Radio Control: Pylon Racing
Bill Hager
The secret of success! At last, I'm going to reveal to you what it takes to win. If you follow the advice I'm about to give you, even you can be successful.
Let's look at some examples of winners. I trust that most of you have seen the cover of the August 1987 issue of Model Aviation. If you haven't, then get one and take a good look. You will see a group of what are probably the best pylon racers in the world. These people are all winners, and their getting to this point was no accident.
I'm referring to the 1987 U.S. RC Pylon Racing team—the one that swept the first three places at the World Championships this year. The pilots were Dave Shadel, Brian Richmond, and Dub Jett. These three represent a total of some 80 years of modeling experience, as they all started flying models as youngsters.
Dub Jett has been working with model engines for years. He spent most of his youth flying control-line speed events.
Dave Shadel is in the business of supplying us with very competitive engines and related supplies.
Bruce Richmond, Brian's brother, builds probably 75% of the Formula I planes flown by today's top competitors.
I think, by now, that you are starting to get the picture. As I said before, their winning the World Championships was no accident. It started with their qualification as a team last year in the trials at Smyrna, TN.
Dub Jett spent every subsequent spare moment working with engines. The team was to take 12 engines with them. Dub said that he had those engines taken apart so many times that they were almost worn out before they were run!
Bruce Richmond contacted Jerry Small, who designed and produces kits for the very successful Estrellita Formula I plane. It was decided that Brian and Dub would use Jerry's design—but with a few changes.
So, the wood chips flew at Bruce's, and the engines were being built at Dub's. Dave Shadel decided to go with his own design, the Kase, but Dave and Dub combined ideas on engine mods. These guys spent just about every waking moment working for this one race. During the 1986 Christmas holidays, they met in California to test engines, props and planes. Then they went back to the drawing board. More testing and practice flying followed.
All of these guys are married, and all were staying in hot water with their wives.
Just a few weeks before the Championships, they all got together again for the final test-and-trim session. All went well, and the rest is history.
This is what it takes to win: effort, sweat, hard work, and—yes—even a little luck.
For those of you who say, "What chance have we got against these guys?" there is yet some hope.
These guys spend a lot of their spare time helping new people get started in pylon racing, and, as I said, Dave Shadel will sell you the engines and accessories you need to be competitive. No, it won't take you a lifetime to make the grade, but you must put out the effort to win. When the old-timer sees a new person getting started, he will usually help. All you need to do is ask.
Racing in Illinois
The following report was sent to me by Orv Steinmetz:
On April 25, the Rock Valley Fliers of Rockford, IL, held their first contest of the year, a Q500 race. The 17 contestants flew under Willie Circuit rules, which are nearly the same as the CAPS rules.
Although the sky started to clear up in the morning, the wind managed to blow from about the south at about 20–25 mph all day long. With our field restrictions, this gave us nearly a 90° crosswind for all takeoffs.
We elected to go to a 3 × 6 matrix, figuring it would be less hazardous to have only three airplanes struggling against the wind. This must have been a good decision, for there were no mishaps during takeoffs (there were just a few near-misses).
One out-of-town contestant, Debbie Justice, came with a real powerhouse of an airplane. During a pre-race flight, she rounded the pylon, punched the throttle open—and saw her plane's prop and engine head leave the rest of the plane behind. Now, that's a lotta power! Debbie did a great job of getting her suddenly modified airplane on the ground safely and in one piece. Maybe the instructions from her husband, Scott, did help. Don't give up, Debbie; there's always next time.
After the first heat of round one, club member Dave Smith made a near-perfect landing, and after a few seconds of idling on the ground, his beautifully built airplane decided to attack a nearby fence! It went at it like a screaming eagle. Needless to say, that eagle screamed no more that day. It did not live to fly again.
During the last heat of the day, Tom Barrett and Dan Kane Sr., who had been playing "chicken" in the air on several occasions, decided to occupy the same airspace at the same time on the seventh lap. They did a good job of making lots of balsa toothpicks. Those two birds will fly again.
The main ingredient that made this a successful race was the willingness of fellow club members to help when lots of help was needed. This is very characteristic of the Rock Valley RC Fliers Club. A big thanks to all who helped, and a special thanks to Scott Justice for donating a set of carb and muffler gauges and to Jerry Aarsted for a nice prop gauge.
After the shouting was over and the engines roared no more, our score keeper, Ronna Cekinovich, had the fliers placed in the following order:
- Dan Kane Jr. — 16 pt.
- Charlie Cappis — 15 pt.
- Jeff Falco — 15 pt.
- Lee Pohar — 14 pt.
- Orv Steinmetz — 12 pt.
- Dino Geogan — 12 pt.
- Dick Shields — 12 pt.
- Dan Kane Sr. — 11 pt.
- Bob Loehner — 9 pt.
- Bob Bentley — 8 pt.
- Tom Barrett — 8 pt.
- Ron Jacobs — 8 pt.
- Bruce Balko — 6 pt.
- Jerry Aarsted — 6 pt.
- Scott Justice — 5 pt.
- Bob Lytle — 5 pt.
- Dave Smith — 2 pt.
Fastest time of 1:39.69 went to Dan Kane Jr. Thanks to all participants.
And thanks to Orv Steinmetz for an interesting and entertaining report. See you next month.
Bill Hager 706 Glen Haven Dr. Conroe, TX 77385
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
