The lowly stab....
Ive been cruising through pictures of many popular pylon racing stabilizer planforms (cruciform that is, excluding vtails) basically looking for any trends or commonality for my design. There seems to be a lot of variation & artistic licence in terms of the outline shape. Some are curved, some are straight, some have swervy tips, some are plain vanilla rectangles with radiused corners. I would expect structural/weight issues to influence a portion of the design decision, but there doesnt even seem to be agreement between models of the same racing class.

Assuming the basic stab area & airfoil is engineered to do its job of balancing the wing moment during cruise & initiating/maintaing the turn during pull, Im interested to hear comments on what parameters would logically go into a 'good' racing stab design.

- is there any stall related issues so that an eliptical type planform might be preferred?
- is there an optimal aspect ratio analagous to wing design?
- what would make a good stab airfoil & why?
- does the affect of wing wash or prop wash influence planform shape?
- is there any relationship to wing shape influencing stab shape or are they completely independant?
- typical pylon racers never (intentionally) fly inverted yet most racing stabs are symmetrical. They only have a job to do in 1 direction - between neutral (crusie) & turn (lift). Would an 'inverted' lifting stab offer any benefit (like a car rear wing?)

Here is a snappy looking F5D (electric) pylon racer I fly for reference.