Sunday’s race was yet another windy day but the racers persevered through the poor weather conditions. There was not even a concern of calling off the race because of the wind. The only mention was if we should race three or four rounds before Red’s appreciation BBQ. We came to an agreement to race four rounds but we decided later in the day to cut it down to three rounds because of the time.
The T-28 race had ten entries, two five round heats, there was two wrecks in this class. The first race of the day one of the pilots over banked and crashed his T-28 but later flew again in the class later in the day. The second happened in the third heat where the pilot hit the south pylon.
The war bird class had five entries three spitfires, a mustang, and a bf-109. The class was without a wreck until the last heat where one spitfire had a bad hand launch and was unable to recover. The second, another spitfire was launched and was set on the wrong model settings and went in immediately after the first wreck. The last of this class was the bf-109 who had its wings collapse while turning on the south pylon.
The dogfighter class had five entries and had no wrecks involved in the class. All the pilots in this class flew well even in the rough weather.
The last class which would be the EF-1 class had incidents involved. The first was only a rough landing because of the rough weather but the plane was not critically damaged but did not race later in the day. The second incident was a wreck that occurred in the second round of this class, it was Red’s newly designed Endeavor that had the motor fly off of the airplane which resulted in the wrecking of this aircraft on the south pylon.
Float Fly 1
Sunday, 05 May 2013
From Jon Stychno.
April Pylon Race 2
Monday, 15 April 2013
from Anthony McDonald
Aprils pylon racing got started off with impossible conditions to fly in. Only the truly insane would attempt to race in these conditions said one of the members, but when it came to a vote there was only one hand raised that did not want to continue. The membership as a whole must be a gathering of dedicated racers at this point.
The T-28/Corsair class was first up with around nine pilots attending. With a strong tailwind on the starts everyone was looking racy, but after the first turn pilots struggled to keep on coarse. One pilot hit a pylon, and recovered to finish well. Reno 450 had four entrees. Three Spitfires, and a lonely Me 109G. All the makings for a battle of Britain reenactment. A Spitfire seemed to explode after the first turn in the second heat. It was later discovered by investigators that the battery bailed out after the fuselage cover flew off.
The Dog Fighter class had four entries. With more speed, and weight on their side they seemed to handle the windy conditions better than the first two classes of the day. Two new pilots joined this class, and were well received. The two heats were fast and furious without the usual cuts that have plagued them in last month's race.
The EF-1 class had the most participants with a total of six if I counted correctly. Two Shoestrings, one Proud Bird, a Miss Dara, an Invictus, a Pogo, and lastly a Nemesis flew. In the first heat a Shoestring, and the Invictus collided after the first pylon. The Invictus went into the vineyard hard, and the Shoestring was able to continue with minor damage. In its first race the Miss Dara took the win. After the race the Shoestring sustained more damage after a failed attempt to land. In the second round the Proud Bird was used as a replacement for the damaged Shoestring. With the exception of a bad landing by the Nemesis pilot there were no more damaged airplanes in this class. There was one new pilot that participated, and again was well received.
After two rounds of racing it was decided by the participants that conditions were too extreme to continue, and the race day was officially called to a end.
Pylon Race #2 date change to April 14th
Tuesday, 02 April 2013
The regular April monthly WCF Pylon race will be moved up one week from April 21st to April 14th. This is due to a competing event April 20th & 21st that the Woodland/Davis club is holding, as a high number of our regular participants will be attending this race. Racing will resume according to the normal schedule with the May race.
