I'm starting this thread I guess because I've reached an age where you start to look backwards instead of forwards. Not always a good thing but over 30 years of pylon racing with quite a few breaks from it along the way have created some great memories - particuarly the trips racing in other countries. Hopefully some of you other old time racers will feel the same way and post your pictures as well. I took a lot of photographs over the years because I wrote about pylon for some of the monthly magazines.

Anyways here's my first. A photograph of Terry Prather - one of the all time greats - taken at Bakersfield circa 1978. The model is one of his own "Little Toni" kits and the motor is a Terry Tigre - a modified Super Tigre X40

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Holy, 70's Batman!

We had a chair just like the one in the picture until the late 80's. I like the hat, sunglasses and tiger stipped blanket.

SO many great things about that picture. Like mentioned above, the leopard print rug, Michelob box, Ray ban sunglasses (before Top Gun made them famous) and of course the Little Toni. Always wanted one of those, I'll have one some day.

Great pic, thanks.

Oh, and the lawn chair, how could I forget that? Brings back great memories as a kid, I think we had a few just like that also.

I have that prather kit in my storeroom - complete with all parts . now you know why i want the EF1 version and that is the colour scheme i intend to use - i must have built at least 5 of this model and every one was just superb around the course - giles were you at the scottish nats when we tried to revive F1 in the UK - we flew a aldrich K B 40 schneurle with mini pipe on 40% nitro in a little Toni as a demo - the motor refused to start all day saturday ,then on sunday at midday we found the problem . It was in the pits when it first burst into life -the noise stopped every event on the airfield -so much so the organisers stopped the flying for a 10 minute slot in the afternoon so that we could provide a demo . virtually every one at the event came to watch , Tappin was there as well - meanwhile south of the border every one tried to stop us -oh well -lets look forward to the EF1 versions -

I think I was. I think that was the year I won the Sport 40 final after a really tight dice with Malcolm Beard.

Next up some pictures of some early F3D racing

Ok. Here's a picture of yours truly tuning up the motor at the OPS Trophy in Milan circa 1980. Actually the airfield was nearer Monza. The weather was really hot and I had to cut additional holes in the cowling to keep the engine cool. What a change from a freezing Lincolnshire airfield in March! The model is a Mako which was designed by Paul Careless. The motor was an HP 40 Gold Cup with an ED Power Pipe. The exhaust port was raised to give 165 degrees of opening and the disc valve was altered to open 4 degrees early and close 2 degrees later. The prop was a wooden Zinger. It ran up to 24,000rpm on a good day.

My caller holding the model is Jon Mock who's still a mate today. We still fly models, go shooting, etc.

Originally Posted by FLYTILIDIE

I have that prather kit in my storeroom - complete with all parts . now you know why i want the EF1 version and that is the colour scheme i intend to use - i must have built at least 5 of this model and every one was just superb around the course - giles were you at the scottish nats when we tried to revive F1 in the UK - we flew a aldrich K B 40 schneurle with mini pipe on 40% nitro in a little Toni as a demo - the motor refused to start all day saturday ,then on sunday at midday we found the problem . It was in the pits when it first burst into life -the noise stopped every event on the airfield -so much so the organisers stopped the flying for a 10 minute slot in the afternoon so that we could provide a demo . virtually every one at the event came to watch , Tappin was there as well - meanwhile south of the border every one tried to stop us -oh well -lets look forward to the EF1 versions -

It took me a while to find it but here is a picture of the F1 that was demo-flown that day. Both models were built by Geoff Ellis. The "Little Toni" in the foreground was the F1. The reason the Toni wouldn't start was because the pressure pipe from the motor to the tank had become kinked.The model behind I think was a Dara. It was a Sport 40 model because it has a Rossi. Geoff was a perfectionist in the finishing of his models. Last time I saw him he'd given up flying and taken up Barber Shop Quartet singing!

The people we meet and the friends we make in this hobby are more remarkable than the models themselves. The first photo in this group is a group of us en route to the OPS trophy in'81 L-R Stuart, Tony "Taff" Smith, David Tappin. Dave Tappin wrote for the RCM&E magazine for years and is still very active in the Large Model scene as one of the leading lights in the "Dawn Patrol" a group that specialises in gigantic WW1 models.
Tony Smith has gone on to become a noted display pilot of full size aircraft. His personal collection of real aircraft at one time included a Supermarine Spitfire MkXIV, a North American P51D and a Messerschmidt Me109. I flew into the PFA rally at Cranfield one year. Most of us were flying Pipers or Cessnas or in my case a Robin DR400. Tony turned up in a L38 Albatross jet!
Second smudgy photo is of British competitors in Milan plus one Italian.
L-R Giles Jackson, Tony Smith, Paul Careless, Dave Tappin, Ron,Marcus Griggs, Peter Burnage. Kneeling L-R Angelo Missaglia, Lynn Bristow. Angelo was also known as "Missile Man". During the '78 Sopwith Trophy he flew the entire course at about 10 feet off the ground. Great guy.

Thats the model and yes jeff ellis was the man - in that old picture i spy skyleader and hozion transmitters - those days we had 60 plus entries at the nats and if you didnt get your entry in by end of june you would be to late -

More action from the OPS trophy. This is the scene in the covered pits. When we arrived all the space was taken up by the Italians. The Germans had thoughtfully brought their own large tent and sunshade. The Brits just sat out in the mid day sun and got burnt.

The guy in the white tee-shirt and camo hat is Guy Brouquiere. He was apart from Gilles Desgrullier the only person in France who went Pylon racing. Guy was a dentist from Toulouse and he often raced in Britain and even in the States. Every race he competed in was abroad. Gilles was an airline pilot and his schedule didn't allow him to race as often as he would have liked. The tall man standing behind him in the Short sleeved green shirt is Victor Cassutt. He was one of the most accomplished F3D racers I have ever seen and a technical perfectionist. He won that year. Victor was an air traffic controller from Switzerland.

That picture above is how I remember the way racing used to be.....pits teaming with competitors and spectators. Today some people think that having a dozen or so of their racing clan members show up is a "Great turnout"...not like the good'ol days.

More start line action from what may actually be Milan '81 not '80. The first photo shows Lynn Bristow preparing his model which was a Pirahna with an HP40. Caller Paul Careless looks on. In the back ground one of the Italian models is being identified. These were nearly all balsa construction with balsa covered wings then covered in translucent tissue. They were mostly powered by either OPS or Picco engines. Most were flown very enthusiastically and very wildly. The majority ended up in the skip!

Second photo shows Manfred Pick walking round to take hold of Brenner's model prior to the launch. Manfred Pick is the father of German pylon racing. He was a Lufthansa pilot flying 737s and I believe had also flown F104s in the Luftwaffe.

The third photo is of Manfred's model. The nose had a moulded aluminium pan which formed the top of the fuselage/engine mount rather like a control line team racer. OPS engine

In contrast to the OPS Trophy in Milan, most FAI pylon events in the late seventies/early eighties were held on cold draughty airfields in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire or occasionally Gloucestershire. One of the most used was RAF Fulbeck in Lincolnshire. This consisted of a large desolate totally flat area with two huge runways. It had no buildings or any other redeeming features of any kind whatsoever. It was miles from anywhere and it was considered being used at one time as a nuclear waste dumping ground!
The first photo is of Ivel MAC member Peter Burnage. Model is a Mako with an OPS motor and Skyleader radio. Remember that?
Second photo is of start line action at Fulbeck. The third photo is the competitors at that meeting, mostly from the Ivel or Southend club and a few of us from Devon. It was an eight hour round trip.

In September '81 I was invited to a round of the German F3D championship by Achim Schaller. Achim was at that time a designer for Black and Decker and he often combined a work trip abroad with a pylon race. He was a regular competitor at The British National Championships and usually made the semis as well as racing in Italy and Czechoslovakia.
The race was held outside Munich next to a Nuclear reprocessing plant! I guess noise wasn't a problem because there wasn't anyone around. Like all German meetings it was very well organised. There were Quickie 500 and electric races in addition to F3D. The Germans had a rather novel way of looking at Quickie as their rules only required a standard .40 engine with the standard exhaust. To most of them this meant a standard OPS pylon engine with a tuned pipe! The result was that they were nearly as fast as the F3D models. At that time electric fight in Britain was in its infancy and mostly consisted of small underpowered aircraft powered by a Mabuchi 540 motor and eight nicad cells. In fact prior to the introduction of nicads electric flight was barely possible. The German electric racers had powerful motors and a brick containing 28 nicad cells. This made them quite fast. They were hand launched. The fuselage was a little longer than a Club 20 and had high aspect ratio wings. Compared to todays electric racers they would be slow but back then 110 seconds for the standard F3D course would have been un heard of.

The first photo is of Achim and his wife Suzy. The second shows a pylon at the event. Nice and visible to the pilots. The third shows a father and son team about to start their motor. The fourth shows a group of Q500 competitors. Is Quickie 500 the worlds most enduring class?