RADIO CONTROL: PYLON RACING
Bill Hager, 4 Holly Springs Dr., Conroe TX 77302
After a long winter, one of the first races of the year is in Phoenix. Here is a report by Jim Allen.
Phoenix Winterfest Q500 Race, January 21–22, 1995
For the third year many of the top Quickie 500 pilots traveled to the Phoenix area for the race of the winter.
The 1995 edition of the Phoenix Winterfest Q500 looked like it would live up to the reputation of previous years. Mother Nature planned a so-so weekend for Phoenix, but it did not put too much of a damper on the fun.
There had been quite a bit of practicing most of the week prior. In addition to the local racers, several pilots had been in town since Wednesday. Friday saw steady flights almost all day out on the course. It was going to be a great weekend.
Arizona Pylon Racing Association Quickie Sport was scheduled as two separate races and AMA Class would be a two-day race. Due to time constraints and lack of interest, Calzona Class was dropped this time.
Due to the current situation with availability of competitive wood props, we made the effort to get AMA's permission to run this contest with an exception to allow the new 8-3/4" diameter D-1 hub props from Fred Burgdorf at APC. The pilots were given two of the props free when they entered the contest. They chose two different props from the selection of pitches and blade widths available.
- Pilots were given two free APC props on entry and chose two different props.
- Two additional props of different sizes were allowed to be bought at $3 each during the contest; damaged replacements were sold for the same price.
- This kept all sizes available to everyone until the contest was over; after the contest remaining props would go on sale again for $3.
The props were a tremendous success.
Inspections and race preparations were dampened by some light rain up until about 11:30. Twenty-six racers entered AMA Class from six states. Quickie Sport flew first, alternating rounds with AMA.
Round One of AMA started with some very close racing. Four pilots were in the 1:05s with the writer turning a 1:03.88 racing Mike Delponte in Heat Five. The APC props were immediately an obvious success. Three of the five fastest times were turned in by pilots running APCs, including the 1:03.88. At this point approximately half of the pilots were running the new props. Twelve of the twenty-six racers had cuts.
Round Two continued with great racing. It appeared that cuts might be the order of the day. The race of the second round was between Jim Allen and Lee VonDerHey. Both pilots were lucky to have planes after it was all over. The times were 1:02.88 for Jim and 1:02.93 for Lee. Several other pilots bettered their first-round times, but seven pilots came up short.
In Round Three, Chip Hyde, Spencer Wallace and Travis Flynn had a great race. Travis got the jump the first lap and held a small lead until the cut. Chip closed on Spencer to finish close. The clocks decided who won; times were 1:03.47 for Spencer and 1:03.44 for Chip, both with no cuts.
Heat Six of this round saw Dave Hill from southern California and Chuck Andraka from Albuquerque do battle. Chuck finished with a 1:05.78 and Dave a 1:06.74. Spencer and Chuck were using APC props.
Due to morning delays, four rounds of each class were flown on Saturday. Gary Schmidt was the only person with a perfect score. The close racing had taken its toll on the field; most pilots had at least one heat with cuts. The racing was exciting for the first day.
On Sunday, AMA Class was flown while the matrix for Quickie Sport was done. Round Five continued with close heats. The highlight of the round was a race between Mike Delponte and Spencer Wallace. They were close quite a while with Mike pulling out to a comfortable lead in the last few laps. Mike flew very well, turning his best time of the weekend, 1:02.16, to Spencer's 1:04.00.
The sixth round opened with class leader Gary Schmidt racing Lee VonDerHey. The race started out clean and close, but Gary began pulling steadily away to about a 1½-second victory, 1:02.37 to Lee's 1:04.64. In Heat Three Mark Parker and Jim Allen came out to battle. The first five laps were close, then Jim cut, giving Mark the eventual victory with a new fast time: 1:00.77.
The seventh round would be the last for the weekend for the Quickie Sport Class so that people who traveled could head home early. In this round Lee VonDerHey set the standard for the weekend with a 0:59.83 against Ken Howell and Spencer Wallace. Lee was as close to the poles as anyone all weekend and the time showed it. He was running an old Rev-Up 8 x 9½ Speed prop from the ’60s or ’70s. It was fast!
The tightest finish of the round was between Vince Weigel and Stu McAfee of southern California. They finished with no cuts and times of 1:07.00 and 1:07.08, with Vince getting the nod from the clocks.
Top Ten — Phoenix Winterfest Q500
- Gary Schmidt — 1:02.37
- Jim Allen — 1:00.04
- C. Andraka — 1:05.63
- D. Telford — 1:10.02
- L. VonDerHey — 0:59.83
- Ken Howell — 1:02.50
- B. Hawkins — 1:06.76
- S. Wallace — 1:03.47
- M. Tallman — 1:05.98
- T. Flynn — 1:05.20
APC Props: History and Introduction
I have something new going on in racing with props. As discussed in the previous race report, the new APC props for AMA Class Quickie 500 were used in competition for the first time at the Phoenix Winterfest Q500 race.
Fred Burgdorf, the father of APC props, has worked very hard to develop and test these props to ensure that they will withstand the rigors of this level of racing in a safe and efficient way.
This section explains the history of the props and the situation that allowed them to be used at the January 21–22 race in Phoenix with the blessing of the AMA.
Everyone involved in Quickie racing is aware of the lack of availability of competitive props. Rev-Ups are by far the best wooden prop, but have not been available for at least a year and a half. A couple of other brands of props have been tried, but have proven to be substantially slower than Rev-Ups, especially the rare "sweethearts" or the "massaged" props that some pilots seem to be getting away with flying.
I was first introduced to the new APC props in late September of ’94 when Mike Delponte showed me one at our race held at the Pro-Flyers. I was immediately impressed with the stiffness of the prop. It had a substantially thicker black toward the hub than the "sport" APC props that we are used to seeing.
Mike stated that he had flown the prop and was very impressed with its smoothness and performance. With the success of APC props in almost all other model airplane events, these props needed more investigation.
Shortly thereafter I called Landing Products, which produces APC props under the leadership of Fred Burgdorf. Fred was very willing to explain how his props are designed, made, and how he tests them to ensure safety.
Fred explained that all of their props are designed in a computer first. The software developed by his brother Otto analytically calculates the stresses in the blades so that the design can be adjusted to distribute the loads evenly. Once the design is finalized, it is then sent to a CNC mill that cuts the molds for props with amazing accuracy. The result is a perfect mold in an amazingly short time.
Fred stated that if he starts with the design of a relatively small existing prop in his line and does minor adjustments such as a pitch change, he can be molding props of the new design from new molds the same day. The result is consistency and accuracy that cannot be achieved by anyone else in the market. This is especially true of wood props.
To test these new props for Quickie, Fred bolted them onto an O.S. .90 ducted fan engine with pipe. This setup allowed a 24,000+ static rpm, depending on the diameter and pitch. No failures of intact APC props occurred.
Fred then bent one of the props until it made a severe stress mark that would cause a failure on the .91 test engine. A prop stressed the same amount was then run on a Nelson-powered Quickie. No problems were experienced. This shows the amount of safety margin in these props.
I had to have some of these props to test, so I ordered three each of the appropriate sizes available at the time: 8-3/4" diameter, 8.0N, 8.25N, and 8.25N pitch (the N designates narrow blade).
After receiving the props a couple of days later I was anxious to fly them, and I headed to the local club flying field. On my somewhat tired Nelson, the 8-3/4" x 8.25N turned about 19,200 rpm. Gary Schmidt was there to help and after launching I made the comment that the plane felt as smooth as any Nelson-powered Quickie he had ever held.
The speed of the airplane was immediately impressive. The prop appeared to be at least as fast as a "sweetheart" Rev-Up. The potential of solving this current prop situation became very apparent.
I then decided that I would try to get AMA to let me put the props on the sanction form for our January 21–22 AMA Class race as an exception to the rules under 428. To do this, they would have to be convinced that the props were not a safety issue.
APC props have been in use as non-rulebook Q500 events around the country for years, including NEPRO, MOKRA, APRA and SEMPRA. Knowledge of this and the testing done by Fred proved that throwing a blade was not any more of a concern than with a wooden prop.
It was also agreed that sticking your finger in an APC prop versus a wooden prop was not a major issue in the minds of the AMA.
As the contest progressed, it became very apparent that our initial testing and impressions were true. The props were extremely consistent and very fast. They showed over and over again that they were as fast as the fastest Rev-Ups and were all the same.
On the first day of the race about half of the pilots were using them. Those who started racing wooden props began to realize that they were running their valuable, rare "sweetheart" Rev-Ups just to keep up with the clearly replaceable, inexpensive APCs.
On the second day, more than three-quarters of the pilots were using them. What more could the racers ask for? They did not go any faster than the fastest wooden props, but they were all the same and could be replaced for $3. This cannot be said for the sweetheart wooden props needed to go just as fast.
Most pilots wanted to know what they needed to do to get the props allowed at their races. They thought they were great. Mark Parker said it best: "If I fly halfway across the country, put on a new prop that I have never seen before, and can replace it with an equal one for $3, and go as fast as I have ever gone — what more could I ask for?" This was the general feeling of the majority of the racers, even a majority of the pilots who ran wood props all weekend.
The most popular props were the 8-3/4" x 8-1/2" NN and the 8.25" NN, which would both turn in the low to mid 19,000 range on the ground. Pilots were consistently saying that they were going as fast as they ever had and did not have to worry about damaging an irreplaceable commodity.
Twenty-four of 26 pilots broke 1:13; 18 of the 26 broke 1:10. That makes for some close racing.
Problems? There were none. Several pilots nosed up on takeoff and ground down the tips in varying degrees. In each case, the pilot continued with no problems — the props did bow evenly and kept right on going. Wooden props in the same situation will usually splinter or split and cause a severe imbalance. This can be dangerous. The pilots at this race who nosed up on takeoff were thankful that they were running APCs.
Oh — I forgot to tell you — we did have one prop come apart during a test run. It was a wooden prop!
The props that were used had not been stocked by most distributors — especially the new NN series. Have your hobby dealer contact his distributor and start requesting them, or try ordering them direct from Landing Products. In the meantime, you can purchase them from RACEPRO Engineering, a company that sells props and other racing stuff and works closely with Fred at Landing Products.
As you can tell, I am convinced that these props are the way to go in Quickie 500.
Thanks, Jim! See you guys next month.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
