Nuisance

Nuisance

Well Known Member
In the interest of generating some interest, I am offering this...

Race results are posted here...

The fastest airplane was the SX300. This shows what can be done with an IO-540 (no turbo), thin wings, retractable gear, and a clean airframe.

Next, the Lancair 360 at 251 mph. A 4 cylinder engine, mildly tuned, with thin wings, retractable gear, and very clean airframe.

Next, the F1 EVO (tapered wing) rocket at 249 mph. The recipe here is a belt driven supercharger...43 inches of manifold pressure, 29 gph. Horsepower. Fixed gear.

Next a normally aspirated F1 EVO at 243. Maybe Tom Martin can chime in here, my understanding is that he has done some work on the engine, engine cooling, etc.

Next, at 242, the Berkut, a retractable gear, glass-backward airplane that I know nothing about.

Next, at 238, a square wing F1 rocket, the owner claims a stock engine. Still, I am betting he has done a bit of cleaning up in the cowl and on the airframe.

Next, at 234, a fixed gear Glassair II, with a turbo 360.

Next, at 230, two more rockets, an F1 and a Harmon. Maybe Mark will comment on his state of tune and how much drag reduction work he has done.

Next, my RV8 at 224. I have a parallel valve 360 with 10:1 pistons, port and polish, and have worked hard on drag reduction. Unfortunately, I did a poor job of flying. I oh-so-wanted to break 230. Maybe next year.

Sticking with the RVs now, next was Bob Axsom at 203, and we all know a lot about his airplane. Cam came next with his 320 powered RV-4 at 200, and our hard working organizer came last in his 360 powered RV-6 at 197. Mike told me he was very disappointed in his flying.

I was asked by several people "where are the RVs?". It is hard to understand why, out of over 5,000 flying RVs, only 4 showed up to race. More than that showed up to do a free formation flying demo.

I am unable to answer this question. This kind of racing, single file, fastest starting first, is as safe as it gets. I submit it is safer than formation flying. We all brag about our "total performance" aircraft. Yet, racing is a fringe sport. Maybe it is because of the emphasis on winning, and conversely, the fear of loosing?

I just don't know, because win or loose, it is a blast. Also, with every race I learn more about performance, and I become a better pilot.

John
 
John, it was a pleasure meeting you this past weekend. I didn't have any time to prep for the race so I chose not to enter, but rather assist with the timing and scoring. I saw all the fun so I plan to be a participant next year. I know my Rocket is not the fastest but it's not the slowest either.

Macho Grande was my first brush with the air racing and I thought it was pretty cool. I'm looking forward to next year.
 
"Total Performance"

Nuisance said:
I was asked by several people "where are the RVs?". It is hard to understand why, out of over 5,000 flying RVs, only 4 showed up to race. More than that showed up to do a free formation flying demo.

I am unable to answer this question. This kind of racing, single file, fastest starting first, is as safe as it gets. I submit it is safer than formation flying. We all brag about our "total performance" aircraft. Yet, racing is a fringe sport. Maybe it is because of the emphasis on winning, and conversely, the fear of loosing?
Click to expand...

Good post, and in my opinion, a good question John. I surely can only answer for myself, and not for others, but to me, part of it might just relate to the true meaning of "Total Performance". I've mused before over what this really means...my RV-8 is fast - but not the fastest. It is maneuverable, but can't compete in Unlimited Acro. It has long legs, but there are planes with longer endurance. It can land short...but I can put a Cub down a lot shorter. The thing about "Total Performance" to me is that it does so very well in ALL categories - as I've said before, if you finish second in every single PGA tournament in a given year, you're probably going to be the overall money winner (Tiger Woods not-withstanding, since he'll WIN every tournament...).

You certainly can modify an RV to make it faster, and a few mods will get you a modest gain and not affect other capabilities. But one you start trying for more speed, you are probably going to give away performance in other areas - Bob Axom is experimenting with shorter wing tips - that will obviously cost some in stall speed and short field for instance. Once you start Optimizing an aircraft for a particular function, it is no longer going to be a good all-around performer - there just is no free lunch here.

So....why don't people take to air racing? I don't know....for me, I guess the very nature of "racing" is competition, and I am afraid that I tend to compete to win...or I don't compete. Yet it would be fun to enter a race some time, just to see how my planes stacks up against others - get an "official time" so to speak. (Ahh...but then, I'd say "gee, I'm only 2 knots below this other guy, if I could just do THIS, I'd pick up a place....and on down the long slippery slope of dollars and time.....:p).

I have a LOT of respect for folks like you and Bob who not only enjoy tweaking your birds, but sharing what you have learned to help us all have ideas for greater efficiency. I just put my own time into different directions with my airplane....

Just a few musings I guess!

Paul
 
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I raced once

Yes the format is safe. In reality you are racing against yourself which is fine. My plane is down for an alternator change and other mods then I may be off to the Bahamas. Maybe I should ask for a female co-pilot.
 
John
This is my third race, texas last year and this year, and memphis three weeks ago. I have learned a lot about my airplane and my own pilot skills from these events. Each time I have made mistakes and learned from those errors. It is a great opportunity to meet other aircraft owners and to share information with like minded individuals. My engine has 10:1 pistons, one lightspeed ignition and one slick magneto. As far as modifications I have worked on my cooling air inlets and outlet air to smooth the airflow. This has worked well for me in the cooling department but with the rocket there are not tremendous gains to made in cooling air drag. It is my opinion that it is already a very effiencent system although tweaking will help run the engine cooler. I have paid attention to faring details which I believe pays more dividends than time spent on cooling drag.
I enjoyed the visit we had the other night and I have ordered the book on propellor theory, auther Jack Norris, that you reccomended. Hopefully I will be able to compete again next year and we will have some more time to compare notes. Your work on your RV8 benefits all RV owners and I agree, it would be nice to see more competitors. The price of admission is the cost of gas to go to the event! I am hoping to host a race in Canada next summer and it would be nice if you were able to make the trip.
 
would have liked to have been there

This SARL thing is great. I have run my RV-4 in the A-V Cup 6 times mostly for the fun of it. My plane is stock airframe and stock engine, proof that you don't have to spend tons of money or make huge alterations to compete.

Talks are in progress to set up a race at the Rocky Mountain Fly-Inn 2008. No promises yet. Maybe a race infront of an airshow crowd. I keep reading about these really fast RV's , lets get them out and run em.
 
It's more of a time trial, where from all appearances finding the corners really helps and a steady flight path. ? and you pass safely and the closure speeds aren't fast at all since you're all doing about the same.

It was my first time so that's that. I plan to do better.

I went there to kick some F1 butt. On the way back to CA I was so sore I had to let MY butt hang off one side and then the other side of the seat every time I switched tanks. Congrats to the class winners and all the contestants.

I couldn't find the airport at Turn Two; my GRT was showing Traffic alerts as I was being gained on by two planes, I called out "Race 70 looking for the airport", "Turn right ten degrees, stay there, see the airport?" came from another airplane I assume.

It's probably like golf where you are going to be within a couple strokes either way of your rivals. WOW, was that fun. and of course the more guys in your class makes for more competition.

Getting about ten planes in your class sure makes it satisfying for the winners. Don't modify a thing, remember to remove tiedowns and extra weight and give it a shot. It's only 30mins. seeing the countryside.

I bought gas and one dinner, hotel room, expense wise. A big thanks to Mark Frederick. Had a wonderful time meeting lots of pilots and Falcon was right next to me and I didn't reconize him at first.

It was the "Rocket 100" so I wanted to support the SARL and make a first long cross country before my primered plane goes in the paint shop for three mos. I even got the Tour de Mexico in the clouds and rain at 11,000. urghh.

and my Hobbs clicked a 100 over New Mexico or Texas.




111707010xf8.jpg
 
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One of the funniest things that I heard that day was the following exchange. The names have been changed to protect the not so innocent.

"Fred, I am going to pass you under your right wing"

Pause

"I can not believe that someone is under me!"

If you take a look at Mark's pictures above you might get an idea why this is humerous.
 
I am hoping to be able to compete in an SARL race soon. Not to beat anyone, but just for the fun of it. I flew along with a friend in his Mustang II at the West Texas 100, and really enjoyed it. I had planned to race at Memphis, but had a mechanical problem and ended up staying home working on the plane.

I won't ever be a strong competitor. For me the attraction is the camraderie, the chance to talk "airplane" with some new folks, and just enjoy something different from the usual weekend flying around the patch. Plus I want to be able to see how my almost completely stock RV7a compares to the other aircraft.
 
me too. i'd like to see how my rv7a does against others in SoCal. We talked about something like this earlier on the Socal list.

I've been smoked by Sharpie and Wingnut everytime and slightly slower than Pop but it would still be fun.

I was talking to the Bakersfield EAA club president and we thought a Rocket Shop Cafe race would be cool. We thought we could start over the ski lakes to the s/e and head to Taft airport then to Lost Hills IIRC and then back to Bakersfield Muni.
 
It was a good experience

I really felt good when I read John's opening post. I hesitate to say anything because I'm sure I turn people off but I can't help myself. I tend to be a loner but I enjoy the whole cross country race scenario and all the people and planes associated with it. When enroute from turn 1 (Elgin Water Tower) to turn 2 at the Caldwell Airport I heard both exchanges mentioned by Mark and Tom. Believe me when I tell you there was not any idle chatter on the race frequency that I heard - just pilots calling their turns and occassional passes on the race frequency to assure that the monitor personnel or pilot being passed knew that their plane was making the start, turn, finish or pass.

Flat race points like the flying "start line" at Macho Grande (after taking off from Taylor Muni) and turn 2 at the Caldwell Airport are hard to spot from 500 ft AGL at high speed, especially if you have never seen them before and there are trees between you and the runway. When you are streaking in on a turn and your GPS says it should be "right there!" and you can't see it out the windshield the anxiety level gets elevated quickly. When I heard Mark call that he was approaching turn 2 but he couldn't see it, after flying all the way from California to participate in this race, I felt the anxiety. Who ever that guy was that saw him and his position relative to the turn and very clearly and calmly gave him the information, was a real comrade. When Mark acknowledged that he had it in sight and called the turn, well you would have to be made of lead not to feel good about what you just heard - good sportsmanship when it really mattered.

It was a lot of fun but the people there made you feel proud to be a part of it as well. OK, I'll shut up now.

Bob Axsom. Race #71
 
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Tom Martin said:
As far as modifications I have worked on my cooling air inlets and outlet air to smooth the airflow. This has worked well for me in the cooling department but with the rocket there are not tremendous gains to made in cooling air drag. It is my opinion that it is already a very effiencent system although tweaking will help run the engine cooler.
Click to expand...
Tom - In theory, smoothing the air flow in the inlet and outlet shouldn't do much for the drag if that is the only change you make. But, if it improves the cooling, then you can maybe look at reducing the size of the air inlet. That would reduce the amount of air going through the cowling, which would reduce drag. Of course the temperatures would increase too. Nothing comes for free.
 
Kevin
That was the interesting part. As I smoothed the inlet area I was able to close off the outlet area. Howver this did not seem to translate into any extra speed. I have tried two variations of cowl flaps and when open they aid in cooling but closing them farther than the neutral point actually causes a speed loss. I have also tried closing off the inlets. This caused an increase in engine temperatures but no corresponding increase in speed. These experiments, which I did not mention before, are another reason which leads me to believe the cowling is quite effiecient in its stock form.
 
Hello John
I am the 238 mph square winged F1. The SX300 is running a IO 580 whatever that is. He says 400 HP. I have not had my stock IO 540 with it's twin mags dynoed but I am pretty sure it is no where near 400 hp. I have never in my life raced anything but it sure is fun racing my homebuilt. The cost is nothing. There is not even an entrance fee. A great way to learn is to explore the unknown. By racing these birds it gives those who are interessted a way to discover what effects them. Pretty neat.
 
Total Performance

I am going to throw out more numbers...

Ironflight, I have done nothing to the airplane that impacts performance in any other regime. The wings and wingtips are stock (and, Bob can correct me, but I believe he only took off his extended wingtips, which had extra fuel, and I bet either of the stock wingtips would work better than the ones he came up with), the landing speed the same as always. The handling is the same as always. The only difference is that all year, on the average trip, I cruise about 15 kts faster on 10 gph than I did before I started my drag reduction campaign. This of course translates directly into fuel savings.

It is fun to notice every year that the RVs and the Rockets are the only ones who dare fly in to Macho Grande (a very nice grass strip) for the barbecue after the race.

Wayne, you must be right about the SX300...looking at the Reno results, and the last couple of AirVenture Cup races (gee...funny how I look at race results when I want the real performance numbers) he is 10 mph faster than the other SX's. Given the cube law, and the possibility that the others may have tuned their engines, 400 hp may be the number.

I was great to see all my old friends, and to meet all of my new friends.

I would like to throw in a pitch for the AirVenture Cup...it is the best way to fly in to OSH. It involves a lot more pilot stuff than a 100 mile triangle...fuel planning, winds aloft, navigation (yes, ask the airline pilot couple who ended up looking for the finish line in the middle of Lake Winnebago), and the dinner the night before in the Airforce Museum can't be beat.

Try it, you might like it!

John
 
Nuisance said:
I am going to throw out more numbers...

... (and, Bob can correct me, but I believe he only took off his extended wingtips, which had extra fuel, and I bet either of the stock wingtips would work better than the ones he came up with)...

Try it, you might like it!

John
Click to expand...

John,

I'm sure some theoretician Has conducted a study and published results that suport the excellence of the tip designs used on Van's aircraft. I do not believe that they are optimized for speed. It is a lot of work to produce new wingtips but I know you are not averse to work. I believe if you made up molds, layed up the skin and fabricated new low span tips with no speed compromises your airplane would fly even faster.

There is no question that my airplane is faster because of my tips for racing. Unfortunately I cannot give direct comparrison test results because I had to rush my program for the demands of the end of the racing season. What I mean by that is I had to go from my travel configuration airplane to the short race configuration directly and that involved two changes at the same time.

I have two 9 inch extensions to each wing that contain 8.5 gallons of fuel in each (17 gallons total). On the end of that are two stock 12 inch wide RV-6 wingtips that are rectangular except for the rounded forward corner (no bat wing flare to the trailing edge). Both the 9 inch wide tanks and the 12 inch wide tips were removed.

The plan view (top view) profile of my new tips are a copy of the lower portion of the wing airfoil. Looking from the front, these are shaped from the full airfoil thickness at end of the wing skin at every chord station to a curve tangent to the vertical boundary of the tip plan view. The maximum extension of each new tip is 3 inches from the the end of the wing skins. These caused an immediate jump in speed from struggling to achieve 200 mph to a test and two race proven jumt to a consistent 203 to 204 mph speed.

My actions are greatly affected by race rules. Because the AirVenture Cup organizers started allowing no penalty fuel stops this year I may stick with my short race tips and take advantage of that. It will certainly be my fastest configuration. However, over the winter I have to wrestle with the belief that my tips are faster than the stock tips and do I want to go through the trouble of laying up another set to interface with the outboard of the tip tanks. That would provide the opportunit for an apples to apples comparrison. I have a desire to increase the absolute speed of my plane by developing new wheel fairings and that has priority.

Bob Axsom
 
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It Was A Good Experience

I think that radio call was from Larry Henney, a Lancair 360 who was two aircraft behind Mark. Our League "Rocket Buster" is he, and was the winner of "SARL Gold", meaning he racked up the most number of points during the race season.

Bob, you mentioned in an email about Jack Morrison - for those who don't know, we had a well known E-Racer come down to race, but he suffered a nosewheel collapse on landing at Taylor. After we raised the aircraft and cranked it down, Jack taxied it to my hangar so we could start repairs - and just in front of the hangar the nosewheel attach failed completely and dropped the aircraft on its nose for a second time!
Needless to say, Jack did not race - rather he spent the weekend repairing his aircraft with the help of any and everyone who could, including local canard builders (Mike Deeter, Velocity), race canard builders (James Redmon and Scott Carter) and others.
Unfortunately when his aircraft was ready to go Monday morning, the weather up North at home base (Chicago) wasn't ready to receive him.
Jack wound up flying home commercially, and will be returning Friday. I will pick him up at ABIA and take him up to Taylor and hopefully see him off.

Here is an email Jack sent that I forwarded to all the racers:

Mike and all who pitched in to make the repair of my AC possible. I cannot
thank you enough for all the assistance and help at a dificult time. Finding
and chasing around for parts as needed was above and beyond and a tribute to the quality of personel at the race event. I have never had such cooperation from so many wonderful people whom most of I did not know. Mike , I especially would like to thank you for the use of your hanger during the repair process. Scott Carter who flew in the nose leg strut attach bracket and supplies from Dallas and spent most of the day Saturday help lay up the necessary glass work.
The AC was ready for flight late Sunday but I was unable to fly home on
Monday because of the weather up north. I will fly down commercial on Friday the 25th and bring the AC back to ARR for completion of repairs. I really felt bad I could not participate in the race but I will be back in the
spring. If anyone ever needs anything up my way, please do not hesitate to
call or email me. Thanks again to everyone, what a fine group of
individuals.

Jack
E Racer 113
Race 29

- Mike
 
Interesting

Race "100" circuits are never exactly 100 air miles. The Sun and Fun 100 use to be famous for fast times; the course was shorter than 100 miles. Of course pilot performance is a factor as always.

The fastest airplane was the SX300.
Basically a Jet with a piston engine and prop. I understand 105kts approach speed is normal, Awsom :)

Lancair 360 at 251 mph
A very small tiny airplane, fuselage included, legs stretched out, laying back, but fast, yes.

Next, the F1 EVO (tapered wing) rocket at 249 mph
Yep HP is good but when you hit +250 mph fixed gear starts to be a real liability.

Next a normally aspirated F1 EVO at 243
So all the above EVO HP was worth just 6 mph? Shows HP alone is not key to speed.

Next, at 242, the Berkut
Basically a larger retractable gear VariEze

Next, at 238, a square wing F1 rocket
Next, at 234, a fixed gear Glassair II, with a turbo 360
Next, at 230, two more rockets, an F1 and a Harmon
The Glassair II FG guys have it dialed in an race all the time

Next, my RV8 at 224
Bob Axsom at 203
320 powered RV-4 at 200
360 powered RV-6 at 197
No one should be embarrassed to do about 200 mph or more.

I was asked by several people "where are the RVs?"
May be $4-$5/gal gas?

Comment on Race Inspection
It is very clear people can "cheat" with their engine or what ever. Most race organizers don't check squat. If it was not on the registration you could put a 200HP in and call it 150HP. Some races specify a Cubic inch others a horse power. Is that important? Well if you want an even footing. That's why Reno has those O200 Formula and bi-plane categories. NASCAR has tech inspections to catch little cheater tricks like extra fuel, aero and engine tricks.

With that said, may be some basic tech inspection to catch the obvious should be done. Still even with loose rules and no inspections, its hard to get people. More rules would make it less desirable and enjoyable for many. Basically RUN what ya Brr-rung. Its just fun.

The speeds are interesting but not everything. I see it as a race against yourself and bettering your time each year. May be you have a buddy "fun grudge" you want to beat. We are never going to catch 400HP SX300's. On the other hand SX300 guy can't get into and out of the field for BBQ.

Lets face it, these are FUN runs for no money. There's no limit on mods that I know of. Nitrous Oxide any one? :rolleyes: The races I ran, there where VariEze's & LongEze's with super high compression turning 4,000 rpm. Was that fair? Well its all fair in racing if there's no rules to control it.
 
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Guys: For anyone in the southeast who would like to get a taste of "just plain fun" racing, check out the Race to Ridgeland we hold each year in May. This next year we'll conduct the race and our fly-in on May 3, 2008. You can check us out at www.racetoridgeland.com. Our race is handicapped to each aircraft's manufacturers published sea level top speed (last year a Cessna 172 won!). This year, to make it more fun, we are adding a couple of additional trophies, one for fastest Experimental and one for fastest Production aircraft. No classes, few rules, tons of fun with food, displays, a spot landing contest, etc. We're at 3J1, Ridgeland, SC.

See you there!

Lee...
 
logansc said:
Guys: For anyone in the southeast who would like to get a taste of "just plain fun" racing, check out the Race to Ridgeland we hold each year in May. This next year we'll conduct the race and our fly-in on May 3, 2008. You can check us out at www.racetoridgeland.com. Our race is handicapped to each aircraft's manufacturers published sea level top speed (last year a Cessna 172 won!). This year, to make it more fun, we are adding a couple of additional trophies, one for fastest Experimental and one for fastest Production aircraft. No classes, few rules, tons of fun with food, displays, a spot landing contest, etc. We're at 3J1, Ridgeland, SC.

See you there!

Lee...
Click to expand...

Folks,

This really is a **FUN** event!

Got to run the "prototype" for the race and showed up for the race in formation afterwards on the first year. Lee and crew do a great job and they keep it simple and about as fair as you can get with few rules.

James
 
Hey, thanks for the good words, James! For the record, the formation flight demo by the RV's of "Palmetto Flight" were a major highlight of the first "Race to Ridgeland" year before last. We all have our fingers crossed that they will be able to attend again next year!! By the way, If anyone would like to organize an RV-only class for the race, I would certainly consider adding it to the venue.

It would take 10 RV's or so, I think, to make it fun and fair and (thinking out loud), I would think they could compete for the overall as well. Check out our website for pictures of last years event (trophies, racing, good food, kids having a ball, etc.)

This year, a couple of church groups are going to help with food and refreshments and the local RC control aircraft guys are going to have a booth and clinic too.

Should be a wonderful time. I'm looking forward to seeing you there again, James!

Regards,

Lee...
 
Future Race Talk

Lee,

I don't think that a race requiring 10 handicapped RVs will work. I haven't seen that many RV's racing anywhere except the AirVenture Cup and handicaping by Van's numbers wouldn't be fair because of the differences in performance and it wouldn't be inspirational to those who have spent their time and/or money to maximize their performance. For ones that are interested in a handicap race they should be individually handicapped using a procedure like the one at http://www.us-airrace.org with the resulting speeds and track angles from gps processed through the National Test Pilot School spread sheet to eliminate the wind effects (which can only cause misleading speed indications on the slow side). Handicapping done by individuals on different days in different parts of the country using raw averages do not level the playing field and provide good pilot skill competition. Your approach works as well as any for unmodified factory planes. For me, the RV Blue (360 cu. in.) and RV Red (320 or less cu. in.) classes with no handicap work well. These are used by SARL (http://www.sportairrace.org) and the AirVenture Cup (http://www.airventurecup.com). You probably do not want to get into all that overhead.

Tom,

In 2002 we flew in an air race in Canada from Thunder Bay Ontario to Warroads, Minn. Awesome forrest wilderness. For that race I had to get a radio operator's license from the FCC. It is a one time thing that only requires application and no tests. You came down here over a significant distance for races twice in less than a month so you know the ropes from the Canadian view. I'm sure you have plenty of pilots in Canada that would love to fly in a race but some of us in the US would be interested as well if allowed. It would take some special preparation on our part so lead time would be important.

Bob Axsom
 
Bob
When I started flying 25 years ago we needed a radio liscense, no longer. This is not something that would be asked for. However due to new security proceedures, for both countries, you do need a passport.
After that the entry is simple for both countries. Call customs two hours in advance for the airport you plan on landing at. Not all airports have customs but usually the larger ones on both sides of the border do. After that you need to file a flight plan to cross the border. Going into the US you need a Mode C code before crossing the border and flight following does the trick.
What are the costs. In Canada, if you land at a controlled airport you may get a bill a few months later for a quarterly Nav Canada subscription. This does not amount to much. Going back home you will have to pay the an annual customs and border fee. I think it is $27 now, but is good for the whole year. Almost all the air regulations in both countries are close enough that it is safe to fly in either country without any drastic changes to the way you fly. In Canada we do not use a 45 degree entry to the patern, usually it is straight in down wind or an overhead mid down wind entry. Also we have one frequency accross the country for Flight Service and it is 126.7
Simple, come on up and visit! I made eight trips to the US this last year and I am always treated with respect and made to feel welcome. It is amusing to listen to the US controllers when they read back my call sign. We use a letter system, mine is C-GEVO, and they almost never get it right.
 
Bob: Thanks for checking in and for the good points you made. The "Race to Ridgeland" is a bit different from SARL and AirVenture racing. We developed it as a way to get people to come to our fly-in and to participate in our other events as well. Pancake breakfasts and barbeques are somewhat common so we developed the race TO ridgeland to interest those who are looking for a new reason to attend and who might like a "taste" of air racing, without all the "overhead", as you neatly put it.

The idea is for people to run the course on the way to Ridgeland and for us to handicap it in a manner that makes it fun and reasonably fair to those who put the time and effort in to participate. We have a spreadsheet with the manufacturers sea level speeds (3J1 is 79' ASL) for something like 450 certified and experimental aircraft. Whoever comes the closest to their book value wins. That way, participants don't have to develop a handicap (and all that entails) in advance, don't have to carry recording GPS', or anything like that. We publish a "course open" time and a "course closed" time, and let everyone run on their own. The finish line is at the Ridgeland Airport windsock. Racers give us their start and finish times and our "race program" quickly calculates their finishing position. Watching the racers come barreling across the finish line and pitching up to downwind is a real treat for everyone, believe me.

Once there, we try to get everyone to fly their airplanes at least once and to participate in the spot landing contest and our other events in order to conduct as much FLYING at Ridgeland on the day as possible. The crowd seems to love it, and that is the point; we are trying to encourage local interest in the airport and in getting young people into flying!

Technically, this is not a seriously competitive race, it's a FUN race. It may well be perfect though, for someone who wants to get their feet wet in racing in a low-pressure event. It turns out that Cessna's have dominated so far and have won the first two events. Apparently, they can fly very close to their "book speed values". This year's race was won by a (60 year old) student pilot in his brand new C-172 who flew with his instructor. Now, maybe I'm crazy, but I think that is totally cool. Second place was a C-150 flown by a brand new private pilot who learned to fly at Ridgeland only the previous year.

Your point that people who are serious about their racing and who have worked hard and invested in the speeds their airplanes can achieve may well be somewhat left out in a program like ours, is quite valid. We had a Lanceair IVP who raced this year who was going so fast across the finish line that he misjudged the turn radius necessary and sailed by 200-300 yards wide! It was great to watch! I want to encourage others like him to participate (and not get "beat up" by the darned Cessnas), so we've added trophies for next year for fastest overall regardless of handicap. My earlier point was that if we could get enough participation, I'd be happy to add an RV-specific class (as just one example) and let them race against each other. SARL class divisions for such a "race within a race" might work very well. I am certainly open to suggestions on that point.

I know this post is going a bit long, but this is what general aviation is all about, if you ask me---having fun in the air. We have several local groups involved: The police, fire, and EM personnel on standby (voluntarily), church groups doing the food, Civil Air Patrol Cadets directing traffic, and with the County Aeronautics Commission sponsoring the whole event and paying for the trophies.

If you get a chance, take a look at our website at www.racetoridgeland.com. I haven't changed it from this years layout yet, except to insert the date of next year's event, but I think anyone who does will get the general flavor of what we are trying to do. You are right, ours is not a race for serious air racers, more for those who are looking for a new fun and exciting way to get to a fly-in in the first place. Serious air racers are welcome and encouraged to participate though, whether just for fun, or to "tune up" their airplanes or their flying and navigation skills for the real thing.

Anyway, and sincerely, thanks for your honest interest and helpful comments. To be fair, ours is a "regional" event; we are not trying to attract racers from all over the country to fly all the way in to a low key race like ours. We'd love to have any of you if you are in the area though! By the way, the spot landing contest this year was won by an ex-Navy carrier pilot flying a CJ-6. That won't be so easy to beat either!

Warm regards,


Lee...
 
Good Program Lee

The program you describe sounds great. In the early 50s I was in high school in San Diego, CA. There was a fair amount of aviation activity and my younger brother Drex and I would ride double on our bicycle or beg our parents for a ride to the more distant airports. At kearny Mesa I remember the spot landing contests well and they really got our attention. I can see the Stearman that landed right on the mark in my mind yet today. I can readily appreciate how the young people at your event sense the competition, appreciate the level of expertise demonstrated by the competitors and the thrill of the low pass and pull up at the end of your race. More of your type of program is needed - keep up the inspired and inspiring work.

Bob Axsom
 
Bob: You've pegged us just right! We're just looking to have fun, promote our local airport, and get more people interested in flying.

Funny you should mention seeing a Stearman doing so well at spot landing. It was a Stearman in fact who won our spot landing contest the year before last. We require contestants to pull the throttle to idle at the 180 and to leave it there to the ground. Since that's not the way most people land their airplanes, we encourage everyone to practice a few passes before the official start of the contest. That keeps lots of airplanes in the air all the time. So far, the race winners have not crossed over and won the spot landing contest too.

Airplanes with low wing loadings and low drag typically extend off the abeam and come in with fairly long straightaways on final. Not so, the Stearman. He turned almost directly abeam of the spot target, slipping the airplane in hard all the way. He "squared it up" at about 50' and just about threw it at the ground! He was spectacular! Heck, I had a 14' miss in my RV-4 (working the flaps all the way in) and didn't even place!!

Best wishes and for anyone in the southeast early next summer, check us out on May 3, 2008 at Ridgeland Airport, SC (3J1).

Hey, James---why don't you try to get a 10 plane RV race group going? I've got two, possibly four, I can throw in from our local area. Whadayasay?? Definitely doesn't get you off the hook for Palmetto Flights formation demo, though!!

Regards,


Lee...
 
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