RC: Pylon Racing
Duane Gall
THE QUESTION was, "Are we having fun yet?" These words, first uttered by Zippy the Pinhead circa 1978, were echoed by scores of RC pylon contestants at the 1990 Nats.
Entries at record or near‑record levels in all events demanded serious hustle from both pilots and officials. And hustle they did! Wayne and Karen Yeager, Bob Brown, and the rest of the highly professional pylon crew managed to move ’em through at an average rate of one heat every six minutes, starting at dawn and going until 1:00 p.m. (or maybe even 2:00 p.m.) each day. Although there were inevitably a couple of glitches, it was still a first‑rate contest. Out of 356 heats, only nine had to be reflown. Hats off to the officials!
And while we’re at it, a tip of the fedora to the Nats planners for putting Quickie 500 first on the schedule this time. As the lowest‑cost, lowest‑hassle pylon event, Quickie is a natural choice for warm‑up duties.
The site was excellent, and we enjoyed good weather all week, generally 80°–90°, sunny, humid, and with light and variable winds.
It’s next to impossible to distill an event of this magnitude down to the length that editor Carl Wheeley wanted—only six double‑spaced, typewritten pages—but here goes. Please see the "Competition Newsletter" section of the magazine for the official listing of contest results (trophy winners).
Quickie 500
Quickie 500 saw the largest turnout ever with 96 entrants. From the start it was apparent there would be no easy heats—these guys came to fly hard. Mike Langlois (Greenville, NC) prevailed in one four‑plane dogfight to set an early fast time of 1:21 using a neat T‑tail named Pole Duster. Jackie Lindhe (Honolulu, HI) posted 1:18 using a stock Scat Cat equipped with standard‑size Futaba S‑48 servos and a 500‑mAh battery pack. Paul Benezra (Atlanta, GA), flying a Viper V‑tail, went 1:17.
At the end of Day One, after three rounds, there was a seven‑way tie for first among:
- Craig Grunkemeyer (Columbus, OH)
- Duane Hulen (Lee’s Summit, MO)
- Mike Pate (Collierville, TN)
- Bob Lamb (St. Louis, MO)
- "Fast Freddie" French (Round Rock, TX)
- "Racer Rick" Landers (Ellenwood, GA)
- Larry Burns (Rossville, GA)
Six other pilots were tied for second, one point away from a perfect score.
Monday morning featured a popcorn‑muncher duel between Doug Whiteaker (Nashville, TN) and Racer Rick, in which their planes—V‑tail and conventional‑tail versions of Doug’s Viper design—performed the "high five," wingtip to wingtip, between pylons 2 and 3. There were many other exciting moments, but very few mishaps.
Quickie 500 is still a pilot’s event, with the planes closely matched in speed despite the many original designs, propeller and engine mythology, high‑tech materials, etc. To prove the point, Bob Lamb posted a 1:15 using a plainly stock Scat Cat with a Rossi .40 and Rev‑Up 9 x 8 narrow‑blade prop.
Then somebody thought they smelled nitro, so the fueling station was moved out in front of God and everybody, where it remained for Q/M and FAI as well. But the times continued to be good, and a teardown of all of the trophy winners’ engines revealed no hanky‑panky.
Many of the super times resulted from new thinking in the propeller department: sizes up to 9 x 8, rpm down to 15,300 (Lamb) or 15,500 (Benezra). Except for Whiteaker and one or two others using Webras, the engine of choice was the Rossi with the large‑bore (0.330 in.) carb barrel.
There were many displays of good sportsmanship. Fred French, the fourth‑place winner, interrupted the awards ceremony to acknowledge the caller, Paul Polanek, who was attending his first Nats. Fred gave Paul the fourth‑place prize, a Texas Outlaw Q500 kit donated by Dick Ritch. I also saw competitors giving each other pointers on their flying, helping with repairs and adjustments, and generally acting like grownups. In this regard Mike Pate deserves special mention. He did all of the above, placed third, and posted the fourth fastest time. Mike is 15!
Quarter Midget (QM)
Quarter Midget, with 42 entries and only a half‑day to fly, was another hurry‑up date. As usual there was a tremendous variety of aircraft and engine combinations. The Nelson .40 is the near‑universal choice of power plant, and just about any propeller that would hold the engine between 27,000 and 28,200 rpm on the ground seemed to work. Those with carbon‑fiber props were going the fastest.
How fast? Benezra set a new record, 1:11.20, in addition to capturing first place. He flew a Miss RJ P‑51 produced by Gail "Jake" Jacobson (College Park, GA). The prop diameter was six inches and had progressive pitch, ranging from 4‑1/2 in. at station 2 on the pitch gauge to 5.3 in. at station 4 and 5.5 in. at stations 5 and 6.
Races were extremely tight throughout. At one point Landers, Jake, Joe Dodd (Columbus, OH), and Brad Clayton (Decatur, AL) matched up for a sure burner. After Clayton nosed over on takeoff, the others pummeled each other until all three had double‑cut four planes, four zeros!
But the high point of QM came early in round six when Ray Blake (Detroit, MI) won a hotly contested heat against J.P. Hanway, Gordon McWilliams, and Wes Acton. Ray has been a hard charger for 16 years, but hadn't yet won a heat at the Nats. You should have heard the pit area erupt when the winner of that heat was announced! Congratulations, Ray!
FAI
The FAI event showed tremendous improvement in 1990. Last year I topped a field of six; this year we had 18 entries, and all were fast. Much of the credit goes to Henry Nelson (Zelienople, PA) and Dave Shadel (Carlsbad, CA) for introducing the FAI version of their new Pylon Special 40, complete with pipe. Now you can buy this complete nitro‑free power plant off the shelf. Five of the top six used this power plant.
Aircraft designs have come a long way, too. Most wildly original was Jim Katz's 1930s Tiger Moth monoplane, flown by him and Mike Langlois, featuring ultralight balsa‑wood, plywood‑skinned, tissue‑finished foam wings with carbon‑fiber spars and very low airfoil at the tip. These two flew against each other at one point, going 1:15 without ever leaving knife‑edge, looking like a couple of storks on acid.
Nobody used retracts this year, although retracts are allowed in FAI. Apparently the light weight and simplicity of fixed gear make up for the drag penalty. Almost no one used wooden props. The most popular props were Dub Jett's carbon‑fiber ones (or copies of same) with a diameter of about 7¾ in. and progressive pitches of 6, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0, 7.25, and 7.5 at stations 2 through 8 of the gauge. The airfoil is undercambered at stations 2 and 3.
Most pilots reported ground rpm of about 23,000. Using CF props on .40s scares me, but they sure work.
Seven rounds of FAI were flown—one too many for Dave Shadel, who would have had it sewn up but for the tremendous performance of his compatriot Richard Verano (Los Angeles, CA) on his last flight, who went 1:11 flat to establish a new world record! I can imagine the conversation later: "Thanks, Dave, that engine you sold me works real good!"
Formula I
Formula I, with 49 entries, began at dawn Thursday with background music by Aerosmith and a high level of excitement in the air. For many die‑hard racers, this is the Main Event—the fastest, loudest, and glitziest of the four pylon classes.
It's also more subtle than would at first appear. The high‑thrust engines need a deft touch on the needle valve, and changing weather conditions during the day require slight adjustments from one heat to the next. Richard Verano was reminded of this the hard way, as he flamed out early in a heat against Lyle Larson (San Juan Capistrano, CA) and Bob Petrinec (Chicago, IL). Paul Benezra had similar problems all day long, and even Shadel couldn't make his 10 laps come Friday morning. Clearly, nobody was going to sweep this Nats.
One pilot making a very strong showing was M.A.'s regular "RC Pylon Racing" columnist, Bill Hager (Conroe, TX), returning after a six‑year absence from serious competition. Bill posted a 1:17 right off the bat, losing narrowly to Clark "Buckwheat" Wade (Chicago, IL) in round two, and would go 1:11 before it was all over.
Dave Layman, fielding the best‑of‑show P‑51 in glorious multicolored paint, proved it wasn't a hangar queen by going 1:11 and 1:10 in his first two heats. After round four, Shadel, Wade, and Chip Hyde (the same one who flies Pattern) were seeded for first; Larson and "Stormin' Norman" Johnstone were tied for second; and Layman, Langlois, and Chuck Wahl were tied for third.
Meanwhile, the talk in the pits was the Great Channel 14 Conspiracy. It seems that 12 of the 49 entries—one‑quarter of the field, including some of the world's fastest pilots—are registered on Shadel's frequency, RC14; as a result, Wade, Layman, Heltzel, Verano, Johnson, Hyde, Cranfill, Telford, Allen, Jett, and Lyle never had to fly against Shadel or each other. They had relatively easy pickings among the rest of us duelers, and the scores show it. No doubt some of these gentlemen ended up on Channel 14 purely by chance—but shame on those who didn't! What good is a trophy if you don't earn it?
In the next‑to‑last round, Hager pushed Shadel into a 1:09.8 that would stand as the fast time of the meet. Verano squeaked out a victory over Wahl, Langlois, and Jim Young (Garland, TX) to regain a spot in the top 10. Wahl and Verano rematched in a flyoff with yours truly for eighth, ninth, and 10th, which Verano won.
Finally, a very nervous Layman edged out Larson in the flyoff for second and third, breaking the best‑of‑show curse by keeping his shiny bird intact. Wade, solidly in first on points, remained above the fray to take home the Formula I National Championship trophy.
Conclusion
In all, the 1990 Nats RC pylon events were not only a big contest, but a good one. Many thanks to the workers and pilots whose cooperation made it such a success.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
