Wednesday September 14, 2005

Reno Diary 9/14 Got back into town 11pm last night from MSP. Qualified in this morning's short session at 187 mph, slower than last time by 4 mph. Hmmm what's up with that? That put me 2nd in Silver as far as pairings

Our first race at 1405 had me starting in the last row due to the inverted start we all voted for last season (it makes for lots of passing and therefore better racing). It was a total cat fight. I passed about 5 airplanes and missed winning by 0.2 seconds over the 6-lap (~20 mile) race. Another 100 yards and I would have had it. No Maydays, no sketchy moves. Just good racing.

We really have to think about incentives and inverted starts. In the semifinal, noone will want to win because it places them in the back of the starting grid for the finals. Already talking about handing out the money in different ways to prevent people from just flying around at MCA hoping to lose.

Just got back from our banquet tonight. Basically another excuse to drink beer and tell "There I was flat on my back" stories. Wayne Handley was there talking about crashing the ag-cat in the box canyon and his various other crash experiences. Overhead someone else telling their midair supersonic F104 ejection over Vietnam story. There's so much aviation depth in this group I wouldn't even dare to try. "uhhhhh, one time my dipstick fell out...." ( Sep 14 2005, 09:03:44 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Reno Diary 9/12/05 Briefing at 0700, fly at 920. Was able to fly in the first group because I had to get to RNO for a Northwest flight to MSP (Minneapolis). Meeting in Eagan.

With all the mods and the new prop, the plane went all of maybe 2 mph faster. It's always a bummer when lots of work only nets a couple mph. I'm seeing 3100 rpm and 190mph on the straights, whereas I should have seen 3160rpm and 193mph. People are qualifying today and tomorrow, and I know there are 4-5 airplanes right in the 190mph range. I could very well qual out in the Silver class (the field of 24 is broken down by speed into 3 groups of 8 planes; gold, silver, and bronze). Half the prize money comes from qual position, so qual'ing in Silver costs me money, but on the other hand I have a reasonable chance of winning Silver and getting a ride in the fire-truck.

I'm at RNO waiting for the MSP flight. Do they serve meals on this one or do I have to eat? ( Sep 14 2005, 09:02:59 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Reno diary 9/11/05 Mandatory briefing was at 0800 and course time at 1030. Managed to get the wing root fairings on before heading out. The wheelchair tug as usual drew a lot of stares and cameras, especially now that it was playing music. My wife was right, "Ride of the Valkyries" was the right tune.¬† 

I was a little rusty on the pylons but managed to get in some good lines. Steve Dari and myself put the double pass on Marilyn. With the cruise prop I was running I could only get around 3020 rpm and 189 mph on the GPS. Looks like things are a little slower than 2 years ago when I last raced :-( Ok, the fairings are going on!

So I spend the rest of the afternoon going the rest of the way with race mods:
- Changed out props back to my 76/64 akro prop to get some more RPM
- removed h-stab struts
- removed slave struts
- bolted up top ailerons and taped gaps
- Added induction intake scoop


Feeling kinda burned out, went for a quick bike ride out Red Rock Rd, but only got 10 miles before cold rain opened up on me. I wasn't dressed for that, but at least the 40 minute ride felt good.

Returned for a beer with Frank and the gang, then back to Carrows for dinner, and to the hotel ( Sep 14 2005, 09:00:29 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Reno Diary 9/9/05 Friday 9/9
Took a WFH day today and ferried the Pitts up to Reno Stead (4SD), the home of the National Championship air races. Andrew joined me in his S2B so I could get a ride home. LVK was 2K overcast and most of the central valley south of Sacramento was overcast. We went under then over, which is a little disconcerting in a single engine airplane with the glide ratio of a 2x4. Few buildups over Donner Summit, lots of showery activity East of Stead, but the airport was fine.

Registered, got my annual graft: 1 "participant's plaque", 1 Breitling cap, a Breitling t-shirt, a race program, badges, wristbands, parking passes, Chairman's Club tickets, banquet tickets, the usual silver coin (this year with a T6 on it), and a copy of the waiver. The waiver of course is your ticket to violate every "no-fun" FAR regarding altitude, speed, aerobatics, and 'assembly of persons'.

Uneventful flight back in the B, and spend most of the afternoon filling the car with tools, propellers, chargers, wax, creepers, tape, oil, fairings, and my electric tug vehicle.

Saturday 9/10
Drove up with my stuff. Went straight to 4SD to dump all the airplane stuff, then back to the Days Inn by 8pm. Dinner at Super Burger. Ummmmm. ( Sep 14 2005, 08:58:05 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Monday June 06, 2005

Flew the Wheeler Express Got a chance to fly a beautiful composite called the Wheeler Express. It's a 4-seat low-wing, cruciform tail, IO-540, 3-blade MacCauley. The company has had its share of problems with a couple changes in ownership, and a couple crashes. But it's a great airplane that is close to the Cirrus in terms of ergonomics and performance. With 3 adult men and full fuel (92 gallons), we climbed 1500fpm and steadied out at 190mph IAS. Then we throttled back to form up with Erik in his S1C Pitts; at 5Kft 150mph and 15"/2400 we were sipping 7 GPH (nice!).
Cockpit layout was ok, although the instrument panel was too low (or the seat was too high). the stick felt too short but that's because I fly a Pitts, and because Wheeler's aileron forces were pretty high. Definitely a two-fisted airplane for doing steep turns or dutch rolls. Stall was uneventful with a right-breakoff and plenty of warning buffet. In general I overcontrolled the airplane, not because of control authority, but because of the long feedback period. In other words I'm used to an airplane that reaches steady state conditions 40 nanoseconds after control inputs, whereas the Wheeler definitely takes 5 seconds (depending whether it's pitch, roll, yaw). Super wide landing gear makes landings a piece of cake, although the brakes in this one were overly soft (I was suspecting the use of nylaflow lines somewhere)
All in all a nice cross country machine with an awesome useful load, and IMHO a more ergonomic interior than the Lancair 4, great performance on a fixed gear.
More info: http://members.eaa.org/home/homebuilders/selecting/kits/Express.html ( Jun 06 2005, 07:46:20 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

Wednesday February 16, 2005

Did it again - cowl rework Geez my wife is going to kill me. So the fiberglass cowl off my Pitts S1 is causing the firewall flange to gradually fail, because the shape isn't quite right and it prestresses the flange. Then throw in a couple hundred hours if high-G pulls and pushes and the thing starts to fail. So for annual, I pulled the cowl off for some quick reshaping so that it matches the firewall. I can never get it through my thick skull that nothing in fiberglass land is "quick". steps:

1. create a female pattern of the firewall
2. transfer it to plywood
3. mount the cowl to the plywood to force the correct shape
4. fill the cowl with expanding urethane foam
5. Cut a good size section out of the cowl
6. reshape it with Bondo or sheetrock compound, making sure exit area is correct
7. apply mold release
8. lay in 3-4 bid of glass/carbon/whatever
9. tear out plug
10. Fill and finish glass
11. repaint
12. reinstall

Monday February 07, 2005

Airplane wrecks Spend some time researching local aviation disasters. There's something very emotional about standing on the site of an aviation disaster. It's amazing how little can be left of a large airliner that hits the ground at 200 mph. The fragility of those craft is something to respect. The biggest bay-area disaster was the United DC-6 that hit Tolman Peak near Fremont in the 60's. I was up there but couldn't find any trace. I have 2 friends that have crashed their aircraft, a third who died. Dave used his parachute over Altamont, broke a few vertibrae. Lynn stall-spun on the test flight of an experimental racer. Wayne was filming a movie and turned his ag-cat into the wrong canyon. Several other friends have landing-light souveniers in their hangars. Bill cartwheeled spectacularly at the Moffet show last year and walked away from it (god bless Curtis Pitts). My closest call was aileron flutter over TCY that broke the wing-attach, bent 2 pushrods, and cracked 2 spars. Good thing the runway was 3000 ft away ;-) ( Feb 07 2005, 09:00:54 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [2]