dwbebens
Posts: 207
Joined: 4/25/2005
From: Dickson,
TN, USA
Status: offline
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The following race report was E-mailed to me yesterday from Lyman Slack. Lyman is a major contributor to the success of our North-Central Florida Club 40 racing.
Doug Bebensee
Start of Lyman's report:
The Tri-County club put on a great Club 40 race Saturday, the 12th of May. Despite lingering smoke and haze from those nasty fires raging further North of Dunnellon, we had near perfect weather with light and variable breezes. Don Adkins had all of his help ready and well briefed. Eight clubs were represented. Those who started summer vacation early missed some good racing, not to mention the always great chow from the Rainbow Café.
During the lunch break, Bill Tilly and Ted Barker had their Sport 240 racers on display and cranked then up trying to get some Club 40 guys hooked on these bigger and much more powerful planes. The next Sport 240 race is scheduled for Saturday, May 19th at the Ocala Flying Model Club.
Now the good news – there were no mid-airs, though there were a lot of close calls! More good news for World Models and their dealers – several racers decided to get rid of their old models the hard way. Jim Neelands continues his torrid love affair with pylons, hitting #2 once again. Bill Tilly and Ralph Rogers also crashed, one of them into the center-line pole. Joe Anderson had a case of severe aileron flutter causing his crash.
This flutter is the first time this phenomenon has surface since we started racing these aircraft. After Joe’s crash, it was impossible to determine the exact cause. Perhaps it might be a good time right now to do a close inspection of all of our aircraft, with emphasis on tugging on hinges and checking the security of the aileron horns.
After four rounds were flown, there were no perfect scores; we had Glen Angle with 15 points, Perry Pelham and Ed Smith with 13 points each, and two with 12 points, necessitating a fly off between Doug Bebensee and Bill Barlow for the fourth slot in the Gold Heat. Bill won and was in the Gold.
The Gold was won by JAX Gateway’s Perry Pelham, followed by Flying Gator’s Honest Ed Smith and OTOW’s Glen Angle. Ocala’s Bill Barlow had one of those freak things happen – his fuel line came off shortly after takeoff!
For you number-crunchers out there, of the 20 heats flown, 11 pilots won at least one of them, showing once again that no one racer has any significant advantage over anyone else! This also demonstrates that the rules currently in place are indeed working!
The venue for Club 40 racing will move to the Ocala Flying Model Club on Saturday, June 16th.
End of Lyman's report.
Just a comment on the aircraft that had "aileron flutter" and then crashed: I was watching that plane before and during the incident. The reason I was watching that plane was because it was involved in a furious and exciting battle with another plane. Quite a few times prior the the crash, these two planes had near mid-airs. That flutter, loss of control, and crash occured just after rounding #2 pylon (two-pole course). Immediately before the crash, on the way from #1 to #2 pylons, maybe 100 feet before #2, this airplane may have had a minor mid-air with the other plane. It appeared that it came right together with the other plane, but there was no apparent damage or noise at the time. Then when they rounded #2, the crash occured. After this plane rounded #2 pylon, I could actually see one aileron skewed back and away from the wing as it rolled up and over and then down to the ground. I suspect that some minor aileron damage occured during the possible contact with the other plane. When the plane rolled and then pulled through the turn, the stress of the turn caused the damaged aileron to come loose, thus causing the crash. Just my theory of the situation. Of course we should all check our hinges on a regular basis.
All in all, another excellent race.
Doug Bebensee
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Printable Version
All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> Pylon Universe - RC Pylon Racing >> Club 40 >> RE: Club 40 Racing Hangout 
RE: Club 40 Racing Hangout - 
I thought you were doing well and expected you to change to advanced by the next race.
3 heats - 3 wins and he won the "A" main in a very close battle with Eddie Flesher. 
