The October 12 2020 foamy T28 races went off smoothly with 12 pilots signing up to fly. We followed the same format as the previous race with 3 preliminary heats which set the grouping for the final races.
The preliminary rounds saw some wing tip to wing tip flying along with some creative shorting of the course to try and catch up to the lead planes—more often than not the offenders were awarded with a cut penalty knocking them down a place for their efforts. Most of the cuts occurred in the first round with fliers getting a little more conservative in the second and third rounds to avoid costly mistakes. A couple unlucky pilots had some problems that kept them from getting to the finals—better luck next time guys!
After the preliminary rounds the numbers were totaled up and fliers were grouped for the finals into 3 groups. The final series of races had some of the tightest contests with the Gold cup race having three very closely matched planes and pilots trading places for the lead for nearly the whole 10 laps. On the last turn of the last lap Alex decided to risk it all with an early turn trying to gain the lead—-it didn’t work as he was rewarded with a cut taking him to a third place. Even so he was smiling after such a close race.
Some suggestions to help some of the racing new comers—getting your plane setup for racing is usually quite different than for the settings for fun flying. A plane that is setup correctly will be easy to guide around the course allowing you to concentrate on racing than just maintaining control. For some hints and tips follow this link to a previous article on setting up your T28 for racing: https://www.sefsd.org/builds-reviews/fms-t28-expert-setup-for-pylon-racing/
The current schedule has a second race date on the October calendar for this Saturday the 24. We will follow the same format as last time with a pilots meeting at 10 and the first race at 10:10. Charge up your batteries!
Bronze Cup
1)Steve#14
2)Tim#23
3)Vince #88
4)David#7
Silver Cup
1)Brad#6
2)Quan#51
3)Jeff#77
Gold Cup
1)Steve#77
2)Otto#33
3)Alex#27
