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John Schmidli
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Date: 6^th December 1998

Venue: Lilydale and Districts Model Flying Association (LDMFA).

For a change, the weather was kind to us with no rain or gale force winds that seem to regularly plague pylon racing events.

This event is for anybody to get involved in, regardless of whether you’re a novice or a seasoned pylon flier. We had a good mix of experience competing and best of all there were some first timers. The models also varied greatly, with anything from trainers to super quick racing models - there were even 2 biplanes. (see below)


Marcus Guss's Sports racer nosing over. The 2 Bi-Planes in the background.
(Photo: J. Schmidli)

Being a handicap event, you don’t need to have the fastest plane there. You just need to fly consistently.

Between 2 and 4 people per heat, flying 20 laps, of which 3 of these laps (at the discretion of the timekeeper) are timed to establish an average lap time. At the end of the 20 laps completing the pylon course, each pilot is given a percentage based on the total time, compared to the their lap average (i.e. if you fly exactly 20 laps at your average lap time, you would receive 100%). If anybody bettered their time too much and received 90% they were disqualified. We flew 2 rounds of this event.

We then flew a 3rd round trying a different concept where there was a staggered start based on your best times for the previous event. Doing this meant that regardless of the speed of your aircraft, you had a chance to cross the finish line first.

A great time was had by all with some not so serious, but fun racing, a great BBQ lunch, great weather and the usual enjoyment of being involved with such a great club like the LDMFA. I think the staggered start race - although a bit difficult to run - has merit because regardless of your speed, each pilot had the finish line as their objective to cross first. Hopefully we will be able to see some new blood come out of these types of events.

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