RADIO CONTROL PYLON RACING
Duane Gall, 1267 S. Beeler Ct., Denver CO 80231; E-mail: [email protected]
CALLING ALL CALLERS: Radio Control (RC) Pylon Racing is really a team sport; the pilot can't do it alone. Every pilot needs a teammate, known as a caller, to handle certain important tasks.
Although not essential for success, having a regular caller can be a big advantage. It's no accident that many of the top pilots have reliable callers they work with whenever they can. Husband/wife teams are the best.
If you're just getting started in racing, the best thing you can do is persuade a more experienced pilot to call for you regularly.
If there's no local guru available, latch onto another newbie and buy radio equipment on the same frequency so you won't (i.e., can't) be assigned to fly against each other in the same heat.
If all else fails, show up at a contest and whine like a lost puppy. Someone will help!
The caller's first and most important job is to launch the airplane. Our models won't sit still with the engine running; they must be held in place at the starting line until the starter gives the takeoff signal ("green flag").
The pilot's standing position is in the infield, usually 50–100 feet behind the starting line where it's easier to judge the flight path around Pylons Two and Three. Therefore, the pilot can't very well launch and race at the same time.
The caller's second most important job is to "call" the turn at the far Pylon: One.
Traditionally, flaggers have been positioned at or near Pylon One to wave a flag or flash a light or shutter to signal that the aircraft has gone the required distance and can turn without cutting inside the racecourse. The pilot needs help watching for the signal because he/she is focused on the airplane.
Following are tips and refinements regarding these major caller duties and a few incidental points.
Start-up and Launch Procedure: As the pilots and callers arrive at the starting line for the beginning of the heat, they will be instructed to place their aircraft in a particular "lane."
Of course there are no real lanes in the air, but the racecourse officials keep track of the aircraft according to lane assignment.
If lanes are assigned at random, such as by drawing lots, it will be the caller's job to get a lane assignment. If lanes are prearranged by a computer-matrix program, the caller should check to identify the correct lane ahead of time.
A normal staggered start involves two launch signals a half-second to one second apart. Lanes One and Three will launch on the first signal. Lanes Two and Four will launch on the second signal.
This generally provides enough separation to prevent takeoff collisions as long as the caller remembers which signal on which to go! Callers, pay attention to this little detail if your pilot gave you a ride to the contest, or you may have to walk home.
Once in the proper lane, the caller should prepare to stand there for "aircraft identification." This involves holding the aircraft high overhead, nose up, and rotating it slowly for the benefit of the racecourse officials. They will need to see the top and the bottom.
If there are signal lights or shutters at Pylon One, the caller should gaze toward them steadily until the assigned official gives a confirmatory flash of the signal.
Then it's time to put the airplane down, and don't move it. The pilot will arrange the pit box, transmitter, electric starter, etc. in convenient places around the nose of the airplane.
At some point the starter will announce, "You're on the clock." At that point there's exactly one minute until launch. During that time the caller's job is to act as a stooge, physically and keep the pilot from acting as a stooge mentally.
Dumb Pilot Start-up Tucks include:
- Forgetting to hook the glow-plug battery to the glow plug
- Forgetting to hit the "hot" button on glow-plug battery
- Forgetting to turn on transmitter switch, aircraft switch, or both
- Remembering that the fuel tank is empty. (There's not much you can do about that one, I'm afraid)
- Attempting to start while the throttle stick is set at idle/cutoff position
- Getting the nerves and running the electric starter through the propeller
Be on the lookout for these, and help your pilot through them if necessary. Meanwhile, keep a very close eye on the start/stop clock so you know roughly how much time is left. The start will use the launch signal; after one minute, he/she will not wait for you.
But for safety's sake, do not launch the airplane until you know your pilot is facing the airplane and has both hands on the transmitter! That is the rule-book definition of "ready to go." If your pilot is not ready to go, launching the airplane won't help!
For safety and competitiveness, the best practice is as follows.
Once the engine is running, allow your pilot to collect the pit gear and begin moving into racing position. If time is short, the racing position may be only a couple steps behind the starting line, but no matter.
Look over your pilot's shoulder, run from the starter until you make eye contact with your pilot. He/she should make the control surfaces or confirm that the radio is on, then give you a hearty nod as final okay.
Have your pilot look to your left and make eye contact with the starter.
If all's going well, there will still be some time to wait for the launch signal. If it's not, the worst that will happen is that you'll be a couple seconds late getting off the ground.
One of the accompanying photos shows these principles in action. In Lanes One and Four, the pilots have moved into position (no longer visible in photo) and have signaled to their callers that they're ready.
The callers are looking to their left, toward the starter and the starting clock, and they are ready to launch as soon as the starter gives the signal.
Lane Two has had a starting delay, and the pilot has moved to stand just behind the starting line rather than try to turn the extra 75 feet into normal racing position during the time remaining. The caller in Lane Two has already checked in with him and is also looking to the left.
Meanwhile, the caller in Lane Three (second from right) is still looking over his right shoulder for his pilot, who has opted to try to get into position before the one-minute starting period expires.
Another photo depicts a three-airplane heat of Quickie 500 at the moment of launch. The staggered start procedure is illustrated nicely; the middle aircraft (technically Lane Three) gets a textbook shove from Brian Neff as Dean McBournie in blue helmet and Larry Lauehin prepare to follow suit a moment later.
For the caller who seeks to please his/her pilot and avoid a walk home, the ticket is a firm, straight-ahead push, with the tail skid always in contact with the pavement. Save the fancy wrist flicks for bowling.
Once you've mastered the straight-ahead concept, work on increasing the power of your delivery. When an airplane is sitting in one spot with the engine running, the propeller blades are actually stalled; they're not generating much forward thrust.
The more help you can give the model to achieve flying speed, the sooner those blades will start to "hook up" and pull the airplane. Your job is to get the model moving forward as quickly as you can without imparting unwanted side loads or lifting the tail.
Calling the Turns: This is where practice really pays off. The best callers don't wait to see the light or shutter at the far pylon; they keep a mental countdown going and use timing alone to judge when to utter that all-important command: "Ready, turn!"
The caller may use the shutter as a guide to time the first few laps of the heat. Once the air has the pace firmly in mind, the shutter becomes nothing more than a visual confirmation that the aircraft in fact made the distance and turn without cutting.
I prefer to count laps at the same time, calling out the number of the lap just completed as the aircraft rounds Pylon Three, then continuing with the pace count this way: "Try, two, three, ready, turn," "Try, two, three, ready, turn," etc.
When using this method, the pilot must not anticipate the "turn" command, but must wait for it. That is because the caller is anticipating the shutter signal, and adding still more anticipation to the mix will result in a cut.
An alternative (the one I prefer because I don't have a regular caller) is to have the caller say "turn" only after getting the visual cue from the shutter signal, and allow the pilot to do the anticipating.
In this case, the pilot is using the caller's "turn" commands as an audio confirmation that the aircraft made the distance. If the confirmation doesn't happen, the pilot should assume that a cut will be called very soon.
Experienced callers will take on additional tasks, such as keeping track of cuts and who's leading, coaching their pilot to fly a better course, etc.
However, I'm out of space for now, so we'll pick up the basics in the preceding, and let me know what further refinements you come up with!
RC Pylon Racing
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
