Well for a little 'history', The VAM club , back in the 70's had a pylon race... especially for a cute little bipe known as the Rumplstadt. Plans >were< available at RCM plans anf the plane was designed around a .10 . They had a blast and Fred Waltermeyer , Goose and others built them with a bit of "nationality" marking deviations. I seen the plane in the early 70's , fell in love with it, and actually owned one in the 80's
They were very inexpensive and flew better than any bipe I've seen (fun flying -not competition) . The microfiche was destroyed accidentally and RCM cannot produce plans again and in writing RCM, I obtained their last reprint and they gave me permission to resurrect the grand lil plane. I did this with the aid of a gent in Australia that drew a plan off one he has been flying since the early 70's.
You can Google 'Rumplestadt' and find the threads about it.
I am also presenting a fun lil design I just prototyped (called the Dollar Delta) that lends itself quite well to fun pylon or combat. It will fly at any speed from a high alpha walk-speed (never tip stalling) to about 60 mph on a 3s 460 mah battery, On high rates will turn around in 3'..Have flown FPV and motor/rec/esc and battery are somewhat 'protected' in the center of wing in a slot.
The wings assemblies can be yanked off (velcro) , pushrods removed and slapped on another wing assembly in 60 seconds and be flying again as the motor/esc/receiver/servos and battery are all mounted in a removable power pod (velcro).
The wing/elevon assembly is easily made in about 30 minutes from one ($1) Dollar Tree foam board (Great Cub Scout project) with no CF and is reeeally easy to decorate or just print decals on paper (imagine the ugly monsters, nice Pt-19, Migs etc) , cut with scissors and spray adhesive them on.
Now for those that have to fly pylon at 100+ MPH and $100 + , your gonna need a huge field, a large wallet when you bump ? another one and a hardhat and safety glasses. , plus pilots that can actually fly low and fast and turn hard...yep ..one hiccupp or glance at another plane and ...splat! Get the picture
Whats the solution???
Now comes a suggestion of an event where the pylons can be within sight (of more of the older eyes as well as youth), Flys at a very safe (60 MPH or less ) speed , is more of a flying marshmallow (for safety), can turn in 3' and highly manueverable, can bump into each other and keep flying, can even fly 'up close and personal formations', (I've already flew this stable design FPV)...so can be flown in race by FPV...flys about 15-20 minutes on 460 mah.
....but that's not all.
Same plane can drag out streamers and fly brutal combat in a very small area at only 15-40 feet above the grass , having a protected flight system , not having to worry about destroying parts...but if you do snap a wing, or carve an elevon.rudder off, slap a spare one on ($1 cost which you can have a stack of for a mere $5) and continue chopping streamers. You don't even need a 'heat'...just keep chucking them in the air continuously with a fresh battery. With DS tape on wings LE, let each pilot pull each "win" off and stick in box. He who has the longest total length at end of say 30 minutes wins.
More like a fast 'pit stop' ..to change a gnarled wing , streamer or battery (Shades of Nascar?---pit crews even?)
Ok... you get the idea.. It's not for everyone... the plane is simple , gets the job done, durable, fixable, safe...did I say Cheeeeeap?, can be made 'pretty' but it's kinda like mopeds... Some people wouldn't be caught dead with such a humble simple thing, let alone be caught riding one
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But talk about the loads of FUN that could be had flying really close (and actually fast) pylon races , just a few feet above the ground with 10-15 planes per event. Even the novice flyers can easily fly this one (I built the protptype for a guy that hasn't flown in years and is at least 60+ years old.) (yep, BTW, makes a fabulous trainer)
OK, I have the prototype and really need someone to Cad or Sketchup the plans and print them on PDF (print tile plan) so I can sell them for $1 or simply give a bunch of them away locally. I'm not interested in making money on this... I just kn ow this would be the solution to THIS VERY PROBLEM in the clubs across the US (and others)
Let's talk about this idea...
Enjoy!
I'm going to post some pics below that pertain to this idea and a little history of the Rumplstadt
