Hello Race Fans,
Another great day of testing and practice today. Terence arrived today making the Canadian contingent seven strong. Go Canada Go !!!
The weather was warm (about 70 degrees) with nearly no wind. In case you haven't heard, Powermaster Fuels is out of business so we are running a new fuel blended by Randy Ritch. The fuel is called Ritches Brew and is a synthetic / castor oil blend. We ran it today in practice and it runs very well. I don't think there is any difference in the way the motor runs.
I ran my trusty yellow Sweet-V today and it was running quite well. I discovered that my fuel tank repair failed again so I pitched the tank and installed a new one. I think I put in another six flights today with the motor running very well.
Roy flew his new Sweet-V again today and ran into some strange radio behavior. It appears that in one flight this morning the radio went into fail-safe and shut off his motor ( the programmed fail safe condition). However, Roy was able to land the plane under full control. However, the next time he went to the line to fly, the receiver was dead. A new receiver quickly had Roy back up and running.
Doug struggled with some inconsistent runs today in his Sweet-V. Near the end of the day, Doug tracked it down to a leaky fuel tank as well. Doug changed the tank and put his motor head setting back to where it was and he back up and running strong.
Henry discovered that his new Nelson motor was missing a cir-clip to hold the wrist pin into the piston. Subsequent runs had the wrist pin making it way out of the piston and making a couple of "tracks" on the wall of his sleeve. Henry put things back together and had his motor running again. We're not sure how bad the damage to the sleeve might be. I suppose he'll be running his older motor in competition.
Harold continued to fly the Strega today with more trimming and balancing going on. Harold is getting comfortable with the Strega and I'm sure he'll be pushing the fast guys when the green flag drops.
Terence had either a Two-Sweet or a Proud Bird out with his Canadian flags emblazoned on the bottom of the wing. Terence put in a couple of good test rips with the help of Tony Pacini. I'm sure more practice time on Thursday and Friday will have Terence in the groove for the contest weekend.
Of the many countless practice flights put up by everyone, there have been almost no mishaps to speak of. I think Rusty Van Baren lost a Miss Ashley late today on landing. I think the radio quit (FUTABA) and it went into the desert and stopped with a big thump. We'll probably never know what really happened.
I had the pleasure of flying the E-F1 prototype from Horizon Hobby today. The little Pogo flys really well. It has no bad habits other than a fair bit of torque on take off due to the 8x8 propellor and of course the sudden torque of the electric motor if you advance the throttle quickly. I powered up the motor very slowly and kept on the right rudder the whole way for a smooth takeoff down the asphalt runway. I have to say that I was very pleased with the speed and handling of this little bird. I threw in a few clicks of right rudder to keep the nose up a bit in the left hand pylon turns. It was very smooth and predictable. You just gotta have one of these in your hangar.
Lana arrived at the airport tonight and so Thursday and Friday are tourist days. I'm all done my testing and ready for the race. Lana and I will get some sun by the pool tomorrow and do a little bit of golf together. We'll be checking into the Hampton Hotel up by the race field on Friday evening. My next blog will be Saturday night with Day 1 results.
Keep your nose up in the corners...
Randy
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