Pylon

Over the past 18 months, some of you may have noticed witches hats poking out of the hay/mud/dust just off the main field. Contrary to popular belief, these hats do not mark the final resting place of victims of the safety officer. The are in fact used to mark concrete footings for Pylon racing poles – a branch of the sport now enjoying a revival at KAMS.
We have a strong KAMS contingent involved in pylon events as well as pilots from Wanneroo and Whiteman park building or flying racers. Mark Giggins has been building the profile of FAI racing and we will hopefully have more of these speed machines strutting their stuff regularly at pylon events.

As well as a dedicated cadre of pilots and machines, we have a core of assistants that keep the wheels of the pylon machine functioning. Glen B aldwin’s contribution, both in developing equipment and officiating each month has been vit al to keeping pylon going these last couple of years. Dave Latto has also been a great help with cut judging each month.

Getting in to the groove…

Pilots regularly meet to tune aircraft and swap idea’s, knowledge and experience. Sunday afternoons at KAMS are usually the best time to practice.

A class of racing for all….

In order to streamline the competition, the pylon committee has decided on three classes of racing for the 2005 season:

S1D: Commonly referred to as “SID” or Sports 1 Design. This class was developed in Queensland and has been running successfully in that state for several years. This is our one design class, with all competitors using the same airframe type and sports .46 engines swinging APC 10 x 6 props. With the aircraft so evenly matched, racing is VERY close and exciting. Kits are available from Joe Luxford.

Super Sports : This class was created to cover the various types of aircraft that have flown in Pylon competition over the years. A typical Super Sports model may be a F400 or Q500 airframe using a forward induction side exhaust.46 sports engine. The popular “Dago Red” fits in to this class.

FAI-F3D: This is formula one class racing. These aircraft are generally molded and use heavily modified engines. They are capable of 300 kph plus and do 10 laps of a 400m course in under a minute. Real heart pounding stuff! Australians currently hold the world championship in this exciting racing class.

No model? No problem!

Even if you haven’t got a racing model, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a go! Bring your .46 sports model along and the pylon crew will happily show you the poles and coach you through a race.

So… when do you want to start racing?
Pylon racing is currently run on the last Saturday of each month, excluding the winter months. Racing starts at 12:00 and finishes by about 17:00, depending on the number of competitors.
Dates are advertised in Slipstream and the club contest calendar