I know this forum is "officially" about 1/2a building, but I still think it should be a good place for some 1/2 a tips.
I think some of you know that last weekend we had our annual "This is only a hobby" 1/2 a event (Jim Renkar CD), and one of the events we have is a 1/2A "Coxy Hazel" 100 lap race. I think Fred K. posted a link to the flyer on our rules, but briefly the event is limited to the Sig 1/2A Skyray and a Cox reed valve engine with the integral tank like the one that came with the Black Widow engine. This is a 100 lap race with required 2 pits. We use Sig 15% Champion fuel (the 50-50 mix of castor and synthetic). We fly with contest supplied 35 foot 0.012 lines (for ruggedness).
The winner was Bill Smith who posts here, who by far and away, had the best performance of anyone. What really impressed me was that he was both fast and was getting about 40-44 laps per pit. I think he was flying with a Tornado white 5-4 rubber ducky prop (Bill if you are there, correct me if I a wrong). His flight time was about 5m 40s, about a minute 20s faster than the next pilot. Oh I forgot to mention, you are forced to hand prop the engine to start it--no springs or electric starters
So my question for Cox experts is what do you think contributes to such performance? The engine is obviously singing, but also is getting pretty good efficiency from the fuel load to get the 44 laps. I am sure the plane is pretty straight too. My own miserable performance gives less than 3 laps per tank.
I accept opinions too! Thanks..