Engines for Contest Flying - As you know
from the Safety Code, for General flying (sport
flying) , you need to use certified engines.
Well, for Contest flying, the engines need to
meet a few more specs. But basically any engines
that pass testing for overall certification usually
also meet the specs for contest certification (up
to G class, at 62.5 grams propellant). A key
element of the granting of Contest Certification is
that the engines are widely available.
Essentially, engines lose their Contest
Certification about a year or so after they have
gone out of production. This is to be fair to all
competitors - it would not be good for some
competitors to have a hoard of out of production
high-performance engines that they could use for
years, while everyone else would be at a
competitive disadvantage using only the
in-production engines that were available.
So, how can you find out if an engine is Contest
Certified?
Go to the NAR website, for a list
of engines approved for consumer use in the
US.
Engines on the above list which have a
superscript "C" at the
end of the "Type" code means they are Contest
Certified.
If they do not have the superscript
"C" at the end, they
are not Contest Certified.
In the example below, showing two types of 18mm
Estes "C" engines, note that one engine type is
contest certified, and the other is not:
Dimensions (mm)
|
Type
|
|
|
18 x 70
|
C5-35
|
|
|
18 x 70
|
C6-0,3,5,7C
|
|
|
The Estes C6 ends with a superscript
"C", so it is Contest
Certified.
But the Estes C5-3 does not end with a
"C", so it is not
Contest Certified.
The C5-3 is out of production, that is why it is
not Contest Certified anymore. The
"5" at the end is a
code indicating that it will also lose
certification for General (sport flying) use at the
end of 2005.
|