Clown Racing

Ron, I just posted a few more. The wingspan is about 27". I'm flying a original PDQ kit Flying Clown but I did modify the fuse to my liking. Others are flying their faithful scratchbuilt versions or Brodak Flying Clowns. I prefer the original due to solid leading and trailing edges. I by the way broke my leading edge in that impact. They fly on lines that are 52' center of plane center of handle + or - 6". In the pic of the guys flying, the asphalt has painted lines. The pilots fly in the small white circle and there is yellow squares painted in 4 quadrants of the perimeter for the pit guys. For instance, when the pilot is out of fuel and is coming down, he must run outside of the circle and onto a certain color line for his event. I stay on the paint line 52' away and I catch the plane as it rolls right on that paint line. For clown racing as you note just outside of the circle is a yellow line. The pilot must crouch down on his one knee on the yellow line while the pitman is refueling and starting. Once started, he runs back into the white circle. Every one in the circle area is aware of this. This is strictly for safety. These are really going and when we fly fast stuff you need to maintain attention. The entire circle is caged. Ken

Great pics, Ken. Sounds like you all had a good day of flying. Craftsmanship on those planes looks superb.

andrew

Sounds like pretty cool event Ken. If I were there, I would have been riveted.
The woman back by the fence seems less than interested ,
and nobody likes the resin chairs.(dumb observations on my part )
Great pics. Thanks for sharing.
Bob

So It's partly a foot race too, for the pilot running back to center circle after refueling. That's wild. You've got some serious equipment. I agree with Andrew, I admire the craftsmanship that goes into making those reliable high performance machines.

Holy Cow!

Your PDQ clown is ony 3" more in span than my Brodak clown. It must really cook with a .20 on the nose! Do they balance nose heavy? I guess for a speed event it doesn't really matter. Even on 52' lines you must be spinning pretty quick. Looks like a ton of fun. Green with envy!

Ron, that is a very good question in regards to the cg. Even though spanwise the Baby is close to the Flying Clown, the chord is much wider as well as the thickness of the wing. Even though small, there is more squares on the Flying Clown. Leading edge to trailing edge is roughly 8". I'm using an LA .15 for power. On the Brodak website you can see the racing rules. My plane is Brodak legal and I've flown mine there the past few years. I've never made it into the finals at Brodak's. I've been tweaking away however and today I'm seeing the rewards at least until the plane hit the pit box.

As for the cg, racing planes are much better when they're nose heavy. One reason is that you don't want the plane to just shoot up into the air on take off. The other is that when the power quits, you don't want the wing stalling due to no power. You want and need to be able to whip the plane into your pitman thus noseweight is needed. One thing that most overlook is knowing your equipment. If you run lean which will make your plane fly faster, restarting becomes problematic. If you choose to run your engine in that manner, you must dump either fuel or water on the engine immediately to cool it prior to starting.

Fuel works well but makes a mess and the plane slippery if you get it onto the fuse not to mention there's the fire issue. Running richer eats up your fuel economy but seriously helps your restarts. It just takes a lot of experimentation and clock timing to see how the changes you made affect the overall. Looking and guessing just doesn't do it as the stopwatch doesn't lie. Today in the time allotment, I was making 2 pit stops. Last month was 2 and sometimes 3. I would catch the plane and if you look at some of the pics you can see we use fast fuelers. Look at the tips on the fuel bulbs and also the receivers on some of the tanks. I was getting 1-2 flip starts. Ken

I see Ken,

Looking at the picture I can see now that the wing is much larger. I really wish they did this kind of stuff in my neck of the woods. It makes sense about the planes being on the nose heavy side. It was kind of what I envisioned too. That being said what goes on at the other end. Do you pass folks? If so how? I assume you must go underneath the lines.

I am going to shoot you a PM.

Ron

Nice macro on the engines, could you talk about the fuel systems used? It looks like using the propwash to pressurize the tank?

crankbndr wrote:Nice macro on the engines, could you talk about the fuel systems used? It looks like using the propwash to pressurize the tank?

Yeah that's what I was interested in too. All of the mounting hardware and everything is put together very professionally looking, a good solid setup. No silly failures from parts moving around or shaking loose.

One major importance of racing is achieving proper engine runs. This is why tank configuration is quite important. The main problem with hard tanks is that there just isn't a commercially available tank that you can strap on and just go at it. Uniflow is essential for proper engine runs. For those that are unfamiliar with the term, uniflow is an additional pipe which is soldered to the pickup line internally about 3/8 shy of the pickup. The tube then exits the tank and is is placed directly into the slipstream of air. Unfilow doesn't come without problems though. Getting the pipe into the wind with clean air is a must. Since our tanks are directly behind the engine the uniflow pipe is also directly behind the engine. This sometimes gets turbulent air from the engine and causes problems. Solution, raise the uniflow pipe higher than the cylinder which can be damaged on a flip over, or just exit it onto the inboard side of the fuse. Some of the pictures I posted of tanks and engines have the unfilow pipe soldered to a bracket, bolted to the engine, and also laid down along the top of the fuse stopping at the end of the beam.

My clown for instance has a tank which in most peoples eyes shouldn't work due to being a rectangle. Well, it works and I don't want to change a thing. One would think that since these planes just fly level and don't perform aerobatics that fuel delivery shouldn't be an issue. I can say setting up a tank for racing is the hardest and most frustrating aspect I ever encountered. It had me to the point of almost giving up on it. The tank I show in the pictures is my Clown tank which has fast fills on the fill pipe. I also show the fast fill connector on my pit bottle and fuel bulb. These work extremely well and allow for me to fuel and start my plane in less than 10 seconds.

The procedure is quite simple, you hold open the alligator clip while mating the fuel bulb to the fast fill connector. The alligator clip must remain squeezed open until the fuel runs out of the pink tubing which is the overflow. I let the alligator clip snap closed but I still squeeze the bulb. This allows fuel to be forced up to the venturi. It automatically primes the engine. The purpose of the clip also doesn't allow the fuel to be sucked back out of the tank insuring me that I have a full tank. Ken

For some reason, my pics won't post. Hmm I don't know why. I would also like to answer in regards to what Ron was asking about passing. All passing is done over the top of your opponent. You elevate your plane above your opponent and give room then drop down to his or hers elevation. Keep in mind, the higher you fly the smaller the radius becomes if your opponent is flying at the correct height. This results in a unfair advantage and you do get penalized for flying too high. Pit stops can be hectic if you and your opponent quits simultaneously. I will try and post the tank pics later as the site doesn't seem to be working. Ken











I tried again this morning and all was good so here are the tank pics. Another item I use which works well for me is Velcro on the back of the tank. This keeps the tank at the proper height and also attached if the rubber band fails. My tank certainly looks like the quest for a better mousetrap, but like I said it works and it does a good job. I want to try and build it with some of the piping internally so I don't have all that stuff hanging out. Ken

Mine won't post either, after the picture size test post.

crankbndr wrote:Mine won't post either, after the picture size test post.

Servimg.com wasn't working earlier. It won't process the uploads. I could see the modem sending it, but it wouldn't register.

crankbndr wrote:Mine won't post either, after the picture size test post.

Hey! It wasn't me

I was resizing the pics on my phone and posting the same way I always do. At least I hope it wasn't me