RE: Electric Racing Development Efforts
Well, the EP-500 experiment is complete. I believe it is a viable solution to an EP entry level racing event using airframes that are readily available and many racers have on hand. Cost involved is no more than the glow power to make the conversion affordable.
I guess the next place to go would be to go to an electric sport racer. I have an LA racer and am going to assemble it to be capable of using the TT40 or the same conversion I used in the EP Q-500. I would change to an 11 x 5.5 prop and go with it. I hope to get the LA Racer together in the next couple of weeks.
As far as an electric racing event goes, I guess the interest level needs to be weighed to see where an event like this could be successful. Electric racing brings a lot to the table. If governed correctly, it could be a bunch of fun and very competitive. What I don't want to see is that for each class of racing, we have a brand new airplane with another set of requirements. We already have capable airframes out there that can be converted. For example, the QM-15 class that was replaced by Q-40. There are several designs out there that could be easily converted to electric power very cheap. Those airframe are small, but they fly great and they would be fast enough to keep people interested. We have Q-500's and we have Q-40's, and we even have Form-1's. A Q-40 conversion could be done with the same expense level as the EP Q-500 and be a bit faster. The Form-1's as well would be good conversions because there is a bunch of room in there for batteries. Another example would be the Club 2000 flown in Europe specifically E2K which is very successful. It is a smaller version Quickie airframe already with requirements that could be flown here without having to write rules.
I think the Wingman II is a very nice ARF that would make for a good racing class, but I think that if you are asking people to buy a whole new airframe and set-up to fly electric racing, that interest will not be there.
Note to self: There is a rumor that the NMPRA is evaluating a new EP racing event utilizing an all new airframe as well. I don't have specifics, but maybe someone who does could chime in.
Take Care,