RAT 1958 to 1970
Page 2 of 3

Racing started in an activity that was called "Hour Rat Race". Other than engine size limit (.36 cubic inch displacement) and line requirements (0.014 inch diameter minimum 60 feet long) there were really no other rules. The object of the event was equally simple- how many laps could you cover in a one hour time period. Getting people to count laps turned out to be a real problem. The accuracy of these numbers was always in question, especially if you lost by 2 or 3 laps.

There were no tank size limits, or airplane restrictions. In the early events some people used combat/sport ships. While these were generally fast enough they did not have much endurance and in many cases would "fall apart" with the long runs needed. The event required planes that were built for the task.

These designs took many forms. Some were beefed up sport ships with larger fuel tanks. Others were "special" racing designs with small all wood wings. Fuel tank sizes got larger with the maximum at about 16 oz. It didn't take people very long to realize that pit stops were costly. But larger tanks were hard to make run consistently over the entire run.

Typically this meant burned out glow plugs and burned up engines. So the problem came to be, what tank size v.s. how many pit stops. As I recall the "ideal" setup was a combination that required 3 or 4 stops in 1 hour.

One of the interesting sidelights of this event was the development of the "Johnson Engine". Hi Johnson had just become owner of the old "Orwick" engine line. He realized that "Hour Rat" was a perfect event to prove the endurance and performance of his engines. In the early days some of the people who where "Johnson factory teams" had quick change engine mounts to allow replacement during the race! One field, we flow at was made up of decomposed granite gravel. When "Hi" was still working on the best materials for his engines he had engines go from too tight to worn out in one race when flying on that field!

Eventually his engines got fast-and reliable. This event was the testing ground that was required to accelerate the development of this fine engine.(Time reference -late 1957)

The one thing that soon differentiated the "good" from, the "also-rans" was reliability. The winners were running at the end,, the other folks always had problems. Everyone who flow Hour Rat learned to build strong durable aircraft; at least if they were contenders. The team that I think ended up with the "record" was Jim Jolly ( father of Larry Jolly - R/C sailplane a electric plane wiz ) and Jack ( 4-cycle ) Garcia. The most laps covered , as I recall,, was 1500+. That works out to a little over 107 mph average for 1 hour including pit stops. Seems to me they only made 3 stops Fuel capacity was approx. 16 oz.

When AMA Rat (the name we used to differentiate it from Hour Rat race. Some place in time the AMA was dropped and the event became just "RAT".) started most people just ran their Hour Rat racers and didn't fill up the tanks. The 35-70, 140 lap format copied from AMA Team racing changed the event quite a bit.

First there was the addition of many new faces:

• John Greenshields- pilot and pit man (now general manager of Hobby Shack and pilot of full size aircraft.).
• Don Burke-Pilot and pit man, east coast transplant, (last heard of racing sprint cars).
• Bernie Tautz - Pit man and collaborator with Jack Garcia.
• Dennis Schauer - Craftsman, artist, jack of all trades.
• Dick Norsikian - super pilot and painter of racing models.
• Roger Theobald - excellent pilot, craftsman in metal.

The event took hold and replaced Hour Rat in the 1960-61 time frame. There was the over lap where a contest would have both events. But soon the greater appeal of the AMA format caused Hour Rat to drop from the local scene.

The lessons learned in Hour Rat were not forgotten when the new event was flown. The planes initially got smaller. The lower distance requirements reduced the fuel tank size and caused people to shrink the airplanes to speed ship size in some cases. This was done because every one knew that a smaller plane is a faster plane! As time passed it became clear that a larger more controllable plane (140 square inch wing + ) was the better set up. This reality was demonstrated to the teams that were also flying F.A.I. team racing. These planes with their large wings, by the then current thinking, were going very fast with "little" 2.5 cc (.15 cubic inch) diesels. Also with the requirement for pit stops in the rules they showed the way to get a plane down and up quickly.

One of the strange things that helped and hurt Rat was the increased sophistication of the event. Because it became more competitive it took more time to prepare for the meets. This lead to the formation of teams. This caused an apparent drop in entries at contests. There were the same number of people at these events but not as many entries. Where there had been two entries these people now worked together as a team and only accounted for one entry. There were exceptions to this in which people tried to double enter the same team, Smith-Jones and then Jones-Smith.

I think the way that was handled was to require the designation of pilot and pit man and requiring that they be different for each entry. These "teams" because of the sometimes intense effort put forth and the great amounts of time spent together became almost like marriages! I know of some wives who thought that they had extra boarders or who wondered why they never saw their husbands. But the formation of teams showed the recognition that specialization was needed to be competitive.

The coordination required to achieve fast times meant practicing with the same person to get the timing down. To know what to expect when the engine starts and the plane is released and what is going to happen during all other portions of the flight., The "catch" had to be practiced so that the out board wing wasn't removed during a pit stop.

The technology of Rat Racing changed as the event evolved.

I think initially most people figured that if you had the speed not too much else mattered. We soon learned that it took much more than just speed to win.

The first planes used suction fuel systems, the standard method for the time. The problem was how to get the large tanks (remember hour rat race was the first event) to run consistently for the whole run. The "uniflow" or " single vent" tanks became popular but were slow to fill during pit stops. Fill tubes where typically 1/8 inch o.d., the same as used in commercial tanks. It took a long time to put in 8 to 12 oz. of fuel through one of these. Then came the "screw top" tanks. These used the screw top lid from a regular fuel can attached to the tank. During pit stops it was unscrewed and the fuel poured in; the cap was screwed back on and off they would go. Then there were those who used the larger tubes (3/8"-1/2") and accepted a little fuel loss due to it being sucked out.

Pressurized fuel systems were used in an effort to gain more speed. The main problem early advocates had was flooding during pit stops. when the tank was filled the fuel would enter the crank case through the pressure fitting. When this happened and the engine was mounted in the inverted position hydraulic lockup was normally the end result. With the engine upright it just took a long time to get the engine running. However with the addition of ball-check valves in the pressure lines, or fuel shut-offs, the flooding problems went away. Pressure fuel systems did require that a plug or some other device be replaced on the tank to reseal it. Then John Barr came up with a device called a "Fast Fill".

This was a "cap" that fit on a large filler tube 3/8"-1/2" diameter and looked like a very short "duck call". This allowed a large fill tube (3/16"-1/4" diameter) to be inserted, fuel filled from a large plastic bottle, the tube removed and the tank would reseal automatically. (time reference 1963 ?) This device saved a lot of time and reduced the effort required for a pit stop significantly. It is still being used today.

The other part of the pit crews job that of getting power to the glow plug, was also given a lot of attention. Early racers used the time proven "alligator Clips". These were effective but Slow. Then the use of "Phone Jacks" became the hot set-up. This was taken from the more sophisticated AMA Team Race event.

While faster they still required two people to really be fast and some times dirt messed them Up. Then John Greenshields/Jack Garcia and a Lockeed Aircraft engineer named Jim Wilson came up with the "Hot Glove". This had two wire mesh pads connected to the battery attached to the glove fingers. The plane had two metal plates that connected to the glow plug and the engine crankcase. So all the pit man had to do was to hold the plane with the wire mesh pads touching the metal plates. This glove was normally worn on the left hand to allow for catching, fueling and flipping of the prop with the right hand. While this solved the quick electrical contact problem it didn't help to find a burnt out glowplug.

Don Vawter an electrical engineer added a third contact on, the glove and a light bulb to the circuit. This allowed the pit man to grab the plane as before and by touching one of the pads with the "bulb finger" a continuity check of the glow plug was made while the tank was being filled. This eliminated the lost time of trying to start the engine with a burnt out plug.

The engines used for rat changed quite a bit over the period involved. When hour rat started there were K&B 35's, Johnson 35's, and few Fox 35's. These were all plain bearing engines. The Fox 35 combat engine we heard about -being successful in the mid-west and eastern areas never seemed to perform well out in the west. The K&B's were the fastest engine at the time, or at least the teams with the fast ships used them, but they seemed to be hard to restart during pit stops and had relatively short lives. The Fox's, there were very few, where slow, but consistent. The Johnson's were as fast as the K&B's at times but broke a lot.

When AMA Rat became the game there were two other brands that showed up. One was the Veco 35C (actually only one team ran it, Barr/Norsikian- referred to as BNST),the other the Super Tigre 35. However one team successfully ran a Dooling 29 speed engine.

It says Veco on the hat, but it's days were numbered.