FORMULA FORUM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006 THE IF1 JOURNAL

Transcription

1 FORMULA FORUM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006 THE IF1 JOURNAL

2 FORMULA FORUM IF1 INC. DISCLAIMER CONTRIBUTIONS MEMBERSHIP RULES Formula Forum 2006 International Formula One Pylon Air Racing, Inc. All rights reserved. Formula Forum is the official publication of International Formula One Pylon Air Racing, Inc., A Texas Non- Profit Corporation. Member of the Air Racing Council of the United States. Website: if1airracing.com Articles appearing herein may be edited and are the opinion of the authors and not necessarily the opinion of IF1, Inc.. Contributions should be sent to the Editor, Bill Rogers at 926 Rawhide Place, Newbury Park, CA Phone/FAX: 805/ , text to milward@ adelphia.net. Text on CD or PC floppies in WP,Word or.rtf. Photos/.jpgs remain property of Formula Forum. Membership in IF1 is open to pilots, owners, crews, and technical people active in Formula One Air Racing. Members $60, Non-voting Associate Members $35. Applications are available from the Secretary or on line. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE BIRCH ENTRIKEN President P.O.Box 3760 Truckee, CA / bentriken@earthlink.net CLODAGH STOKES Vice President 537 Hill St. Prescott, AZ clodagh@cableone.net JOHN HOUSLEY Secretary/Treasurer 1020 Chesterfield Forest Dr. Chesterfield, MO / F1race43@att.net DIRECTORS ED BOWES Promotions Director North 14th St Raymond, NE / edbowes@futuretk.com Webmaster - Ray Debs raydebs@aol.com VOLUME XVII NUMBER 1 WARD GARLAND Operations Director th St. East Lancaster, CA / wasa@antelecom.net TOM DeHART Technical Director P.O.Box Klamath Falls, OR / grandmaosgolds@aol.com CHARLIE GREER Pilot Committee 5274 Soledad Mountain Rd San Diego, CA SloPke@earthlink.net GARY HUBLER Technical Committee 5011 Hubler Lane Caldwell, ID / ghubler@starband.net GARY W. DAVIS Procedure Committee Merlin Drive Sanger, TX / dtexasflyer@earthlink.net COVER PHOTO For IF1Technical rules, send a check for $5.00 to the Secretary, payable to IF1, to cover cost of printing and mailing, or check on line. Nellis AFB, home of the Thunderbirds saw Formula Ones at the center of the action. Bill Rogers Photo CONTENTS 3. President s Report Birch Entriken 4. Las Vegas Race Report Bill Rogers 6. Nellis Photos Victor Archer et Al 8. Race Report Cont. 9. Sec./Treas. Input John Housley 10. Odds and 11. For Sale 2 FORMULA FORUM, JANUARY 2006

3 President s Report Birch Entriken New Year. I hope you all had Hhappy holidays and ate enough to add some erstwhile ballast to your airplanes. We had a safe and successful event at Aviation Nation in Las Vegas in November, despite two engine failures. The weather cooperated and the crowd was huge, as usual. The promoter was happy with the result and wants to discuss how to improve the experience for everyone involved in the future. My thanks to Jim and Nicole Pera for taking great care of the Formula One group while we were on site. Thanks also to Promotions Director Ed Bowes for the months spent putting this together, and to Bill Rogers and Roger Sturgess for coming up and helping us with Tech and Ops. Hopefully, this show will be able to grow its air racing aspect with time. Two engine failures in one weekend is a lot, and no doubt due mainly to the laws of probability. An engine failure is a possibility we always consider and I am sure a scenario we have all rehearsed mentally a hundred times. I know I have. As the oil pressure dropped to zero and the engine began to shudder, I remember thinking that the real thing was somewhat different than all those rehearsals. I conserved a little too much energy setting up the landing and ended up with excessive airspeed on final. An unobstructed approach to a 10,000 foot runway made for an uneventful landing. The bottom line is the crucial importance of course design and location. While I was beating myself up for the mistakes I made during my little adventure in mechanical failure, I was reminded of something the late Art Vance had given me last year. It is a loose leaf folio aptly titled Mayday. In it are writeups of emergencies that have occurred in the Unlimited class over the years, written by the survivors of those situations. They consist of data such as date, time, temperature, along with space for a narrative description of the incident, what was done right, what was done wrong, and so on. I think it makes for an excellent instructional tool that allows racers to learn from other's experiences. Formula One should consider developing something similar. On the subject of other races, the Tunica Air Races are scheduled for June 2-4. More information can be had at The race originally slated for Tucson in March has been moved and rescheduled. The Arizona Air Races are now scheduled for October at Marana airport, west of Tucson. You can try the website Races.com, but it may not be up yet. I promised Karen Morss that I would try to do some sleuthing for her. During race week at Reno last September Karen had circulated a poster for Formula One folks to sign and which was then to be sent off to Eric Matheson's family. That poster subsequently went missing and Karen is trying to ascertain its whereabouts. I have not been able to find anyone with knowledge of the poster's location. If you happen to have it or know where it might be, please let Karen or myself know so that it can be forwarded to the Matheson family. Please welcome Clodagh Stokes (aka Mrs. Dave Roelofs), as our new Vice President. While a number of individuals were considered and debated for the position, Clodagh was chosen by the unanimous vote of the eight other board members. Probably the only thing they have ever totally agreed on and one of their best moves ever. Cont. on Page 9 FORMULA FORUM, JANUARY

4 Las Vegas 2005 Race Report Nov 10-13, 2005 Bill Rogers The good, the bad and the ugly. THE ENTRY PRACTICE This year we were prepared for the tight security measures imposed in 2003, when we last visited the Aviation Nation Show at Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, NV. Ed Bowes had coordinated well and everyone s name was on the list at the gate, so entry on Thursday morning was painless and a convoy was not necessary. We found our way in dribs and drabs to the same hangar assigned to us before and started putting the airplanes together. Charlie Greer rolled in from San Diego late afternoon, while Steve Senegal flew in, after a series of short hops, just as the moon rose and the sun set - time for a trailer perhaps?. Initially we had signed up 9 aircraft, eight racers and a static display machine. This was not to be since Ed Dutreaux was out of the country for his company, and Roger Keeney had experienced an engine failure after Reno and did not quite make the dirt strip he was aiming for, removing the main gear and breaking the prop. Roger was at the show and explained that Mojave Green was readily repairable but not in time for Nellis. This left Jason Somes, #4 Alley Cat, Dave Roelofs, #40 Miss USA Jay Jones, #45 Quadnickel, Birch Entriken, #50 Scarlet Screamer, Steve Temple, #57 Aggressor, Charlie Greer, #69 Miss-B-Haven, and Steve Senegal, #96 Miss Demeanor to fly the demo. We had few support people other than Ed Bowes who assumed the Operations role, Roger Sturgess, flags and Bill and Carol Rogers who were announcing and shooting pictures. We were able to assemble the aircraft in comfort and Birch and Jack set about resolving an electrical problem with the Mag switches. Then came the bad news - the pilot brief each day would be at 0630, and the good news was that we would be served breakfast in the Officer s Club. It turned out that, for a seat, 0600 was closer to the ideal time - and I thought Reno was tough. It was bad. Most of us were able to attend the Thunderbird Party in their hangar which was a touching homecoming tribute to Vietnam vets. An open bar made the 0545 departure in the morning even more ugly. Most of these folks had flown here before so we decided to launch singly with the slowest aircraft first. That would have meant Steve S. would lead off but since Jay knew his way around, he took the point for our 1005 start. Rain was forecast but did not materialize and most of the airshow was taking off to the South. We decided the cross wind had a Northerly component and took off straight onto the course. We were behind Bill Reesman s MiG act and Ed launched the field at 3 sec. intervals after a 10 minute delay to warm up. That was not in the Air Boss plan, and as the crews transitioned to the other end of the field the seven racers flew round and round and round. No one could see Roger Sturgess with the flags, in spite of him moving far out onto the airfield in the direction of the explosives placed there for simulated bomb bursts, radio calls were ignored and the Air Boss became increasingly apoplectic. It was ugly. Three laps in Birch pulled up trailing smoke, his mayday were ignored due to some radio issues on the Air Boss end, but he landed safely. After about 12 laps of what was probably a five mile course (they each used 3 gallons of fuel) the rest finally pulled up. By then the crews were in position to recover, blocking the taxi way for a selection of Vietnam- 4 FORMULA FORUM, JANUARY 2006

5 SATURDAY era aircraft and Ed raced off to deal with that. It was ugly. Birch had pushed back to the hangar and determined that something, a piece of piston ring perhaps, had come loose in a cylinder and damaged the valves and piston too badly to repair. Steve Senegal had a ground fail on his mags, making the engine liable to start at any time and also took it back to the hangar for repairs. Our race demo was over by 1030 and we had plenty of time to put the planes into the pit area for the crowds to admire and Jay to sit an endless array of children into the cockpit of Quadnickel. We also had time to walk the ramp and admire a huge selection of civilian and military aircraft including mock-ups of the F-35, probably the last manned fighter, and a couple of Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles from Lockheed and Northrop. My favorite was a 1930's Dornier amphibian re-engined with three P&W turboprops. It was at least a mile away and cost me a blister. The weather was great from then on and we enjoyed temps in the 70's, little wind and clear skies obscured only by smokeoil haze. The other racers in the pits included John Parker s Thunder Mustang, a LancAir and a bunch of T-6s including Jason Somes Miss Universe. After the show, we wandered over to the chalets for the Performer s Party with Mexican food and yet another open bar. It was a tough job, but most people seemed up to it. Clearly we needed to do something to address the issues of finish flags and blocking the runway while we strapped in and warmed up our engines. The first problem was easy since with Birch out, we had him and his crew available for Operations duties. He volunteered to don his yellow race suit and handle the finish flags, with Jack on the radio and Roger keeping score. We carefully briefed where he would be and decided to display a green flag throughout the race, a white for the last lap, the checker and then a red flag after that in case people missed one. The other problem was to be solved by setting the grid on the taxiway, keying off the act in front to signal engine start, and taxiing onto the runway in formation immediately prior to flag drop. It was good thing we had these solutions in hand since Lips Hartman, our USAF briefer, had prepared a special chart at the Saturday brief explaining that the engineers had been out all night adapting an old drive-in movie screen to pop up at the end of our race with a huge Stop Sign. This was a first for us and every one had a laugh at our expense. Saturday was beautiful with no wind and we elected to take off to the North, utilizing the scatter technique. The three rows of two, Jay and Steve S., Dave and Charlie, and Jason and Steve T. formed up on the taxiway, started up, and rolled onto the runway as the MiG act landed. A couple of minutes later Patrick Callaghan flagged them off with 10 sec delay between rows. Bill Rogers joined announcer Gordon Bowman Jones for the play-by-play. The difference in performance began to show and by Lap 2, Steve S. had fallen to the back. The next lap Charlie was through into the lead with Steve S. on his tail, then Jay, Jason and Dave. On Lap 4, Jason and Dave passed Jay into third and forth. Without fixed pylons and turn points determined by landmarks, there was a difference of opinion as to what happened on Lap 5, since Jay appeared in the lead with Steve S. behind him. Jay claimed Cont on Page 8 FORMULA FORUM, JANUARY

6 Nellis Demo 2005 Victor Archer Photos Jason Somes and Alley Cat rolling Planning a Demo race takes much hand work 6 Sunday drivers, L-R, Steve Senegal, Dave Roelofs, Charlie Greer, Jay Jones, and in front Jason Somes FORM ULA FORUM, JANUARY 2006

7 Victor Archer photo Birch, Nadia and Jack work late fixing the wiring, but engine problems side lined them. Bill Rogers photos A hole in the case stopped Steve Temple. Jay Jones brings another delighted young convert to Formula One FORM ULA FORUM, JANUARY

8 SUNDAY Charlie with the rest following, took off heading for Area 51, while Charlie felt that Jay cut the pylon. Jason was now fourth, with Steve T. and Dave behind and the faster guys were determined to catch Jay. Checking the time in the air, Birch threw the white flag after 5 laps. They almost made it on the last lap, but Jay was ahead by a spinner from Charlie, Jason, Steve S. and Dave. Half way around the last lap Steve T. experienced low oil pressure followed by heavy vibration and pulled up, landing safely. He called a MayDay but no one heard his radio. Apparently a connecting rod had broken punching an ugly hole in the top of the crankcase. Then there were five still flying. Another hazard of Nellis is the emergency arrester cables stretched across the runway, 1300 ft. from the approach end, and Steve S. was lucky not to snag it, just touching without damage. Saturday Nov 12, Race 1-6 Laps 1. Jay Jones #45 8 m sec. 2. Charlie Greer #69 8 m sec. 3. Jason Somes #4 8 m sec. 4. Steve Senegal #96 8 m sec. 5. Dave Roelofs #40 8 m sec. 6. Steve Temple #57 DNF Lap 6* * Engine Lap times were around sec. indicating the course was about 5 miles around, the guys put on a good show, and we stayed within our 15 min. time slot. The large crowd appreciated the race and the seven Formulas on static display in the pit area. In spite of a noisy generator, we enjoyed a varied airshow, culminating in the Thunderbirds performance. A delegation from RARA was visiting, including Mike Houghton, Tom Gribbin and Bill Eck. Some people adjourned to the O Club for refreshments but most settled for a leisurely dinner back at Sam s Town. Another early morning on Sunday, and the same breakfast for the third day in row, but we were in the Air Boss good graces again and planned a repeat of Saturday s flawless operation. Schedule issues required us to launch 15 minutes earlier. Five airplanes now with Jason alone on the back row. Patrick flagged them off with about 12 sec. between rows and it took a little longer for the field to close up. Jay led Steve S., Dave, Charlie and Jason for two laps before Dave, Jason, and Charlie passed Steve on Lap 3. Jay had a good lead but the others closed fast with Dave and Jason flashing by Jay at the flag, thrown a lap sooner than yesterday. One second covered all the first four, an exciting finish. Sunday Nov 13, Race 2-5 Laps 1. Dave Roelofs #40 6 m sec. 2. Jason Somes #4 6 m sec. 3. Jay Jones #45 6 m sec. 4. Charlie Greer #69 6 m sec. 5. Steve Senegal #96 6 m sec. What started out pretty ugly, turned out pretty good. We struggled a little at the beginning with too few people to operate the races but Birch s retirement provided the help we needed, in spite of a surprising lack of our normally efficient Operations folks. Very little advance information was provided or pre-planning done by World of Wings, and Jim & Nicole Pera, Jim Kippen and the USAF did their best to accommodate us, but even the FAA called us the red-headed step children. If we are to operate at airshows, we should really consider starting on the taxiway and rolling out for take off - that worked well. The racing looked good, but before we do this again we need to be reimbursed for some Ops people, since IF1 cannot continue to subsidize an airshow that apparently will not develop into a race as we previously had hoped. 8 FORMULA FORUM, JANUARY 2006

9 Secretary/Treasurer Input Welcome to 2006! There has been a lot of activity since our general John Housley meeting last September at Reno. Here are some of the highlights: The Board meeting held 22 November resulted in election of Clodagh Stokes to Vice President. IF1 is investigating acquisition of the water and electrical services provided in the camping area behind the Reno hangar. Membership renewal forms were sent from a new database system in late November. Dues are due on 1 January and response to date has been good. IF1 is in a good financial position based on existing funds and projected membership renewal rates. Two rules changes were presented to the voting members for their consideration. These were 1) Requirement for all participating IF1 aircraft to have an operational two-way radio and 2) Elimination of specific IF1 pilot currency requirements and logbooks for pilots. The first (radios) was proposed based on experience gained in the past several years and promoter expectations/requirements and the second on the ineffectiveness of the existing rules in assuring competency while flying IF1 aircraft. Both proposals received member approval and became effective on 1 Jan Complete updated rules will be published on the IF1 website shortly. Add Radios Operational two-way radios are required for all participating F1 aircraft. All participating pilots and crews will use radios only in compliance with the following IF1 radio use rules: Radio use during F1 flights within waivered airspace will be limited to Race Control frequency and to calls made in the interest of safety, communications with the Operations Director and his/her designee, IF1 officials, Timing officials, and Race Control or their equivalent, landing position reports, and emergency use only Under no circumstances will radios be used by ground crews for communication with pilots during any flights within waivered airspace (practice, qualifications and races). Delete the following Pilot Qualification/Experience Rules: , ,and A proposal to revise the method of timing was sent out for vote but was subsequently withdrawn because of procedural issues. If you have any suggestions on ways that IF1 can be improved, please send them to any of your Directors.this is your organization and we want to make it the best one possible. John PRESIDENT S PAGE Cont. Clodagh is an airline pilot and part owner of Miss USA. She brings excellent people skills, the ability to understand complicated issues and the insight to put them into perspective, not to mention the willingness to take on the job. She has hit the ground running and the Board is certainly looking forward to working with her. In March, we will have our annual meeting with the RARA Board and staff. If you have any concerns or ideas that you feel should be discussed, please let me or any other Board member know. Here's wishing you all a healthy and prosperous 2006! Birch Entriken FORMULA FORUM, JANUARY

10 Odds and he Society of Air Racing Historians are holding their 2006 Symposium, May 5-7 at the Holiday Inn - Airport, 3 miles northeast of Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Scheduled to speak are the first Goodyear Trophy winner in Whitman s Buster, Steve Brennand and Kip Mone who raced Estrellita in An illustrious roll call of Thompson Trophy racers are also planning to speak, including Cook Cleland. T Bill Statler, designer of the Kistler Skeeter and Foss Ginny died on March 7. Apart from the Community pages on the Formula One website there are a couple of other sites hosting general air racing message boards. Check out AAFO.com and WarbirdAeroPress.com; several familiar names are active. For some time I have been noticing some outstanding photography of Formula Ones (and other planes racing) on the web. At Nellis I met up with Victor Archer and you can see some of his work in these pages. Take a look at his F1 galleries from Reno and Nellis at mula_1_class, his work is outstanding. What is really disappointing is that he uses the same camera that I do, but gets much better results! We are planning this year to make the Digital Forum available on the website. This means that those who request a digital copy will receive an with a link to the Forum. This will provide several advantages to you. It will make the news available faster, all photos will be in color and you will be able to print a complete or partial 10 hard copy yourself if you wish. Back issues will be retained and will be available to people who miss copies or need to refer to an article. The advantages to IF1 are that we will be able reduce the cost to the treasury by printing and mailing fewer copies; also the cost of postage is scheduled to increase this year. This cost reduction is especially desirable for our international members and associates. You will notice minor format changes associated with the transition. I previously made individual originals for each article, but now we have one big file. Check our site, if1airracing.com, for the Digital Forum. For those of you who are unfamiliar with our new VP, Clodagh, I asked her for a short bio and that is exactly what she gave me! Clodagh Stokes, seen here with husband Dave Roelofs at Reno, has been flying for 17 years. They bought Miss USA in 2001 and have been at Reno every year since. They have been living in Prescott, AZ for 11years. Clodagh who is of Irish extraction, is currently flying Boeing 737s for a living. Next year, 2007, is the 60th Anniversary of the first Goodyear Trophy (F1) race and we need a Commemorative Logo similar to what we had for our 50th Artists, to your boards! FORM ULA FORUM, JANUARY 2006

11 For Sale Ads are free as a service to members. AIRCRAFT Prior to purchase of any aircraft, please contact the Technical Director for any IF1 rules compliance items that may apply. WANTED PARTS #92 N17517 Cassutt 111 Yellow Peril Silver winner Tapered Grove wing 0 time race engine, extra parts, small wheels/pants, trailer. $35K firm. 10/05 Contact: Luc (928) #21 N85GN Cassutt 111M "Blackjack" A clean, fast slab wing Cassutt. Great engine/carbon prop setup; spares. 1/06 Contact: Gary Dalleske gwdflyer@aol.com 1994 CASSUTT 111M SPORT 125HP Lyc. 0290, 256 smoh, 141 Airframe, 8-05 insp, Basic instruments, Elecs, no radios. Snellville, GA, $13,900 10/05 Contact: Mike Stewart (770) Cassutt Taperwing Flying Cassutt with OWL Taperwing $11,000 w/o engine or $16,000 w/ O-200 5/04 Contact: Steve Wohnoutka (417) steve_wohnoutka@yahoo.com Wanted to Purchase - an established, proven Formula One racer for 2006 season with at least mid-silver capability. Prefer near turn-key package with spares, trailer, etc. Will travel anywhere to see, but naturally favor midwest. Contact: George Andre, St Louis, MO glandre@sbcglobal.net, (314) Grove Carbon Fiber Wing. 20' Span, complete with balanced ailerons. 100 lbs, $11,000 5/05 Contact: Ray Cote (619) Cassutt Parts. National Aeronautics has Cassutt parts including Al and Steel landing gear legs. Contact: Ib or Sue Hansen: (303) Cassutt and Race Parts carbon wing & tail, one fully race prepared engine, several cylinders, landing gear & mags. Contact: Dave Morss (650) davemorss@pacbell.net Teledyne Continental Parts at Racer prices Mattituck Aviation. Mention IF1 Contact: Phil Haponic: (1800) info@airplane.com New Composite Parts 9" Composite Spinners - $100, and 9" aluminum backplates - $35, Wheel Pants: $350, Cassutt Tail Feathers. Contact: Ray Sherwood (530) rayyjayy@aol.com Graphite Race Props by Twisted Composites- Run One or Follow One. All-composite, race proven, record setting race props. 55x62, 55x64, 54x65 Contact: Steve Hill (505) carbonprop@amigo.net RCAT Full Telemetry System complete and up to date with latest software. Have over $ invested, will accept $ Contact: Scotty (208) RCATS Wireless airborne telemetry systems for your racer. 11 Channels and up, incl. airspeed, G s, GPS track. Contact: Mike Luvara (408) mike@rcatsystems.com Custom Embroidery: Team shirts, hats, jackets, etc. at racer rates for 12 pcs +. All Star Warbirds Sharon Sandberg: (763) P.O.Box 155 Zimmerman, MN SSandberg@aol.com If you have aircraft and other items for sale, please me at clodagh@ cableone.net or call and update me with any changes. Clodagh FORMULA FORUM, JANUARY

12 Victor Archer photo Sunrise Mountain and the Nellis Control Tower provide a great backdrop for IF1 PYLON AIR RACING - THE WORLD'S FASTEST ENGINESPORT Wishing you all a happy and successful New Year FORMULA FORUM 926 Rawhide Place, Newbury Park, CA