Radio Control: Pylon Racing
First a special note about an old Formula One flier. The AMA Executive Council voted to present Gale F. Helms with a 1990 Technical Award. The award recognizes his innovative efforts in using and promoting the material, DMD, for use for model aircraft hinges. The modeling community has benefited greatly from his concept of creating a hinge that is strong, dependable, and simple to install. Let's back up to a race I always enjoyed attending, here as reported by Rex Knepper, the 17th annual Hobby Stop Silver Cup Quarter Midget Race, La Salle, MI., August 25 and 26, 1990. The 17th annual event, sponsored by Les Haddad's Hobby Stop and hosted by the Toledo Weak Signals and Flying Tigers clubs, was well attended. Forty-nine fliers from 13 states, Minnesota to Florida, California to New York, participated in this premier event. Two days without rain made for ideal racing followed by the Ron Haddad Memorial Trophy Dash which pitted the fastest 12 fliers in the final race of the event.
Radio Control: Pylon Racing
AS PROMISED last month, here is a better look at a new FAI and Formula One engine that will be coming out this year. The engine was designed by Henry Nelson and developed and marketed by Dave Shadel/Performance Specialties. Some of the highlights of this engine are: ( New stronger cylinder liner for longer life and improved resistance to going out-of-round. ( Six-bolt cylinder head for lower cylinder distortion. ( Front hold-downs on the crankcase to improve stiffness. ( Integral-drive-washer spinner for wobble-free operation.
Radio Control: Pylon Racing
HI. GANG! There are a lot of new items for '89. I just received a computer program from John Wall, 931 Ohio Ave., Lemoyne, PA 17043. This program will put together a matrix that avoids all third-order intermodulation radio interference. The program is one of several put together to help make things easier for contest management. More on this later in the season. Pete Seabase told me about Quarter-Scale Racing in another letter. Pete writes about the Tangerine Quarter-Scale races: "The second Quarter-Scale Formula 120 race of the 1989 season-and the first to see the influx of 1.2 four-stroke engines-was run on December 31, 1988 at the Tangerine Internationals.
Radio Control: Pylon Racing
NEW RULES? In the March 1989 edition of the "Competition Newsletter" section of Model Aviation you had a chance to see how the Radio Control Racing Contest Board members performed with their Initial Vote on the proposed rule changes for 1990-91. Let's look at these rules very closely. If they survive the forthcoming Final Vote, we will have to live with them very soon. Let's look at RCR 90-8. This restricts fuel used in Formula One to a content of 15% nitromethane, and would be supplied by contest management.
Radio Control: Pylon Racing
WELL, here we are just about midway through the '88 Pylon Racing season with plenty of racing for Q500, Formula One, and Quarter Midget. There's also lots of home-brew type contests put on by a large majority of AMA clubs that most of us don't even know about. Let's look at some race reports from around the country; but first, a few comments from yours truly. Why Pylon Racing? There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of Pylon Races of some type being held every year. People just love to race. There is a little competitive blood in everyone. Some of you are just as happy flying around the club field and maybe racing a friend once in a while. A large majority of you might enter club races, racing trainer-type planes or whatever.
