Racing at Brodak's

LAST EDITED ON Apr-19-04 AT 12:29 PM (CDT)
 
John's webguy has posted both Clown and Foxberg rules on his site.... http://brodak.com/fly-in.php?id=26 we're going to use them as written.

We hope to fly later in the day because these events require (minimum) three per entry....a score person, pit member and flyer.

I am entertaining the idea of putting a watch on each place as it pits and allowing an "electric finger" after one minute....what do you guys think....???? Remember, this is FUN!

See Ya

What the ding-dong is an "Electric Finger"?
Bigiron

I'm not going to touch this!

Marv....electric starters....we want this to be a FUN, FLYING event!

See Ya

LAST EDITED ON Apr-19-04 AT 05:28 PM (CDT)
 

I plan to build a Flying Clown for sport flying, because I like the way it looks. What was this airplane designed to do in the first place --- racing, sport flying, or what? I assumed it was a sport ship, but an airplane of this size with such a small wing makes me think maybe racing.

I would just comment that it is already pretty hectic for the "average Joe" lap counter and timer, just keeping track of the race, without the added complications of timing a minute in the pits before an electric starter is allowed.

Also as a "purist" (as if such a thing could be conceived in Fox Racing!), I always find one of the most interesting facets of racing is how the pit man must become one with his Fox. So in general I would say no starter.

I think "fun" is defined several ways. For spectators, the fun is watching and listening to the pit man coaxing the Fox to start!

Electric starters could be an interesting option. I just timed two classes of racing yesterday at the Whittier Narrows contest. It can get a little hectic as a timer. Like when two planes are up, and one doesn't take off, but comes into the circle right after the pilots feet! Did the lines break? Did the prop cut them? Should you get up and move? Can you help? You need to keep counting while everyone is scrambling! Having to keep track of the pit time with or without two watches would be hard! A lot of timer problems can really take the fun out of it for the participants. Darrell Albert brought his two young grand daughters and we pressed them into timers for Texas Quicky. They did great!

Why not consider it a "mercy rule?" What if they could use an electric starter after making a hand-prop attempt, but if used, would be knocked back one position? Or take a specific time penalty? The timer can definitely keep track of that, and it forces the team (especially the mechanic) to really think during the race. The spectators can heckle as the timid reach for ready kilowatt.... And it might be fun to watch the pilot yell at his mechanic....Not to mention all of the possible heckling before the race starts. Would anyone bring a starter? Would everyone? The mechanic could even try to keep track of whether the other teams had used a starter yet. Lots of strategy....

Dave:
I had the idea of tasking a volunteer with a watch to see how long the pit takes. The lap counter shouldn't have to do that. Just thoughts, but we have done it in Foxberg with good results....

See Ya