More getting started.

Pulled the engine and Pat McGuire helped my haul it to Mexico, MO, where Bob Malecheck just happened to be attending a LSA exhibition. Made it a lot easier than driving all the way to Dallas.

Dan Yeager supplied a new set of paper templates.  These are for the jigs that will support the canard during glassing.

The Rebuild Begins

A bit of a progress report here.  Again, I want to thank EVERYONE who has been helping.  Fantastic!  Because of all of you, there is no way I could close the chapter on my Quickie.

Amputee

So far, I have located a virgin Q-2 kit, firewall aft, with spars and foam.  BTW, I will sell the parts I don't use, but that will be a few months down the line.

I put a dial indicator on my crankshaft flange and the runout was 0.001". The TCM spec is  0.000" - 0.005".  This is really good news.  The engine is likely fine, but I am going to have Bob Malechek do a teardown inspection anyway.

I sent Craig Catto some pictures of my prop, that he just refinished for me earlier this year. I asked about possible repairs vs. the cost of a replacement.  Craig said it was time for me to upgrade to his newer design, and that he would sponsor a new prop for me! Another WOW!

What you can't see in this photo is the 6" delamination.

It looks like I'll be able to use the SIU Aviation Technologies facilities over the winter.  The hangar is heated, so work should be pretty much uninterrupted.  From time to time, I will be able to enlist students in the project and they'll get a little practical experience that they could include on a resume.

Looks like I'll be using this space in the Jet Engine lab at SIU's Aviation Technologies.

I'm also getting big help from Chapter 277, C-Rod, Charlie Johnson, Mike Bergen, Dan Yeager, Harry Fenton, Pat McGuire and Terry Crouch.  Really, the list goes on and on.

So folks, it looks like I'm on the way.

Here We Go Again

It was too good to be true.  Plane was running great and Sandy agreed to accompany me to the Tandem Wing Field of Dreams event, held this year in Orange, MA. Our annual gathering of Quickie type aircraft. Orange was going to be a long trip, but I have never flown the Quickie in that part of the country before, so we were planning a little additional sight seeing.

It was a nice day and the weather looked good for the whole route.  Actually, my fuel injected Quickie Q-200 has enough fuel to make it non-stop, but we decided to take a break and land at the Zelienople Municipal Airport. Try and pronounce that name.

When it was time to depart, I used Rwy 17.  Since there were hills around and the light winds were shifting, I elected to use the displaced threshold, which is about 500 feet long.  I put the pedal to the metal and accelerated normally.  All of a sudden we veered to the right. WTF?!?! We went into the grass, across a connecting taxiway and down a shallow embankment. We hit pretty hard and the left canard broke about 20" outboard of the fuselage, which in turn, caused a prop strike.

It turns out the right gear hit a two inch deep puddle of standing water, which caused the sudden veer to the right, directing us off the runway. The water has been there a long time, as evidenced by the Google Earth photo below.  It turns out they will be replacing the entire runway next year - about a year too late.

We were uninjured.

Long story short, single Quickie driver and racer Nathan Peck came to the rescue and hauled a trailer all the way from the St. Louis area to pick us up and drags us home.  What a guy!

As always, click on the photo to see it better.

On our way to Orange, MA.  Little did we know...

This is why we fly!

Pool of standing water.  Since there had been recent rain, it was larger the day of our incident.

Taken perhaps five minutes after the incident.

Duck tape won't fix this one.

What fun is a runway excursion without a prop strike? This will require an engine tear-down and inspection.  I only had 30 hours on that prop since I had it refinished.  Rats.

Fortunately, there just happened to be a crane on site.

Our rescuer, Nathan Peck

Ready for the long drive home

2013 AirVenture Cup Race & Oshkosh

This was my 10th running of the AirVenture Cup race, and the 22nd year my Quickie and I attended the EAA convention at Oshkosh.

For the front part of this year I had been quite lazy and hadn't been doing anything aviation related.  I drained the oil last October, and didn't get around to finishing my annual until June.  Shameful.

Since then, I've been pretty busy. I did the Firecracker 100 in Marysville, OH and have been getting things up to snuff, with an overstuffed to-do list for the plane.

Eric Whyte heads up the AVC staff, with his usual expertise and good humour. My wife thinks Eric sounds like Johnny Depp.

Eric claims that the briefings should take longer than the race itself, but sometimes I wonder.

This year's AVC was located in Mt. Vernon, IL, just a 20 minute flight from my home base.  That was kind of a nice change from having to fly 500+ miles to get to the starting line, as in previous races.  The Course went from Mt. Vernon, to Dixon Illinois, west of Rockford, to Wisconsin Rapids, north of Wisconsin Dells, to the finish line at Waupaca, WI, northwest of Oshkosh. My Garmin GPS says I flew 483 miles.

Not exactly sure how many planes flew the race, the initial list was 55 aircraft, but there were some scratches. We had five entered in the Sprint class.

• Sam Hoskins - Q-200
• Dave Adams - Long Eze
• John Keich - Midget Mustang
• Jerry Peck - Long Eze
• Leif Johnson - Vari Eze

I can carry 32 gallons of fuel, so I was confident about running non-stop.  Eric doesn't want guys stretching their fuel, so he built in a couple of no-penalty fuel stops at Dixon, IL and Wisconsin Rapids, but I just overflew them.

We had headwinds, so the only strategy was to fly low. I generally flew about 1,000 AGL. I guess I could have been lower to get a little more out of the winds, but I didn't push it.  One fun part was flying over a wind farm in southern Wisconsin.  It was directly on the course and I got a pretty good look at the spinning blades.  I heard things on the race frequency like "Q. What is the brand name of the wind turbine? A. Suzlon". "Okay - what's the model number?"  "For extra points, what is the serial number?"

I got to pass a few people, which is always fun, but shortly after flying over the Dixon airport I got passed by someone flying a bit lower and off to the right of me.  The old phrase "He passed me like I was tied to a stump" came to mind.

I had a persistant problem with cylinder #2 overheating.  I have seen this before, but having this long run at full power allowed me to dig in a little deeper.  Most of my cylinder temps were around 375F, but #2 wanted to slide to to 425+.  I was able to keep it cooler by increasing the fuel mixture.  At on point, I tried switching from my primary injectors to the single throttle body mounted back-up injector.  This instantly cooled all the cylinders.  I'm pretty sure the #2 injector is running lean. I will swap that injector with one of the other cylinders and see how that pans out.
Edit: I swapped injectors #2 & #4 and flight tested it.  The overheating stayed with cylinder #2.  Probably a baffling issue, but I can manage it.

The last leg was only 35 miles, but we had a neat tailwind for it. At one point I was seeing 230 mph ground speed, but my GPS record says, somewhere along the line, I hit 244 mph!

Waupaca was shockingly cold.  The racers were lightly dressed, fortunately I had a light jacket in the plane. As we were standing, waiting our turn at the fuel pump, some kind soul brought out hot pizza!

Lee Behl taxis out in his beautiful GP-5.  You should hear the music of that engine! Lee turned over 324 mph!  Click on the photo to get a better look.

When the results were tallied, I took first place in the Sprint class.  My closest competitor, Dave Adams, had ignition problems in his LongEze and had to drop out with a precautionary landing at Dixon Illinois. I was showing a True Airspeed of around 211 mph, so 205 with the headwind wasn't too bad.

2013 AirVenture Cup race results

All together, another great race.
 The arrival at Oshkosh was fairly non-eventful.  The Fisk controllers called me a Vari-Eze, AGAIN, but I'm used to being mis-identified.

Stumbled cross my ol' buddy, fellow skydiver and roommate, Mike Starck.  It's great who you come across at Oshkosh.

One of my great Oshkosh pleasures is to hang around the Quickie and see who shows up.  We get old friends, people whose names I should know but I can't remember, people who purchased a kit and never finished it, and other people who have a big look on their face and say something like "What the hell is that?!"

For additional entertainment, I came out of Pyro retirement to hang with Rich & Dee Gibson of Rich's Incredible Pyro fame.  I did my first pyro show with Rich somewhere around 1981-82.  Rich and Dee are retiring out of the airshow business, so I just had to hang around with them and the crew one last time.

Here is a great article, and some spectacular photos, about the airshow and the Pyro.

The guys preparing the det cord charges. We call this phase the Det Cord Party.

Lots of goodies, ready to go.  This stuff is powerful.

Storing the bombs and other charges for later.

Filling fuel containers which will be used in the Wall of Fire.  Each container has five gallons of gasoline and a powerful explosive "launcher".

So, another great year.

Plastic Explosive, with the race planes, a couple of hours before I headed for home.

2013 Mt. Vernon 100

As you can see, I seem to have missed posting anything in the past year.  At this year's Oshkosh, several people told me they read this blog, so I should get something up in writing.

About two weeks before the 2013 AirVenture Cup Race Eric Whyte called me and asked if I would put together a short SARL race, the day before the AVC race.  At the time, I was in charge of publicity for a Commemorative Air Force event we were having here in southern Illinois, but what the heck.  How could I say no?

So, I quickly hashed out a course and started working on the race materials.  It was a short 126 mile race, with turn points at local airports and at both ends of Rend Lake. My organizing effort was kind of slap dash, but with the assistance of the AVC crew and local volunteers, we got the job done.  We had 24 racers, and it was well received.

This was the first time I've done a SARL with another Quickie.  Nathan Peck brought his Rotax powered single place Quickie, which was fun to have. 

Here is the course and race results for the 2013 Mt. Vernon 100:  http://sportairrace.org/sarl/node/386

A real highlight for me was taking AVC race director Eric Whyte along for the race. Eric said he had been wanting a ride in my plane for many years, and this seemed like the ideal time.  Our speed for the race was 211.91 mph, so I would have to say his extra didn't make much of a difference.  Fortunately, I made one of my best landings of the year.

So, we ran a no-frills down and dirty race, and all had a lot of fun. I wouldn't doubt that Eric would want to repeat the SARL race next year.

As always, racing is about the people. (and machines).

Texas was well represented with Bobbie Bennett & Alan Crawford.

AnnElise Flickinger Hopkins Bennett got lots of pictures.  AnnElise raced with Bobby in the family Bonanza.

First timers and old timers.

AnnElise documenting some fancy cowling voodoo.

2012 AirVenture Race is right around the corner.

The Air Venture cup race is Sunday, and I'll be heading up to Mitchell, SD tomorrow.   http://www.airventurecup.com/. I believe this will be my ninth run in the race and my Q-200's 21st appearance at Oshkosh.  Time flys...

I balanced the prop to 0.01 ips (as good as this instrument can get it), and gave it a wax job.  Even bought current charts, so I should be good to go.

I'm never quite sure exactly who is showing up, but I do know that Klaus Savier has moved up into the Formula FX-Blue class (see http://www.sportairrace.org/id178.html), so I won't have him trouncing me this year.  I'm sure he will be giving the very fast Hammer Brothers Racing Team a run for their money.  Klaus' Vari-Eze was named "The Delaminator".  I heard his new plane is called "The Deliminator".

Here is an unofficial list of all the entries: http://www.sportairrace.org/id93.html

Historically, I always beat Dave Adams in his Long-Eze by about three mph. Given the fact that this is a 450 mile race with varying winds, if I pick the wrong altitude and he picks the right one, I could definitively be at risk.  Plus, he carries oxygen, so he could go really high if he needs it.  This all makes it interesting.

Looking at Who's In there some other cool races going on, most notably three Rutan Defiants and the Rutan Boomerang!  That should be noisy.

I'll be at Oshkosh till Thursday morning. Come by the race planes and look me up.

You think this is fun?  Just a little.

2011 SARL Wrap-up Video

A Great Little Machine - Another Day at the Races

I just came back from Taylor, TX where I ran the Rocket 100, the last race of the 2011 Sport Air Racing League season.

The plane ran great and this race was a blast. Click here for the official race results.

It was very windy, 17 kts, gusting to 25+, but fortunately, it was right down the runway and I didn't have any trouble there.

There is so much to describe what an air race is like, so many parts - it's impossible for to describe. But, I would encourage any pilots to give it a shot. Anyone with a plane - any plane, can and do run a race. It's challenging, it makes you a better pilot, and it's a terrific bunch of people who speak the same language.

One big highlight was getting a ride in a Twin Beech, with Mark Frederick. (That's Canadian Rocket pilot Wayne Hadley in the right seat).


Mark is THE Rocket F1 guru and owns the Macho Grande homestead, F1 factory and airstrip, about 2.5 miles from the Taylor airport. He was relocating the Beech from Taylor to Macho Grande and I was fortunate enough to bum the ride.

Macho Grande served as both the race starting and finish lines. Here is the SX300 setting the pace for the starting line.


For me, the first big challenge was just finding Macho Grande. As a result, I was a little higher at the start, so I didn't get one of those great head-on photos that Glen took.




In between the start and finish lines was 140 miles of hard bumps, headwinds and a too short leg of excellent tail winds. The really fun part for me was passing two other aircraft, an RV-7 and an O-290 powered VariEze.

When I downloaded my GPS today, it said the highest ground speed for the race was 251 mph! Wow, I sure like those numbers!

That evening, Mark and Cheryl hosted a survivors party at Macho Grande where all sorts beverages were consumed and lies told. A special thanks goes to Mike "Iceman" Thompson the guy crazy enough to organize this whole air race thing.

The ride home was interesting (that's a code word, of course). Had great tail winds and the ride at 7,500 was smooth. The EC3 engine controller is settling down and the resulting performance is great. As you can see in the photo, at 7,600 ft. I had a true airspeed of 170 mph, with a fuel burn of only 4.5 gph. I think with a little more tuning, I should be able to get the fuel burn down a little more. Click to see it better.

I had to land at Walnut Ridge, AR for a while to sort out the weather ahead. An odd thing I haven't seen before, there were a bunch of prisoners running around the FBO. Yes, I mean wearing striped pajamas type prisoners - both male & female. Apparently, there is a correctional facility nearby and the airport uses them to help maintain the airport. Good use of resources, actually.

Be sure and click on the next photo. This needs a caption of some sort.

So, I believe I did five races this year. Maybe next year I'll see some of you out there. I sure hope so.

A good day at the races.

After too much time, I finally got in another SARL race. This one was the Aircraft Spruce sponsored Tennessee Valley Air Race IV. We had a field of 18 aircraft, with three in the Sprint class.

I had only completed my annual inspection test-flight the day before, so it was another episode of wondering how my work was all coming together.

During my annual, I had sent my EFI engine controller back to the factory for a starting modifications. This wiped out the EC3's memory of the fuel air mixture map, requiring another long process of flying and observing an O2 sensor and programming the unit. Blah, blah, complain, complain.

So, whenever I do all this stuff, it's back to being a test pilot again. Well, I was really itching for another race, so I headed down to Courtland, AL. Very much fun.

On the way down, I continued to program the EC3 in both the primary and backup modes.

The race course was shaped like a bow tie, with the start/finish line at the knot. One very cool thing, one of the turns is a Saturn 3 rocket that is standing near a highway. Click on the map to see it better.

My start was terrible, I messed up my GPS and started heading off in the wrong direction! I was a mile or two off course before I got that squared away, all the while I was focusing on the engine, but it was strong, and turned around 3,150 RPM for most of it.

Flying the plane presents all sorts of different challenges during a race. First, the engine naturally sounds different, and the aircraft handles and trims out differently. You have to pay stricter attention to the engine gauges, and keep it exactly on-course, and pay strict attention to altitude.

When I got down, I was sure Dave Adams in his Long EZE had beaten me, due to my extremely poor start. I was really surprised to learn I beat him out by one mile an hour. The icing on the cake, I also won the Aircraft Spruce Diamond Prize - Fastest aircraft with an O-320 or smaller engine. $200 gift certificate - sweet!

Here are the official results: http://www.sportairrace.org/id450.html

When I get on the ground after these things, I am really spent - especially if it's been a while since the last one. But then I was wandering around the ramp thinking to myself, "That was REALLY fun". And it is.

So, go ahead and plan on making a race near you next year. It'll make you a better pilot and you'll have a total blast.

Happy Anniversary Honey.

At the Tandem Wing builders banquet, in Sullivan, MO, October 4, 2003. We got married 14 days later on the 18th.

Performance during the AVC race

If you are interested, I thought I would explain a few things about what is going on here. To see the photo better, click on it and hit Ctrl + a few times and the screen will enlarge.

First off, note the oil temp is 15 deg. That is due to the faulty sensor.

Altitude: 2,860' and a very slight climb. The density altitude is 4,940' with an OAT of 82F.

3,130 RPM WOT, with a fuel flow of 8.0 GPH.

IAS is 194 and TAS is 208 mph.

Look at the cylinder head temps:

#1 409

#2 395

#3 330

#4 366

Cylinder#3 is 79 degrees cooler than#1. Admittedly, #3 is right in the breeze and #1 is furthest back but I think there is something going on here.

One of the racers heard somewhere, from a Lycoming rep, that if your cylinder head temps were lower than 230 degrees, you were loosing speed due to excessive cooling. Kind of makes sense. Maybe I should look into some kind of a cowl flap arrangement to possibly pick up a few extra mph.

What do you think?

2011 Air Venture Cup Race

This year's race wasn't exactly smooth as silk, but at least the plane performed well.

This year there were only three planes registered in the Sprint class, but one had to cancel his entry because his wife was ill. That left me and Dave Adams in his Long-Eze. No Klaus this year.

Sunday, the day of the race, a nasty storm system was pushing down through Wisconsin and Illinois and would probably be in Dayton later in the afternoon. The decision was to made to split the race into two legs, Dayton to Mattoon, IL, then after the storm passed, make it Mattoon to West Bend, WI (near Oshkosh).

We finally got in the air later than we should have and headed west-southwest for Mattoon. One of the fastest planes, Kevin Eldridge in his beautiful NXT racer aborted his takeoff when his canopy flew off. That was the first scratch of the day.

Usually, the fastest planes are off first, but this years starting order was basically a free-for all and I wound up near the end of the pack.

In the air things seemed okay and guys chatted on the race frequency about the upcoming weather. I heard one of the racers announce a return to Dayton for ignition problems.

We started hearing the advance guys talking about the approaching storm. There were black clouds and building turbulence. One of the racers, Mark Quinn said he was encountering moderate turbulence near Mattoon. A minute later his voice raised about two octaves and he announced "Severe turbulence!!".

Well, it was obvious we weren't going to make it to Mattoon and Terra Haute, IN was a convenient place to land. Imagine how it was for the tower and FBO personnel. A quiet Sunday is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of 16 or so race aircraft.

Some racers actually made it into Mattoon. Other aircraft diverted to Effingham, IL, French Lick, IN and some went back to Dayton. After the storm passed, some of the racers elected to just fly on up to Oshkosh, including Dave Adams. What a mess.

The next day, and after the fog and low ceiling lifted, the remaining 16 aircraft flew the race from Terra Haute and we eventually made it into AirVenture at Oshkosh.

There are several side stories to all this, but I am electing to protect the innocent.

So, how did I do? Since I was the only on in the class, I took first place in Sprint at a rather slow speed of 201 mph. We had headwinds and everyone posted slower speeds.

Here are the official results: http://www.airventure.org/news/2011/110727_avcup.html

This was my 21st trip to Oshkosh in my little Quickie.