RADIO CONTROL PYLON RACING
UNIFIED FIELD THEORY: By the time you read this, the 2002-2004 rule book should be available from AMA Headquarters. This marks the end of a somewhat confusing rules cycle, in which we had major changes after the last rule book was printed in 1999.
Now it will be one-stop shopping again, and you won't have to go to AMA's Web site to learn what the "real" rules are. Just call (765) 287-1256, extension 212 to get your copy of the 2002-2004 Competition Regulations.
The new rules are much easier to read, understand, and apply. The entire Radio Control (RC) Pylon section has been recodified, with clear definitions of the most troublesome terms, such as "tuned muffler" and "carburetor," which used to vary from one event to another.
In addition, selected portions of the NMPRA (National Miniature Pylon Racing Association) Pylon Racing Procedure Guide have been included.
These provisions used to be part of racing lore—known to a few seasoned pilots and passed along by word of mouth in sort of an oral cultural tradition, like aboriginal legends. Now they are in the AMA rule book for all to see.
Contest directors take note: There is also a full description of the racecourse personnel needed to put on a racing contest and the duties of each.
You will no longer need to write your own speeches describing what your workers have to do. Just make copies from the rule book, hand them out ahead of time, and give your crew a quick refresher on race day.
More About PylonWorld.com: Just because you don't have to use your computer to find the rules anymore, don't get all depressed thinking your computer is no longer useful to you.
I'm happy to report that longtime racer Don Stegall continues to collect and post racing-related information on his new Web site: www.pylonworld.com.
All of us racing types are besieged with questions such as, "Where can I get a neat airplane like yours?" and "Who makes those little gizmos that hold your wheels on?" The answer I like to give whenever possible is "Check in at the local hobby shop."
Unfortunately, much of the equipment we use is so specialized, product upgrades happen so frequently, and the manufacturers so often don't advertise much that the local hobby shop can't supply what you need.
This is especially true of the sleek Quarter 40 (AMA event 422) airplanes so dear to my heart. Most of them fly great as sport airplanes with throttled .40 engines, and most are available in standard fiberglass-fuselage, balsa-sheeted, foam-wing versions at reasonable prices.
But who's ever seen one in a hobby shop? A visit to PylonWorld will put you on the track of these hard-to-find items.
If you're reading this, Christmas elves, it may not be too late for you to seek out the perfect bauble for your special someone who has almost everything!
How the Other Half Lives, Part 2: The AMA rule book describes four officially recognized racing "formulas," or sets of aircraft/engine specifications.
Only two of those formulas are flown at the annual National contest, or Nats: Quarter 40 (event 422) and Quickie 500 (event 428).
RC Pylon Racing
The other formulas are Sport Quickie (event 424) and 1/2A (event 423).
Now there is a "hole" in the rule book where Formula I (event 421) was until its demise in 1999 because of a lack of participation. But this is only the tip of the iceberg.
A lot of racing goes on in informal, local events that vary from region to region and even club to club. The theme that unites these events is the desire to avoid what is perceived as the excessive speed, noise, cost, and specialization of aircraft built for the official AMA rule-book events.
Inexpensive, Almost Ready-to-Fly (ARF) sport models often figure in. Check out www.twa3racing.com for a one-design class using the World Models semiscale T-34 Mentor airframe and O.S. Max .46 FX engine.
Other groups have opted for much larger airframes, such as the one in South Florida that flies 80-inch-span models. Gene Cantrall is one of the kingpins there; the Web site is www.geocities.com/gateway/ne_pylon.
The advantage of larger models, of course, is that they are much easier to see in the air. The down side is that crashes cost more, and the models are not as easy to transport.
Another idea being floated in the large-aircraft category is to replace the original model Formula I with a new model Formula I. Like the originals, it would require the airframes to be Stand-Off Scale models of full-scale Formula I home-built racing aircraft.
Like the original, it would employ the current state of the art in commonly available, affordable sport-engine and airframe technology.
However, unlike the original, this technology would not consist of an unmuffled .40 on a five-pound airplane; it would consist of a muffled, throttled, front-intake .75-.90 on a 64-inch-span, 28%-scale airplane with a slightly slimmed-down fuselage.
More about this in a future column.
Clubs with smaller fields often learn that smaller aircraft are a better choice.
Slower airspeed is also a must, because putting a 160 mph Quickie 500 or 180 mph Quarter 40 on a short racecourse makes for what one veteran pilot called "RC Rat Race"—that is, the equivalent of an Control Line event in which the airplane is constantly turning but without a tether.
Smaller aircraft also allow for hand-launching. Hand-launching can be a lifesaver in areas where paved runways are scarce or where the field layout is such that a pylon course can't be put up with the starting line facing into the prevailing wind.
There used to be an event called Club 20 for small (0.20 cubic-inch displacement) airplanes weighing approximately 2.5 pounds, with landing gear optional.
The event originated in England, where the grass grows high and thick. These models could literally be flown in a cow pasture.
Club 20 fell victim to the same cost, speed, and specialization factors that killed Formula I. It has been replaced with something called Club 2000—still hand-launched and light but using a constant-chord wing and powered with a muffled .25 sport engine.
In the U.S., the hand-launched, lightweight aircraft niche has been partially filled by 1/2A and by local events using Electric Speed-400-powered models, including the ready-to-fly Zagi flying wing.
These types of events have been tried intermittently in the past but never really took off until now, with the advent of reliable, truly miniature RC gear.
I flew 1/2A in the late 1970s using the Cox Tee Dee .049 and the smallest radio I could find that actually worked; the all-up weight of one of those models was roughly 20 ounces at best. Now it is commonplace to see models nearly the same size that weigh less than a pound.
Speed 400 Electric models routinely come in at less than 12 ounces. The lighter wing loading makes for easier launches and slower landings, which translates into a much more user-friendly event with lower attrition.
At the extreme low end of the size, speed, and flying-field-requirements spectrum is Indoor Electric RC racing, championed by the newly formed National Indoor Miniature Pylon Racing Association. I'll write more about this in a future column.
The potential for variety in this field is endless.
The challenge faced by those of us who want to see racing grow is finding common ground somewhere so that people who have never raced—indeed, who may never have seen a race—will be enticed to get a model that qualifies under the rules, begin flying it every weekend for sport, and get the competitive itch so bad that they have to organize a race for themselves and their flying buddies.
Sport Quickie is the best we have at the moment. If you've read this far, call the telephone number at the top of this column for your rule book, and start playing with a Sport Quickie.
For the future, the time is ripe to fill the "hole" that Formula I left in the national rule book with something that fits the preceding criteria and is intelligently designed, to keep it low-key, safe, and appealing for a long time.
Is that an impossible dream? Perhaps. But it could be as simple as the following:
"Event 421—Sport 40 'Airframe: See Event 422. 'Power plant: See Event 424.'"
Because of the modular nature of the new rules, these simple cross-references bring all the engine-taming provisions that have kept Sport Quickie reasonable together with all the airframe limitations that have evolved in Quarter 40 to keep the aircraft reasonably scale-like.
The result is a very well-behaved, economical, and nice-looking model that is capable of taking off from grass and is easy to transport. Kits are already available from the sources listed through PylonWorld.com.
With the lower power of the sport engine, wings can be built using standard foam-and-balsa construction with a little extra fiberglass at the center-section; high-tech carbon spars are not necessary.
This is just one suggestion; feel free to come up with your own. Rules proposals will be accepted at AMA Headquarters from January 1, 2002 through September 30, 2002 for the 2005–2007 rules cycle.
Now is the time to think ahead and decide how you want RC Pylon to look in the coming seasons!
More About Pilot/Caller Teamwork: This has been a wordy column, so I'll close with some action photos that didn't make it into the recent issue dealing with pilots and callers.
Featured subjects are hardworking NMPRA Vice President Drew Telford and Florida spark-plug "Rocket" Ray Brown. Although they live in opposite corners of the US, they teamed up admirably at the recent US F3D Team Trials in Phoenix AZ. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
