time to do this, because standing out in the middle of the field and flying around your head is still incompatible with normal sport-flying operations. But sideline judging makes the whole operation much easier and more spontaneous.
Local Heroes
To work correctly, sideline judging requires two things:
- Real-time feedback of lap and cut information to the starting line, where the pilots and callers can see and respond to it.
- Remote signaling of the turn at Pylon #1 — the "far" pylon on the racecourse.
A third element comes in handy:
- Real-time feedback of cut information to the timers/lap counters, who are located on the sideline, directly opposite the starting line.
I salute two geniuses (genii?), who are working independently in different areas of the country to solve the technical problems associated with providing these elements. Both have devoted countless hours of their spare time and a priceless amount of professional expertise to this project.
Craig Farthing (Littleton, CO), a manager with AT&T, brought his knowledge of telecommunications technology to the design and construction of an analog system. Elements of the system are described here.
Rich Ozman (Southlake, TX) employed his specialized knowledge of computers and digital display systems to design a system using baseball scoreboard-type digital characters to do basically the same thing.
No pictures of Rich's system were available at press time, but I hope to have them in the coming months.
Any clubs seeking a winter project, please take note. Either of these systems can be built with volunteer labor, at a price far less than a set of cages — in fact, far less than a single giant-scale or turbine-powered model airplane. And it will probably last longer!
One photo shows the analog display boxes propped up in Craig's driveway. Each one corresponds to one of the four "lanes," or individual aircraft in the heat. These boxes will be staked into position near the starting line.
The vertical strip of lights on the left side of each display box (12-volt automotive taillight bulbs, purchased in bulk) shows the number of laps completed.
In this test, pretend airplanes are roughly halfway through the heat. The leader, in lane 1, has completed six laps with no cuts.
The lights reflect off the shiny insides of the two-inch PVC (polyvinyl chloride) hoods, so they are clearly visible — even when viewed from an angle in bright sunlight.
A "six-pack"-shaped array at the upper right of each panel displays the cuts. Each pair corresponds to one pylon. The top pair represents Pylon #1; the second pair represents Pylon #2; and the third pair represents Pylon #3.
Aircraft #2 (second display from the left) has not cut once at Pylon #1 and twice at Pylon #2. Aircraft #4 (represented by the display at far right) has cut once at Pylon #1 and once at Pylon #3.
Another photo shows the hand-held input boxes used by the cut judges for Pylon #2 and #3.
Each box holds four pairs of toggle switches and an erasable surface so that for each heat, the cut judge can use a dry-erase marker to note aircraft ID information, such as color and airframe design.
Two switches per aircraft are sufficient, because if the pilot cuts twice at any pylon, he or she is disqualified from the heat.
The last photo shows the hand-held input boxes used by the Pylon #1 flaggers/cut judges (in front) and the timers/lap counters (in background).
The large, red button on the #1 box is the "you got there" button, which the flagger/cut judge hits as soon as the airplane makes the distance to Pylon #1. This lights a 500-watt halogen bulb, located at the base of the pylon and powered by a generator out on the course.
We use four halogen bulbs, mounted separately in plywood cases and each covered with translucent plastic in a different color — one for each lane.
With ready access to automotive technology, a club in the Detroit area is using multipanel shutters actuated by a 12-volt remote door-lock system.
You say potato, I say po-tah-to. It should work equally well.
Also in the last photo, note how the cut information from Pylon #1's input box appears instantly on the black panel at the top of the timer/lap counter's input box.
The aircraft in lane 2 (mine, dang it) has cut once at Pylon #1. The Pylon #1 judge throws the left toggle switch, the lap counter sees it, and he or she knows that I have to make 11 laps before I'm finished.
Solenoid "brains" keep all this information flowing through the cables like it should.
We should all give a big tip of the hat to Craig and to Rich, for keeping us in business.
SuperTigre Update
Last month I offered some advice on breaking in the SuperTigre Gs40, which is one of the two odds-on favorites for the newly revived Event No. 424 — Sport Quickie.
The other prime choice is the Thunder Tiger Pro .40. See the AMA Web site for complete rules.
Since the initial bench runs, I've put roughly two dozen flights on the SuperTigre. The last four flights were using the Q-500 racer as a trainer.
A fellow at the field had never flown, and he brought out a trainer that wasn't airworthy for various reasons. Rather than have him go home disappointed, I offered him the chance to try radio control on my racing airplane. It's a shoulder-wing, V-tail design that flies well, so why not?
I took off, throttled back, fed in a little up-elevator trim, and handed him the transmitter. Nobody had ever told him that racing airplanes are vicious and scary, so he approached it with an open mind. He was ready to start landing after four flights.
The SuperTigre spat out the rubber gasket that came with the muffler on roughly the sixth flight, but I learned that the brass exhaust stack/muffler gaskets sold by Performance Specialties and Jett Engineering fit it perfectly. I put one in, and it's been trouble-free ever since.
The engine turns a 9 x 6 APC propeller at exactly 16,500 rpm. That's with the original bearings, and no changing of the head spacing.
All you racer wannabes, come on in — the water's fine.
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
