Foxberg in Reading PA

Many thanks to the Flying Dutchmen of Reading PA for hosting their first meet in years, a Foxberg race. Lots of fun and some close flying.

A real innovation was allowing the LA25 in addition to the Fox 35. A couple showed up and were right in the middle of the heat times. this motor makes a very nice, smooth racing motor. Hopefully some more folks will allow this.

If you want to try racing, this is the ticket. Planes are slow enough to allow easy three or even four up flying(makes the contest go a lot faster). As a bonus, swap tanks and they make nice sport planes. Reading allowed Denny L. to fly with a bigger tank, they just made him use a 2oz. syringe to fill. The required pitstops make the tank size kind of moot anyway. Almost any decent motor can turn in many more laps than needed on 2oz. of fuel, so short tanking in the pits is a way of life.

Wow, that's a great idea on allowing the 25LA. I run the motors in all of the 35 sized ships and they run great, big improvement over the Fox.

Hey, I was just curious as to what is the most acceptable situation
in your Foxberg race.

Who pits and who flies? On the races I've seen, it would appear that
the builder/owner of the plane and engine often pits his plane allowing someone else to pilot it.

This appeals to my sense of fair play: if you bring crap to the race,
then you have to be able to make it run and hot start. If you brought
good stuff, then you don't mind pitting it.

our club, the HAMS, along with the SLOW club in Wash. DC started Foxberg years ago as a sport racing event. It has been very successful over the years.

The basic rules were(and are) pretty simple- one of the three Goldberg kits, Shoestring, Buster, or Cosmic Wind, or a reasonable copy. Unmodified Fox 35. You can replace the bolts, gaskets, and put in a larger spray bar(ST style). No grinding of metal off any of the parts, beyond the kind of wear that takes place in normal running.
Two wheel landing gear, per the kits, with 2 in. wheels. Prop must be an unmodified, commercially available prop- sanding on one blade for balance is allowed. The fuel tank must be a Sullivan SS2 plastic tank. The tank must be filled by hand through an 1/8 in. pipe. No fast fills etc. allowed, but you can install a Sullivan ball and socket fueling nipple. No hot gloves permitted. Normally you should use a regular battery and glow plug clip, but some races permit the battery to be strapped to the pitman's arm.

The rules for the LA 25 are the same- stock .262 LA25 venturi and needle valve. No modifications allowed.

With minimal practice and no tuning, the 2 LA's we ran run almost exactly as fast as an average Fox 35. The planes in this race were turning 26.xx for 7 laps running flat out. The only exception were two motors by two "pro" racers. One turned 23.5 and the other 25. They were built with very carefully selected parts. I'm pretty sure the 23.5 sec./7 laps is an honest time, allowing for some whipping. We saw similar times for some planes in our club races 10 years ago. I am pretty sure that in the long run the LA25 would be a slightly better motor. If nothing else they are much more consistent and won't need as careful parts selection to get the best performance.

Hmm,
I wonder if the older LA25 with the boost port now becomes a highly prized animal!

Just a question, but are there prop size restrictions in the various contests? Like I mentioned below, in our "Foxy Hazel" contest ~330 sq inch wing area)>, we are restricted to either 9-6 or 9-7 props. If one didn't have this restriction, I am not sure of what prop the Fox would like the most. When I flew my LA25 on my Ukey35 (in stunt), it didn't like anything more than a 9-4 or 10-3 APC prop. Everything else I tried overstressed the engine, at least in the overheads. I am not sure on the straight and narrow.

Alan

Well if they did it would be called "LA25berg". Not exactly tripping off the tongue!

I am suspecting that the Fox 35, when leaned and meaned out, will beat the LA25. After all we have been comparing the 4-2-4 Fox to the 2 strokin' 25, and there I still think the Fox has more moxie, especially if the plane is a bit on the heavy side. Of course a lot of the race is won in the pits. At least I have been able to get my Fox to start on the first few flips. I guess the 25 should also start well when really hot.

No, just LABERG....Thats not so bad.

I think if the planes weight is kept under control the LA would win the majority of the time. I agree the FOX has just a little more power, not much. The killer would be fuel mileage, the LA gets much better fuel mileage.

LAST EDITED ON Oct-27-03 AT 11:48 AM (CST)
 
Most of the races I've been in now only require a fixed number of pits, with no restrictions on tank size. Originally the Treetown rules stated a tank size of 2oz, but do you know, some commercial 2oz tanks carried 2.25oz. Rather than coming up with another rule specifying how to verify tank size (and fuel tubing...etc.), we decided to just go for the minimum number of pits. Under those conditions, economy doesn't matter. I don't know about your rules.

Also standard Fox rules required a "commercial" 9-6 or 9-7 prop, with layed-up carbon fiber and glass props excluded---this race was suppose to be for the newcomer (well we all know how long that lasts! )

I might go for this event if there is a clear set of rules that won't change on the field. I predict the LA25 will dominate and have to endure consessions due to Foxer complaints. What are the venturi restrictions and other engine rules on the LA25?

You could call it FOSBerge.

Giffy

LAST EDITED ON Oct-27-03 AT 05:54 PM (CST)
 
Let me see, I know the first letters are Full Of, but what oh what could the S stand for?

Fox 35 been around for years, there's tons of them out there and you don't have to be a genious to make one work. I wonder how long the LA 25 will be around. Would it be worth designing an event around?

Guess there are a bunch of la25's out there. Then again, there are a bunch of fp's out there and they are basically the same. As well as the gp's and the Magnums, etc. etc.

And why and airplane that does't exist anymore or is only availalbe form Cottage industries at this point? You can aget a Buster lookalike from Brodak, but is it legal? I've seen the miss Nora from RSM, but the trailing edge is built up on it, is that legal? Until Brodak kits the String it isn't available. You could probably plan build all three provided you can get plans for them.

But the charm of the event over pure competition is that there is an airplane out there that actually LOOKS like an actual racer, not a motor on a stick with a wing attached. And I actually love the event, nothing like listening to a bunch of snarling Foxes whipping, errr pulling, around the center of the circle.

Guess I could go for LA25's too, just wouldn't sound as good.

The Ozzies use the FP and LA 25 a lot in their vintage 29 T/R class. We won't deliberate too much on how an LA 25 qualifies for Vintage!