Radio Control: Pylon Racing
Dave Lane
I hope all you racers survived the New Year's Eve parties and enjoyed a Merry Christmas. Now get busy and put the finishing touches on that new bird for the '79 racing season!
Bob Violett Models is marketing a new pair of racing wheels for Quickie 500 and Formula One. The hubs are molded nylon in halves and are held together with four flat-head machine screws. An "O" ring tire is stretched over the assembly so that the completed wheel looks like the machined aluminum wheels but is lighter. They sell for $6.95 per pair. Check with Bob Violett Models or your local hobby shop.
I worked the California National Air Races at Mojave in October. Ray Cote turned a 253.5-mph lap during practice and averaged 245 mph for five laps in the IXL heat race.
Paul White was walking around on "cloud nine" the rest of the weekend. About five months ago, when I was down at the Oceanside Airport where Paul was rebuilding Shoestring, Paul told me he was looking for 252 mph this year! He used several of the "tricks of the trade" from the modeling world during the rebuilding of Shoestring.
Another interesting fact turned up at Mojave. Shoestring meets all of the Formula One racing requirements. So, technically, Ray Cote can race Shoestring in any Formula One or IXL race that he so desires. This ought to really upset the Formula One people who protested Cote in 1976 and had him suspended from Formula One racing. Sounds like the full-size boys have as many problems as we do.
I noticed in the last NMPRA news release that the Q.M. officials do not feel they are getting a fair shake from NMPRA. I think Bob Smith did his best to correct any inequities in the organization during his stint as NMPRA president.
He tried to give 29% of the membership (Q.M.) the same exposure as 71% (F1). It seems that if anyone received an "unfair shake," it would be the Formula One contingent. I would suggest that more Q.M. people join NMPRA to strengthen their voice in the organization. Let's face it, a national organization can only function if all of the members pull together. You can't expect a few to run the whole show and please everyone. It takes a lot of dedicated people to make an organization effective, such as the EAA has done over the past 26 years.
So, if you don't like what is happening within the NMPRA, don't gripe about it—get your people together and do something. If it wasn't for the NMPRA, we wouldn't have RC pylon racing as we know it today. We would probably have .29-powered 600-sq.-in. kites flying one at a time around two pylons, against the clock.
Let's all work toward a better NMPRA for 1979 by pulling together, recruiting new members, and keeping current members. Support your District Vice Presidents and get the problems ironed out for a great '79 racing season.
Tip of the month — Engine and spinner setup
- Make sure the motor mount fits flush against the firewall and is mounted with four 6-32 machine screws.
- Be sure the engine lugs fit flush to the rails of the mount. Secure the engine to the mount with 6-32 machine screws.
- Use Lock-Tite on all screws attaching the engine and mount to the airframe. A slightly misaligned or loose engine on the motor mount can cost you as many as 1,000 rpm or more.
- Pay particular attention to the fit and balance of the spinner:
- Spinner should be balanced.
- Back plate must be square to the crankshaft.
- Crankshaft center hole should snugly fit the shaft.
- Spinner cone should fit snugly to the back plate.
- An out-of-balance or out-of-round spinner will cost rpm and can cause the engine to shake loose.
- Keep the engine compartment clean and maintain good paint bonding. The engine compartment receives continuous saturation with fuel; eventually fuel will cause paint to deteriorate. If the paint bond is poor, the engine may suck loose paint through the intake and either plug the needle valve or score the piston sleeve.
The above information also applies to Quarter Midget aircraft.
Go fast — turn left.
Dave Lane 4477 W. 136th St. Hawthorne, CA 90250
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
