Teachu2
Posts: 846
Joined: 12/5/2001
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DHG
30 years ago, Glen Spickler's purpose-built "entry-level" racing airplane -- the original Quickie 500 -- only did 80-90 mph with the engine it was designed for, the mighty K & B Torpedo .40. Ten-lap times were around 2 minutes. (Yes, TWO entire minutes!) Compare that to the 120-130 mph we're trying to sell as "entry-level" and you'll notice a very slight  50-percent increase.
Spickler's design rapidly caught on because the airspeed of that combination, as well as its flying characteristics, were so similar to what the target audience (weekend sport flyers) were ALREADY FLYING. There was no "learning curve" to speak of, except for learning to fly around yourself.
Duane Gall
RCPRO
Greetings from the Birthplace of Quickee Racing. Duane makes some valid points. Glen designed the original as a club racer for BARKS back when we ran the biggest F1 event in the world. Glen saw the need to involve more people in pylon, and that required a class that the average sport flyer could handle. The Spickler Quickee was intentionally slow, stable and hard to stall. Glen sold kits dirt-cheap, and probably gave away several dozen to folks he thought would enjoy it but couldn't afford it. We raced every month that weather allowed, and had lots of fun. So much fun that guys started coming up from Los Angeles to fly with us. Everyone flew the same airframe, and a couple of enterprising fellas built a set of jigs to frame them up and sold them as ARCs and ARFs. Everyone ran "stock" K&B .40s, and there was a claim rule.
About the time I went off to college, we had a major accident at the F1 race - a turn worker was hit by a fuse that had come thru a pylon and he lost a kidney. Within a couple years, the race was history.
In the mid-80s, I returned to BARKS to find pylon racing gone. Q500 had grown to the point of opening up the class to different airframes and engines, and it lost it's entry-level appeal. I hoped to revive it, so I proposed a club class - Spickler Quickees and box-stock OS FP40s. We got about 30% of our active members participating, and had a ball. Racing was tight, because the planes were equal. It was not unusual for three of four planes to battle all the way to the finish. $5 entry fee, club supplied fuel, flight box stickon plaques to the winners, 2 classes - beginner and advanced. Win two and you had to move up.
This went on for about a year, then several members wanted to allow other airframes so that they could compete in races 100 miles up the road. The club voted in the changs, and soon Doddgers were the plane to beat. That went another year, then the rules we changed to allow any $100 motor.....and we never had another race.
Entry-level classes need to be uniform and consistent. I would love to see a single airframe/single motor class established on a national level. Spec the airframe so that it could be produced by any manufacturer, kitted, or scratched. Specs should be specific enough that everyone is flying the same airframe, regardless of who built it. Adopt a set of plans, allow NO variation from it whatsoever - no changes to airfoil, no internal linkages, no different landing gear (you COULD even spec trike gear!), nuthin! If you did so on a national level, manufacturers would conform to the rules - and quality would determine sales. Spec iron-on covering. Limit the motor to bushing 40s, no mods. Spec APC 9x6 sport props, max RPM and provide 10% fuel. Weigh the planes, and establish minimum weight that allows a standard flight pack to be used competitively.
Entry-level classes need to be uniform and consistent. Entry-level classes need to be uniform and consistent. Entry-level classes need to be uniform and consistent. Entry-level classes need to be uniform and consistent.
Whatever rules you establish, they need to be easy to follow and enforced without exception. Leave 424 and 428 alone - but establish an entry-level pylon class that STAYS entry-level. Establish straight-forward rules, enforce them and DON'T CHANGE THEM.
For an entry-level class to sustain itself, it has to be uniform and consistent. That is a basic requirement for the racing to be FAIR. How cool would it be if half the clubs in the country had a race every month that all used the same entry-level setups? Folks that wanted to race could easily establish a schedule with other area clubs, and race enough to keep it fun. Racing doesn't have to be fast to be fun - four planes running 80-82 mph is more fun than 1 at 125, 1 at 120, and 2 at 115. A race with 25-30 pilots flying virtually identical $200 airframe/motor combos would be fun.
428 and 424 are classes that encourage development of faster equipment. That is great, but it's DEATH to an entry-level class. Many pilots would fly pylon if it wasn't so demanding - yes, I SAID IT - and there is a need for a place for these fliers. Including them in pylon can only benefit the sport! These less-serious racers would provide 424 and 428 with new blood (some WILL want to go faster!) and will also stimulate interest in pylon generally. The flyers who choose to stay in the entry-level class are much more likely to volunteer to work the 424/428 races.......
_____________________________
Trent Combs
Fly 'em until the last piece stops!
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RE: Growth of the sport - 
