I thought everyone would enjoy a pictorial overview from the recent USRA giant scale air race that was held in Ashtabula, OH on August 19-21. CD Tony Husak and the MARCS club have been hosting this race for five years at the Ashtabula County Airport and they certainly put on a very well-run contest for this sixth year, too. Best of all, the racing was awesome and everyone had a wonderful time!


This is the main hanger that was used for pilot meetings, nightly aircraft storage, and the Saturday night banquet. The racers were stored among the full-scales which made for some interesting photo opportunities!

The pits were mostly setup on the aircraft parking ramp area and along the main taxiway. Here are some general shots of several of the competitor's pit areas.

The aircaft were staged according to class and the current heat matrix along the main taxiway. Here the Dominators are first up with the Fornula 1-GT planes awaiting their turn. An interesting variety of aircraft is evident!

The fueling station was professionally managed by the incomparable Pete Hanbury. He expertly delivered the gas and kept everyone laughing with his "antics". Eric Hunter gets his GR-7 a fresh tank here.

The pilot stations were arranged and protected with carefully placed hay bails. Note the five "lane" colors. Here, the Formula One pilots and thier crew members await the start of their heat race. Once race control has everything ready, they give the command to start engines and the launch seqeunce commences while the two-minute start clock counts down. Ken McSpadden's orange GR-7 is just about to be released as Fred Sargent (left) and Fred French (right) circle overhead.

The camera I was using was not well suited for flight shots, so I decided to get plenty of static shots of airplanes.

Pic 1 - I believe this is Mike Tallman's #29 GR-7 in the foreground and Dean Cranston preparing his Polecat in the background.

Pic 2 - Another Polecat that Terry Williams' flew in the F1 class with another Dominator from the Indiana gang.

Pic 3 - The "twin" Kellys (sorry scoring judges!) from "Potential Flow Racing". That's the #43 of Larry Lewis (at the trailer door) in the foreground and my #42 in back. We both raced in the F1-GT class and fortunately only flew in the same heat once.

Pic 1 - Dad, Scott Hanbury (right) and Mike Tallman (center) getting ready to do an engine run on Jake Hanbury's Dominator.

Pic 2 - Ed Rankin, a cornerstone of this hobby for many years, sits and ponders the next heat with his fast, self-designed, F1 "Proud Bird". The very knowledgeable and awesome flying Fred Sattler did the piloting honors.

Pic 3 - "Fast Freddy" French has it all figured out. He has sleek own-designed airplanes (green F1-GT GR-7 in front and red F-1 version on stand), powered by awesome self-modified engines (in his F-1), with a great caller in his wife, and has the "thumbs" to get the job done right! He won both classes at this race!

Pic 1 - I believe this is Larry Sutherland with a Cosmic Wind F-1. This aircraft was quite fast but unfortunately was grounded after the rudder departed and was lost out in the field. Who says everyone flies a GR-7!

Pic 2 - Although I don't recall the owner's name, this was the best looking Dominator I have seen. Fred French helped the fellow Texas flyer all weekend and even donated a Zenoah GT-80 to him at the awards ceremony. What a great mentor!

Pic 3 - More of those "Texas guys". Jerry Bradley (front) and Eric Hunter (rear) ready their GR-7's. Jerry won F-1 at the Rantoul race! I think this was a new airplane for Eric and he made the Gold Trophy race with it!

Pic 1 - The fun and ever-helpful Ray "Big Dog" Thompson poses with his Cassutt.

Pic 2 - Big Dog and Bobby Slaughter are trying hard to revitalize the biplane class. They each flew 1/3 scale Great Planes Christan Eagle ARF's with GT-80's in them. These planes are cheap, legal (as modified Pitts S-2's), strong , and fast and should get many more people racing quickly.

Pics 3&4 - Loren and Sammy with their fleet of racers. Shown are an F-1 Proud Bird (in back), an unlimited NA-50 (center), and a Dominator (right).

Pic 1 - John Lockwood (center) and his team mates wait in the shade for the action to heat up. John won the Biplane class with his "Mong".

Pic 2 - John's flew in both the F1-GT and F-1 classes with these very nice Proud Birds.

Pic 1 - The "Team JR Racing" pits were full of aircraft. Pete Goldsmith is all smiles as he and Larry Lewis trade laughs. That's Pete's Kelly in front of him.

Pic 2 - And this is Pete's "Vendetta" that was developed as a light-weight, low complexity unlimited racer powered by a DA-150 on glow! Tom Keating (foreground) and Chris Justus worked very hard with Pete to get his thing right....and they did! It was competitive!!

Pic 3 - Tom also likes something different with his F-1. Here, he poses with his "Video Cassutt" that he and Chris developed. Cool!

Pic 4 - This is Chris' GR-7 that I had to battle with all weekend. He was consistently fast and finished second in the F1-GT Gold.

Pic 5 - All you need at the flight line is your TX and a starter....NOT! Chris Justus packs up the wagon.

Pic 1 - We now move over to the "Speed Demons" Racing tent. This is the brainchild of current USRA President Scott Hanbury (walking toward you). These guys are everywhere! Racers, friends, and family are all included here to maximize the fun!

Pic 2 - Mark Zeal's red/white and Fred Sargent's flamin' GR-7's cool off after some hot racing.

Pic 3 - Scott's speedy F1-GT GR-7 poses for an inverted pass. Note the awesome paint job on all of these birds!

Pic 4 - The always fast'n'fun Kenny McSpadden's GR waits it's turn again.

Pic 1 - Tom Easterday's "Team Extra" is another team that does it right. These guys are the pinnacle of professionalism. They even rest as a team! Diego Lopez' F-1 Kelly is in the foreground.

Pic 2 - "The man to beat", Dave Smith's beautiful Herby powered Miss Ashley sits atop a really nice pit cart.

Pic 3 - Diego's Ashley (front) is powered by a ZDZ -160 while Tom's (rear) uses an Aerrow 200.

Pic 4 - Tom Easterday really contributes alot to keep this sport healthy. And that includes race purse money! Here, he checks out the wing of a Kelly, which is one of the airframes that he has kitted. Thanks for all you do, Tom!

Pic 5 - Tom's Miss Ashley looks fast sitting still!

awesome pics Robert, thank you for posting them...i herd the bipe class got alot of hip hop to it...Holly even picked one up on his way home anfd we plan to have me flying that and a spankin new Kelly at Parker..that is if Holly can get them both done..i have all the faith in the world in him. gonna be a fun race..i will be on the entire circit next year since school is over..sounds like a good time out there wish i could of made it!! c ya at parker fer shizzle (for sure) tryin to work in a little suprise for all the vets out there who remember my reputation

Cole

Late afternoon on Saturday, we were greeted by an awesome thunderstorm that took it's toll on the pit area and race course. Fortuntely, we all took shelter in the large hanger and nobody was hurt. It was over less than one hour later and we ventured out to check everything out. Here's a few pics of what we saw.

Aside from some tent damage, everything was going to be ready to go for Sunday! So we went on to have the Banquet in the hanger with an awesome spread of food and even better fellowship. And fun filled the air once again. Big Dog is shown getting the CG right on his golf cart so Bobby Slaughter can do some "tricK' driving. And I waved one of my favorite flags...........

Although I'll try to post the entire rundown of each class when that information is distributed to me, here's a list of Gold Trophy race winners for each class (as I recall):

Unlimited - Diego Lopez
F1- Fred French
Biplane - John Lockwood
F1- GT - Fred French
Dominator - Mike Tallman

Trophies were awarded for all the Gold/Silver trophy race positions. Horizon Hobby donated Zenoah GT-80's to the Gold winners of each class (plus some extra ones given away in class drawings) and CRT (Tom Easterday) presented sizable checks for Unlimited, F-1, and biplane Gold winners.

This style of racing is absolutley awesome and the people who do it are extremely fun to be around. I can't wait for the next race in Parker, AZ. See the official USRA website for all the details of this sport at: www.usrainfo.org.

But, most importantly, join the fun. COME RACE WITH US!!!

Awesome photos and recap of the event. I especially liked Mr. French's paint scheme, I may need to add a few black checkerboards to my white and Green Paint Scheme. Really adds a nice touch!

Cole, We missed finally meeting you at this race but there's always the next one! Yeah that bipe ARF sure looks inviting. I know Larry and I have discussed thrownig one together! It sounds like you are keeping Holly busy......and now a new Kelly.....I can personally say that this is a pretty good airplane to hit the course with. And your surprise for the race veterens must certainly involve Hp!

Fred does have a nice looking scheme. And his travel trailer even matches (see attached pic and look towards the front of it). Now that's what I call coordination! He definitely earns those checkerd flags alot, too.

Those are increditable machines. Can you describe the race process? I assume you don't fly around yourself

Yep,

definately like the looks of that plane.

I've met and raced Mr. Tallman for several years, you may not know it, but he can soup up a golf cart as good as anyone.

Sure! We utilize a two pylon course unlike the three-pole course of AMA/FAI racing. The pylons at positioned about 250-300 feet out from the pilot stations and 800 feet to either side of the center along a line parallel to the flight line. So the pilots all stand in conventional pilot positions and fly out in front of themselves around a 1600 foot course. We fly six laps which, with good turn radii, equates top about 3.8 miles as a typical race distance.

Here's how the race works. There is a big digital clock out in front of the pilots at the center of the course on the start/finish line. When everyone is ready, the flightline chief (Holly Holligsworth) gives the command to start engines. The clock begins a two-minute countdown from that point and all planes (up to five in a heat) must be started and in the air before it reaches zero. If you aren't, you are disqualified from that heat and get zero points. Holly sequences the takeoffs in order of lane color to aid in scorer and pylon judge identification of the respective airplanes as they get into the air.

On each pylon (actually aligned with the pylon at the ends of the course but set back the same 250-300 feet from the course centerline like the pilots) there are five judges that each have control of one light on the pylon that corresponds to a lane color. So there are five different colored lights and five guys that control them at each pylon. When the airplane assigned to their particular color crosses the plane of the pylon, they turn the light on. When it crosses back by it in the other direction, they turn it off. So, that's the way each pilot/caller knows the they have gone past the pylon and how far they went. The object is to see the light go on and off quickly so that you make the shortest course possible. If you don't pass the pylon, you don't get a light and the scorers mark that as a "cut". Each cut receives a time penalty and more than two cuts disqualifies you from that heat (zero points).

The race starts like this. Once the two-minute engine start clock begins, the pilots do so and launch in succession as I mentioned. They just circle around the course (and can cut across as required) positioning for the race start. When the two-minute clock reaches zero, a new 60 second race start countdown begins. When that reaches zero, a horn sounds and the race has begun. You must be behind the start/finish line when the horn sounds or you get a start cut (or are disqualified if you are way past it). If you get there too late, you lose time to pilots that beat you there. So the object of this "flying start" is to get to the line precisely as the clock reaches zero. And four other guys are trying to do the same thing. It's exciting to say the least! You simply fly six laps around the course and the first guy across wins. Of course, this is subject to cut time penalties.

Points are awarded for each finishing position. We fly at least 5 heats and accumulate these points for the entire race. The top five in points after the heat racing go to the Gold trophy race and the next five go to the Silver trophy race that are held at the end of the event. The winner of the Gold is the winner of the class for that race. Also, heat race points are totalled for each of the races in the season to determine the yearly USRA national champion in each class.

This is unbelievably fun and exciting and you should come to a race and see it for yourself. Better yet, join in the fun and race WITH us!

I have definatly been keeping Holly busy...i dont know if u herd about our testing at Williams or not..but there is definatly alot of work being done..the new Kelly isnt even out of the molds yet...the wing is done and the stab should be finished...but the Fuse is going to be laid up next week or so...then i gotta roll out there with the big dawgs and c if i can fly it..he is trying to get the new Bipe ready to go also for Parker...there is alot on the table with him right now and i wish i could help..im way stoked about flying for Holly and Skip at Parker and seasons to come..Parker is shaping out to be a fun event. Im going to be pitting with Donnie Corum and we have been planning everything we will need for it for about 2 months now. we be ready for parker..thats a fact.

as for my little suprise...u have no idea...Holly, Ralph and Skip all know.

LiL Elwood

COLE THORNTON, YOU NEED TO CHECK YOUR EMAIL[sm=angry.gif]


BV