How is it determined when you cut inside a plyon?

[SkyvanDelta]

Are the planes microchipped and a laser shot up from each pylon? Or is there a couple of judges sitting/lying underneath the pylons looking upwards?

Is there a camera under each pylon so there is a record of what happened in case it is challenged later...?

How do they determine whether you've cut inside a pylon?

[JET1]

human being....

standing at the base of the pole looking up at the top of the pole making sure there is blue sky between the airplane and the barrel on the pole.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: How is it determined when you cut inside a plyon?

Yes, they use pylon judges/spotters. RAR started long before microchips came common in our lives.

[Air Boss]

Re: How is it determined when you cut inside a plyon?

I can add some insight here. Basically, each pylon has at a minimum 4 judges. One judge is typically positioned at the base of the pylon looking up thru the "can." If that judge spots any portion of the a/c in the can, it's a "Cut." The other judges are positioned inside the course looking at 45 and 90 degrees to the racing line, judging whether the canopy of the a/c falls below the lowest point of the pylon, which would constitute "Low Flying."

Typically, we record each a/c as it passes the pylon in order. That way, we can reconstruct the race from each pylon, should that become necessary.

Additionally, we are looking for "Forced Cuts" , "Unsafe Flying", etc.

All judges have to agree an a/c has "Cut" the pylon in order to report a "Cut" to "Home Pylon" which in turn relays that information to Timing and Scoring.

After each qualifying attempt and after each race, Home Pylon asks for "Any Cuts on...Race 177 (if a qualifying attempt) or "Any Cuts on...(enter Class and Heat race for that class). Each pylon, in numerciall succession, reports to Home Pylon whether they had any cuts (i.e..."Outer 6, Race 7 Cut Lap 3").

Home Pylon compiles all the cuts and reports to Timing and Scoring.

Hope that helps a bit in understaning what we do and how we do it.

It the "Best Seat in The House!"

Cheers,

[Scotty G]

Re: How is it determined when you cut inside a plyon?

Had a nice little chat with the pylon judge at 5 (I'm pretty sure it was 5) after the races on Sunday.

After some pleasantries and banter, I asked him how close I came to cutting his pylon.

During the race, it was windy and a little bumpy, but way better than I thought it would be. Anyway, I was coming into 5 and I was probably a little too close for the conditions. But hey... At this pylon, the wind would blow me away from it, right?

Wrong.

At the last possible second, I caught some kind of gust that simply plopped me about 20 feet closer to the pylon that I had been planning on getting to it. I thought about it for about one minute - really only a fraction of a second. Should I bank over more and try to get my left wing outside the pylon, or should I bank right and pull up some?

I slammed the stick over to the right and put a little backpressure on the stick. BAM. 4 gs slammed my head down as I banked over to the right. (There was nobody to my right at the time.)

I've got some pretty funny cockpit video that shows my mistake and how I chose to deal with it. I look like a rag doll.

Anyway, I landed and told the crew I may have cut a pylon. My bad. Tom didn't think it would have mattered since we were far enough ahead of Vandam. Good enough, and I was chalking it up to a learning experience.

Well, we didn't cut it by some margin.

I asked Mr. Pylon 5 Guy how close I had come to cutting the pylon... He just put his hands about a foot apart.

"By that much. All the other judges looked at me after you went by. I was the one looking up through the can, and you couldn't have gotten any closer. Nice flying."

Little did he know that wasn't very nice flying, but it was a great learning experience.

We had a good laugh over it, and I thanked him for his "side of the story." I thought for sure I had cut that puppy. I think I offered him a beer.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: How is it determined when you cut inside a plyon?

Monday, September 20 by the exif on the file.. tho I remember it as later.. Nice lines Scotty.. need a faster airplane.

[Air Boss]

Re: How is it determined when you cut inside a plyon?

Nice shot Wayne!

Scott, we chatted a bit about Sport 5 pylon after the race in the pits. I was on Sport 5 during your "incident." Recall very well your attitude approaching 5 and thought, "Well, we'll be fillin' out the Cut Sheet on this one." After you went by, almost all the judges who were watching from inside the course looked at the judge directly under the "can" expecting to see the "throat-slash" gesture.

Instead, we got the "missed it by...that much" sign!

Sure it looked much different from behind the stick! Nicely done, regardless of "how" it was done!

[Scotty G]

Re: How is it determined when you cut inside a plyon?

LOL... It sure was a dirty way to get the job done, AJ...

Wayne; thanks. Now if we could get some more people with faster airplanes interested in this idea!

[Leo]

Re: How is it determined when you cut inside a plyon?

In the still from the tail it looks like you are about to go right over it.
I agree, you fly a nice, smooth, consistant line and need a faster ride!
I've never flown a race or around the pylons, my flying experience is a fraction of those that do. But as a 34 year fan you get where you can see who has the touch.

[Scotty G]

Re: How is it determined when you cut inside a plyon?

You guys, I'm greatly humbled by all the very nic3 comments about my flying this year. Thank you very much.

I put that photo up just for this reason... It DOES look like I'm going to cut pylon one, but it's just the distortieon from the wide angle lens.