Radio Control: Pylon Racing
Bill Hager
COMPLAINTS! Yes, after 16 years of pylon racing, I've heard lots of complaints. The one that still jumps out the most is that pylon racing is too noisy. However, when it's properly handled, noise is not a problem!
I remember that once, while living in Dayton, OH, we had a city-built flying field that was (and still is) just about as close to being in the center of a populated area as any field in the country. We were surrounded by homes, and on one side we had apartments overlooking our field—but we had no problem.
Why no problem? We kept the public informed as to what we were all about. We set up a reasonable set of field rules that helped the situation. One of the rules was that no flying of powered models was to take place before 8:00 a.m. on weekdays and not before noon on Sundays. The only exception to this rule occurred when we had an event—such as a pylon race—scheduled. While I was living there, this occurred only three or four times during a summer.
One time we did have a complaint. Some man called the city parks officer and complained about the terrible noise being made very early in the mornings—about the time the sun came up. Everyone was ready to jump on the nearest pylon racer. We checked it out and found that our noisy plane was a .15-powered trainer with a muffler. The guy flying it was just learning to fly RC, and he wanted to practice early when no one else was around.
We set up flying times so that the neighbors were not bothered at the crack of dawn. It worked. The key to good relations with the neighbors from that time onward was to keep people informed when we had special events such as racing. A lot of them came to watch us! Try to work with people—it worked for us.
We've had a lot of racing this summer. I've received a lot of mail with race results from all around the country. I will be printing some of these throughout the winter, so if your contest hasn't yet seen the light of day here in my column, don't give up yet.
North Central Pylon League (NCPL) — Grassfield RC Club
Report by Vic Leerhoff
This was the first NCPL race of the season and was sponsored by the Grassfield RC Club. It was held at Grassfield's newly developed site in Brooklyn Park. At the time of this race, the grass was just really starting to take hold (which means there was still a substantial amount of sand to contend with). The situation is constantly improving, however. Pray for rain!
Saturday, we held the Q-500 and F1-40 races. This was the first Q-500 race in which we used our stock props. A "stock" prop needs to have the manufacturer's stamp on it so that the Contest Director can tell that it is stock. There was some confusion over this. One thing I found out is that stock props can really go! Just take a look at the race times to verify this.
The F1-40 race was shy on entries. All kinds of excuses were heard (including mine). I will have my F1-40 racer ready for the next one—really!
The Quarter Midget race certainly took its toll; two midairs and a crash buzzed five airplanes. The most spectacular one was right over the No. 1 pylon when Dick Steine and Phil Zuidema started a shoving contest for the tiniest little bit of airspace. Phil lost. (Thanks, Dick. I really needed to get rid of a beat-up Deja Vu—but I didn't have the heart just to toss it out.)
That heat was really hot, as four airplanes were strung out by about 10 ft. after the third lap. Jerry Elert and Dave Rech (rhymes with "Rich") tried to fly united on takeoff. When they finished, Dave's airplane had a polyhedral wing.
Del Berryman showed us that more than corn could be planted in the north field. That's really too bad, because Del said that the Napier-Heston was the best-flying Quarter Midget he has ever had. (Hmmm. I'd better get mine done.)
Q-500 results (model/engine — average/best):
- Jerry Bednark (Scratch/CPS) — 1:27.3 / 1:21.3
- Del Berryman (unk./unk.) — 1:35.2 / 1:29.4
- Dan Norlin (Q-500/Enya CX) — 1:24.0 / 1:22.8
- Boyd Bowdish (Scat Cat/Como Ringl) — 1:37.7 / 1:32.9
- Jerry Elert (Scat Cat/Enya CX) — 1:31.2 / 1:27.5
Formula One-Forty results (model/engine — average/best):
- Jerry Bednark (Must 450/Enya CX) — 1:32.4 / 1:29.1
- Dick Steine (Must 450/Enya CX) — 1:32.9 / 1:30.4
- Al Schwartz (Must 450/Enya CX) — 1:33.0 / 1:28.3
- Del Berryman (Estrellita/Enya CX) — 1:55.4 / 1:50.2
- Dan Norlin (Estrellita/Enya CX) — 1:40.9 / 1:40.9
Quarter Midget results (model/engine — average/best):
- Jerry Elert (Shark/Cox) — 1:39.6 / 1:32.8
- Dick Steine (Spitfire/Cox) — 1:32.4 / 1:27.0
- Al Schwartz (Spitfire/Nelson) — 1:33.6 / 1:27.6
- Boyd Bowdish (Shark/Cox) — 1:42.1 / 1:36.6
- Dan Norlin (Shark/Cox) — 1:37.0 / 1:33.3
United Pylon Racing Circuit — Niagara Falls, Ontario (May 3, 1987)
An excellent day was provided for the first race of the year. For the first time in three years, we were able to race FAI/Formula I at this race, and there was some really hot competition. We had a record turnout for the FAI-Formula I event. There were 17 entries (three in FAI, and 14 in Formula I). It's been five years since we've seen anything close to this large a turnout.
Dave Kelly and his able-bodied crew put on a fine job for the UPRC. Unfortunately, there were a number of crashes. Most seemed to be caused by equipment failure or pilot error. There was one midair in Sport Pony which resulted in one plane being totaled.
At least three people changed frequency in Sport, getting off Orange/White. This made for a much better matrix than we were seeing last year. This change let us fly four-plane heats in Sport, and three-plane heats were flown in FAI-Formula I.
The new takeoff procedure worked out well for the fliers. It tightened up times and competition. I didn't see any problems between planes at takeoff. It did give the starter and CD some extra work to keep everybody set up in the proper takeoff position. This was particularly true in FAI-Formula I, where the plane which normally takes off second had to be put in the third hole so it could take off on the first drop of the flag. It appeared that after several races everyone became acclimated, and the race proceeded smoothly. All in all, it seemed to work out well.
We had only one entry in Standard Class—Marlene Nikodem—and she did quite well in her first race.
Sport Pony (Expert) — Points / Best Time:
- Gary Gau (Rossi) — 19 / 1:42
- Don Cowan (Rossi) — 18 / 1:44
- Al Mack (Rossi) — 16 / 1:43
- Rick Paine (Rossi) — 16 / 1:43
- Dave Thomas (Rossi) — 15 / 1:30
Sport Pony (Standard):
- Marlene Nikodem (K&B) — 9 / 2:32
FAI-Formula I — Points / Best Time:
- Neil Watson (Formula I) (OS) — 20 / 1:25
- Doug Baker (FAI/OS) — 20 / 1:26
- Mark Sciandra (Formula I) (OS) — 20 / 1:25
- Bob Ball (Formula I) (OS) — 15 / 1:30
- Dave Thomas (Formula I) (OS) — 14 / 1:27
Racing in Colorado
Report by Duane Gall
Lowry's season opener at Aurora Airpark jolted 20 fliers awake after a long winter of touch-and-go practice. Rusty flying, dead starting batteries, and wandering needle valves made sure the race didn't go to the swift. Since this was Jim Spence's 1:39.9 — a honkin' course (72 mph, if measured between points 10 ft. outside the pylons) — Jim double-cut in round four to knock himself out of first, but he was fast enough to hang in there for fifth in Expert.
The race provided the testing ground for our new equipment, including super full-coverage pylons and a very visible pilot box (courtesy of Tom Neff and Steve Goodehardt), highly visible pylon flags (courtesy of Virginia Seeber), and the same old ratty checkerboard starter's flag from last year. The runway is packed sand, just fine for Quickies, and yours truly made two "demo" flights with my OMP .91, also. This will be the field for Lowry's OM races on August 22. One of the club members made some spectacular flybys with a hopped-up OMP .60 Swift, which was hanging nearby.
I ended up in first, due mainly to distributing my cuts more evenly than others did (that is, one per heat, rather than two or more). There is no truth to the rumor that I'm being secretly funded by Oliver North.
The Local Hero award has to go to Bob Carl of Longmont, who demolished his plane after winning the heat, put it back together, and went on to place fifth in his division. Way to go, Bob! "Scariest Rookie" goes to Paul Buhse. I had the privilege of calling for him in the first heat, and after about the first three laps, he had it knocked. I could have gone home; he knew where the sticks were. Unfortunately, Paul got Jim Spence's "cut" and had to settle for fourth. Look out for Paul next time!
Final standings:
Expert:
- Duane Gall — 1:14.8
- Lee Demery — 1:43.4
- Lloyd Nicholson — 1:52.7
- Brian Gates — 1:46.0
- Jim Spence — 1:39.9
Sportsman:
- Rod Gerity — 1:54.9
- Ron Meyer — 1:53.8
- Hal Garwood — 1:55.0
- Paul Buhse — 2:07.0
- Bob Carl — 2:11.0
Well, that's all for this month. See you at the races.
Bill Hager 706 Glen Haven Dr. Conroe, TX 77385
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
