EAA Chapter 406 Newsletter September 2016 the Bird Sheet This month: Reno Air Race report Article: Endeavor Formula 1 racer
EAA 406! President: George Steed! Vice President: Mark Swalley! Treasurer: Joel Mapes! Secretary: Shirley Best! Newsletter editor: Mike Friend! Monthly meeting: Wednesday, September 28 at Bremerton National airport administration building, 7PM.! This month's program Mike Friend will talk about electric and hybrid airplanes. He apologizes to those who came last month expecting to hear this presentation. Stuff happens!
All the news! The President has some $750 vouchers from Ford, applicable towards purchase of a new car. I bought my Mustang using the EAA Partner deal, and I got a really great price!! The Treasurer is hobbling around these days due to a shop accident that resulted in a broken leg! The Kitfox Engine Replacement Program may be set back a bit due to this unfortunate event.
Reno Air Race report! Reno Air Races 2016 Warm sunny skies greeted the large crowd who came to Reno, Nevada in the southwestern USA, for the 2016 National Air Races. This was the first time your author has attended the races after a lifetime of fascination with the tiny Formula 1 racers that participate as one of six competition classes. I will give you my impressions of this, the 53 rd running of the races at Reno Stead Airport. Many people express surprise that the races still occur, after a terrible accident in 2011 in which many spectators were killed or injured by an out-of-control World War 2 era P51 Mustang. Despite this, the number of spectators is once again growing. The racing course has been modified as a result of the accident, and the action is now a bit further away from the grandstand audience. Without a scoring tower or big screen, as used at many auto races, it can be a bit difficult for spectators to tell what is happening on the race course.! The races consist of six different classes! Unlimited standard or modified World War 2 fighters. Sport Class Experimental aircraft with internal combustion engines up to 1000 cubic inches of displacement. Jet class Open to any jet with less than 15 degrees of wing sweep. No after-burners are allowed. T-6 class Open to North American T-6 training aircraft with minimal modifications. Sport Biplane class single seat biplanes using the 360 cubic inch Lycoming O-360 engine. Formula 1 purebred single seat racing aircraft using a modified Continental O-200 engine.! For each class, the Bronze race is the slowest group, the Silver the faster airplanes in the middle, and Gold the most serious and fastest racers.! I will concentrate on the Unlimited, Sport, and Formula 1 classes for this report.
Reno Air Race report! For many years, the Unlimited class, for modified World War 2 fighter aircraft, has been the main attraction at the races. It is apparent to me that this may soon change, as the number of airplanes entered in this class is dwindling rapidly, and this year the racing was dominated by Voodoo, a highly modified P51 Mustang. Most of the other Unlimited class entries appeared to be standard, mostly unmodified Sea Furies and Mustangs, with the exception of one Czech Yak 11 fitted with a huge Pratt & Whitney radial engine. My opinion is that in the future, these 75 year-old airplanes, more suited to the museums than racing courses, will become an exhibition class rather than a competition one. The amount of money necessary to compete with these aircraft is far beyond what most people can afford, and sponsorship seems to be difficult to find in recent years.! The Sport class is one of the classes with a lot of potential for the future. This class has two elements, the first being weekend racers who fly mostly standard two seat homebuilt touring aircraft such as the Van s RV-8, capable of 200 Mile per hour lap speeds around the 6.37 mile desert race course. The second element is the hardcore dedicated racing aircraft, some of which are capable of up to 400 miles per hour around the course. In recent years, the Gold class Sport airplanes are running faster lap times than most of the Bronze or Silver Unlimited class racers. Gold race winner Race 39, a highly modified Glasair III fitted with a turbocharged 580 cubic inch engine from a Piper Chieftan, is capable of up to 440 miles per hour in straight and level flight! Second place in the Gold race was a Thunder Mustang, a ¾ scale composite replica of a P51 Mustang, fitted with an automotive-based Falconer V12 engine. A future article will focus on Race 39, an airplane based at Paine Field north of Seattle, that started as a 300 Mile per hour kit plane and has been carefully developed into a serious racing platform.
Reno Air Race report! The Formula 1 class is an interesting mixture of new and old. Many of the Bronze and Silver class racers are older Cassutt racers, a short wing aircraft popular in the 1960 s that was available in kit form. A few of the Cassutts have been updated with a sleek carbon fiber Catto wing, built by famed propeller builder Craig Catto. The original Cassutt wing is called a Hershey Bar wing for it s resemblance to the popular American chocolate bar. The Catto wing has a beautiful elliptical shape, and has proven effective enough to win the Gold class in 2013. In the Silver and Gold class, there are a number of new pure racing designs, such as the sleek Arnold AR-6 Endeavor that has won the Gold race many times in the last ten years. Another fast new racer is Hot Stuff, a sleek gull wing racer that won the 2015 Gold race. Unfortunately, both Endeavor and Hot Stuff were eliminated in a frightening accident at the beginning of the Gold Race. Hot Stuff pilot Thom Richard was forced to shut off his engine on the starting grid just as the green flag was about to drop, signaling the start of the race. The Hot Stuff crew had labored for many hours the previous evening to replace several damaged cylinders in the highly tuned Continental O-200 engine. Endeavor was starting the race several hundred meters behind Hot Stuff and did not see Richard raise his canopy in a signal to race officials. The forward visibility in Formula 1 racers is very limited in the takeoff configuration, due to the cramped cockpit necessary for high speed. Endeavor crashed directly into the rear of Hot Stuff at takeoff speed, the propeller narrowly missing Richard s head. Both airplanes were severely damaged, but miraculously neither pilot was badly injured. While this was occurring, the race was underway, eventually won by Lowell Slatter in #31 Fraid Naught. Fraid Naught is a new design, with a sleek shape defined by modern CFD ( Computation Fluid Dynamics) software and crafted out of carbon fiber laid up in CNC controlled molds. The cockpit is so small that 5 foot 6 inch pilot Slatter can barely squeeze into it!
Reno Air Race report! The Formula 1 class is one with international aspirations. A Barcelonabased group known as AirRace1 is promoting a World Cup series for Formula 1, and hopes to have a worldwide series of races. Reno serves as the central race in the world series which AirRace1 hopes to expand in the future. CEO Jeff Zaltman has recently organized races in Tunisia, Llieda Spain, and will soon hold a demonstration race in Thailand. The U Tapao Naval Base south of Bangkok will host a demonstration race in November 2016 with six aircraft, with the hope of having a full grid for a 2017 race.
Fun stuff from the Web The FlyNano is an electric powered ultra-light seaplane from Finland. Designer Aki Suokas has done several successful airplanes before, so here's hoping this one makes it into production! New from Germany a retro style 2-seater in composites.
Classifieds for sale Avid Flyer Model C 380 hours TTAF, new Jabiru engine Pilot's age forces sale 360-789-3362 Centralia, WA Apex Airpark House for Sale 1700 square foot house with hangar for sale at Apex Airpark. 10670 Contact Court, Silverdale WA 98383 phone 360-698-7127 Bill Swope
Feature article! It's time for the Reno Air Races, so here's a story about a really spiffy Formula 1 racer.! Written by Mike Friend, originally published in Today's Pilot magazine in the United Kingdom.