AMA District VI—Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri
As published in the December 2015 issue of Model Aviation Magazine.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and you are now getting ready for the Christmas season. I’ve added a Carbon-Z Cub to my Christmas list this year.
Tim Lampe submitted this report on the US F5D Team Trials.
Friday and Saturday, September 18-19, 2015, the Champaign County Radio Control Club (CCRCC) in Champaign, Illinois, hosted the Team Trials Electric Pylon Racing contest to determine the members of the US F5D Electric Pylon Racing Team to represent the US in Lugo, Italy, in August 2016.
Although high-level Pylon Racing is very much alive and well in the US, this particular niche, F5D, only has a small following. Perhaps there is already enough variety in the AMA classes and American pilots haven’t yet embraced the technology of high-performance electrics.
Just as in all of the other classes of AMA Pylon Racing—F5D and its glow counterpart F3D—models race around a triangular, three-pylon course with the pilots standing within the course near two “base” pylons. The distance from the base out to the far pylon (number 1) is about two football fields long. At approximately 180 mph, it takes an airplane roughly six seconds a lap! Respectable times are in the mid-to-low 60s, with world-class pilots completing 10 laps in the mid-to-high 50s.
Champaign County Radio Control Club flying site.
Brown, Jim Nikodem, Tim Lampe, and Bernie
Vanderleest.
The event was scheduled for Friday and Saturday to avoid interfering with open flying. Heavy rain overnight Thursday and Friday made for a soggy flying field. Chilly temperatures and breezy winds kept pilots on their toes, but none of this posed any problems and everybody got in several good flights—12 rounds total.
Although there were only four contestants, we are still pleased to have a full, three-man roster for the World Championship. Two of my best Pylon Racing buddies, Bernie Vanderleest and Jim Nikodem, National Miniature Pylon Racing Association District 5 president, decided to make the jump to F5D this year. We call for and compete against each other at all of the races in the district. My other Pylon Racing friend, Bruce Brown, who was on the 2014 US team with me in Austria, came in from San Diego.
The loss of Bernie’s primary airplane a week before caused him to fly a loaner from me, which he flew well, except when the ESC was doused with water after landing in a puddle. Bernie was forced to resort to his own backup, which was a distant third choice. We got the loaner going again the next day, but by then the damage had been done and there weren’t enough rounds in which to recover.
I started out faster than Jim and Bruce, but they quickly caught up, making the final flights nail-biters to determine the winner.
When all was said and done, I took the overall win and fast time (thanks also to Jim who was my caller) with Jim a close second and Bruce in third comprising our full, three-man team.
In the big picture, F5D is small potatoes, but we still have the respect of the Pylon Racing world because everybody understands the skill it takes to prepare and fly airplanes at this level. In any case, we all have the passion for Pylon Racing and will be able to enjoy it to its fullest when competing against the best in the world in Italy next August.
I want to thank the CCRCC for its support and generosity in letting us use the site for a few days, and the workers who ran the event. I am proud to be a member of such a diverse and generous membership that takes interest in all types of model flying.
Happy flying!