ORIGINAL: Siefring
So a related question.
What goes on when I see a pylon racer make a turn. It almost looks like they approach the turn in a knife edge and make the turn with the elevator (w/conventional tail). I'm not sure what goes on with a v-tail. Is that really what is going on? Why would this be a good way to make a quick turn?
Carl
You'll note that they don't stay in that knife edge for long. Ever whatched a swallow fly? They flit their wings a few times then fold them and "coast" for a second in a nice little arc before flitting again. LIke the swallows the pylon models coast for a moment with some help from the fuselage side area. And they don't turn only because they are typically set very close to neutral stability so they don't "lift" around in a turn until they add the up elevator. But if they went to knife edge a 1/ or 1/2 second earlier the model would side slip and loose more altitude most likely.
Having only seen about 1/2 a dozen pylon models fly ever this was my impression. I think the "hang time" looks longer only because they cover so much ground in that moment