Club Meeting 27th September 2012

The club had the privilege of welcoming Barrie Lever for a second visit, this time to gave a presentation on Pylon racing.
Barrie has been RC Pylon racing since 1978. He has over 14 British National championship wins as both a pilot and caller/mechanic in the Club 20, F3D and Q500 EC classes, Barrie has also won International meetings in F3D and Club 20.
Barrie gave a presentation on the Quarter 40 class. This class involves high speed racing at speeds close to F3D but half the cost and complexity of the F3D class.
The specification of models entered in this class is that the model is a recognizable replica of a full-scale, which gives some great looking semi scale pylon racers.
Barrie bought in his Lyle Larson Vendetta. The model weighs around 4lb and with a glass fibre fusalage and composite wings. Powered by an unmodified Jett Q40 LS engine engine running on 15% nitro fuel, the model can race at around 195mph. With a flight time of about 90 seconds. The model has 4 channels, no throttle, the engine is flat out all the time.
   
For more details on the Q40 class specifications go to:-
http://www.modelisme-ace.com/Racer/Quarter%2040.pdf
For engine information Jett Engineering Inc:-
http://www.jettengineering.com/home.html
The race course consists of 3, 20ft high pylons forming a triangle.  The distance between Pylon 1 and Pylon 3 is 180m. Pylon 2 to Pylon 3 is 40m giving a 400m circuit. The pilots fly a counter clockwise circuit, ie all left turns, the race consisting of 10 laps which takes around 60 seconds.  
For a spectators guide to Pylon racing go to http://www.selectdigitals.com/articles/spectators.html this site gives more details on Pylon racing courses.
There are videos online showing Q40 racing, here are a few:-



Barrie also bought in his control line pulse jet. Powered by a Dyna jet which flies off a 65ft solid wire line, at speeds of about 150mph.
The model is tested to 45kg pull test and the motor mount to 22.5kg.

Check out the following sites for Pulsejet engines which gives more information on how a pulse jet engine works and shows a pulse jet engine being started and running:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJqkHJ2zWPY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_jet
For more information go to Barrie’s website http://www.pylon-line.co.uk/
On behalf of the club and committee I would like to thank Barrie for his time and for a very interesting presentation
Nick