sbtflyhi1

I have started this new thread becuase I have search high and low for a place for pilots to converse about 1/2A size aircraft racing. And have found no place for pilots to exchange information and ideas.

I belong to a group in that is located primarily in Utah County ( just Soulth of Salt lake City, UT) that is called the Central Utah Pylon Racing Association.We fly two types of aircraft. All based upon a 200 sq inch wing plan form. We currently fly an Eletric class ( We call it the E-200) that has a restricive motor off of a preapproved list and 3s1p 1350 mAh batteries. The second class is the glow class that uses the same plan form and any glow engine that is .061 or smaller.

We have found that the many racers will fly both classes and airframes range from structures based an the ACE GLH to to latest composite structres. We welcome all which would love to participate.

You can find out Web site at the following link.

http//:sites.google.com/site/cuprapylons/home.

Here are: a couple of pictures that will hopeful prime the pump for others thoughts.

[img]file:///Users/steves/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/2009/04/11/IMG_6713.JPG[/img]

sbtflyhi1

After last weekend I have nothing to fly. So starting today I pulled out an old glow racer that has been in the hanger as a bare bones plane for several years. Some may remeber the Undertaker designed in the the 70's. Well that was befoire my time but I did fly with the designer and came across his plans and build a couple of his plans during the 80's. If I remember right they were abit tail heavy. I'm hoping that by bring this one back out to the "Tarmat" replacing the glow with an eletric it can perform well enough to atleast get a couple of points on the board.

I have two weeks to get the thing flying. Need to get all the radio gear in it along with changing over to the eletric motor mount and fix up all the linkages and get it covered. My last Undertaker had a way cool cover design. But took way too many hours. Here's a pic from oh oh oh so many years ago.

sbtflyhi1

No worries the Undertaker has taken an early retirement. I have busted the front off the thing while trying to drill the firewall.

mikegordon10

Sharper drill bit maybe?

sbtflyhi1

How 'bout a lighter hand or more planning. I'll pick up new this weekend.

mikegordon10

Pick up new what? From who? Wanna have me build one fer ya?

sbtflyhi1

I'm goning to give it a go. Jon has a wing already cut that he was running on last years plane. I'm going to retrieve it tomorrow.

actonw5

Thanks for the thread. I am please there are others interested in small pylon racers. The photos are an inspiration.

At the moment, I only have an old Owen Kampen Ace Upstart that I was planning to convert to electric motor.

HT

droidracer

Hey any Pylon racing in the ontario canada area, I just bought a LR1 pylon plane and converted it to electric using axi 2814 6D motor with 60 amp controler 2800 30c 11.1 volt battery very fast and want to learn to race

sbtflyhi1

I have been back in the building mode again. And have found that placing a "Jack Screw" under the tail of the fuselage helps to easy the alignment process.

I level my building board and then place the wing in the saddle. Align for squareness and then use an incidence gauge to level the fuselage sighting on the incidence gauge. The "Jack Screw" can be turned up or down very easily to make level and set the incidence.

I can then attach the tail using a very small level and right angle triangles to ensure that the every thing is square and level.

Than I move to the firewall. Using a square to align the firewall and set its incidence and yaw. On my racers I have been setting every thing to "0" incidence.

I have used this method once before after reading about it here in the Q-500 forum. I find that it works great. As things get put into place I find that the building jig and "Jack Screw" ensures that everything is "locked in" and extremely stable.

Does anybody else have some cleaver things that has helped ensure the squareness and speed up the building process?

nekked_man_2000

I have one of the black and decker workmate work benches. I took 4 very large pieces of threaded rod I had, put nuts on the bottom, they are about 8" long. I put the in the "dog" holes in the bench and put pipe insulation around them. Then you can clamp the fuselage in firmly whilst you work on it. Works great for set-up like you are talking about, I don't use a jack screw, I just level it with a piece of foam under the tail, snug up the "vice" then fine tune the tail to level, then clamp it tight enough so that it won't move. This is also great for covering, I can turn a wing up on edge, clamp half of it while I cover the other half. Use it to hold the body while I install the radio, drill the firewall...the list goes on. I just looked, I guess I don't have any pictures of it.

Austin

Zonker40

To stbflhi1:  I'm impressed that you built an Undertaker.  My buddy Mike Edmunds and I (Milt Sanders) designed and built that, and I wrote the magazine article for it.  It always was a pretty fast plane and met the AMA 1/2A pylon rules.  You are right in that it took awhile to build.  Mike built his to come in around 15 ounces, although at the time, the AMA rule was 20 ounces min.  I still have my original one hanging in the garage.  If I remember correctly (senior moments and such), it came out in the Radio Control Modeler Magazine in Mar 85, or thereabouts.  Sorry to hear that you broke the nose off of it.   I designed a much easier to build one about 17 years ago (egad!  has it been that long?), but never published it.  It held its own at the club field.

juanjulian

My Feedback: (9)

Probably a dumb question but here it is:

Why only one aileron?

All the big pylon planes at my club have both.

Thanks

Juan</p>

Zonker40

One aileron:  I don't think it really makes a whole lot of difference.  Being an aeronautical engineer, here is my explanation:  pylon turns are all to the left.  The aileron on the right wing goes down to roll left.  As the aileron goes down, it creates more drag on the right wing.  This drag (both induced drag due to increased lift to raise the right wing, and form drag because the aileron is deflected down into a higher pressure area) tends to keep the nose up in the left turn.  Not having a left aileron decreases total drag (no aileron gap) which supposedly means faster airspeed, and also eliminates the complexity of having a linkage in the left wing (easier to build).  Why doesn't it make a whole lot of difference?  Because the speeds are relatively slow.  Drag is proportional to the square of the speed in feet/sec.  The bigger airplanes usually go faster.  Also bigger pylon racers use two ailerons for redundancy, i.e. safety.  A 4-6 lb airplane at 100+ mph has a lot more momentum smashing into something than a 1 lb plane at 65-95 mph.  That's my take on the situation.  My Quickie 500's all have two ailerons, my 1/2 A's have one.

Milt

juanjulian

My Feedback: (9)

thanks

kenh3497

This is just what I've been looking for!!!

I have a 1/2A pylon racer, I started to build years ago based on the old Ace foam wing. I have a minimal fuze half built and want to convert to electric. Also have an old Mustang (1/2A) that just begs for an electric conversion.