Reno 2013 Eye Candy

She could easily whip and beat me, but especially make me write lot's of very bad checks.

Here is a video of the 2011 departure of La Patrona, Race 232, a P-40C (rare), our P-51 "Spam Can," and our P-38 from Chino to Reno. Race 232 flew just fine but when they flew the first heat race, it blew a cylinder in the R-3350 and spit metal out the exhaust pipes on landing. It is NOW back up and ready for departure again to Reno for the 2013 race.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEt68DojIZo

La Patrona isn't a racer, though it races. It is essentially a stock F7F Tigercat. Note it has the cannon ports in place and all stock equipment including a bulged RIO canopy. If it were REALLY a racer, none of these would be present. Buy Rod Lewis has fun racing his Tigercats. What more can you ask?

I've met him once or twice and do NOT know him at all other than to say "hello." But we need more Rod Lewis type people! His warbirds are spotless, immaculate, and VERY reliable since he takes the time and trouble to make them that way. His "business twin" for some meetings is a P-38F called "Glacier Girl!" How cool is that? So somtimes he leaves the jet behind and flies a B-25, P-38, F7F or whatever.

Sometime soon he may be flying a turboprop Soviet Bear bomber or a Mosquito to a business meeting! Now THAT would be an "arrival," huh?

I'm confused. You say that Race 232, a Tigercat, is not an out and out racer, but you also say it has R-3350s. Why would they not be the standard R-2800s?

La Patron is the Tigercat. Race 232 is the Sea Fury. Sorry ... thought that was clear by looking at the Sea Fury taxi past with the numbers "232" on it.

The Tigercat is stock ... Race 232 isn't even CLOSE to stock, but only has a mild racing engine. The airframe is ready for 4,400+ HP but it only has 3,600 - 3,700 HP on tap, so it only laps at 460 - 470 mph at Reno. If you wanted to return Race 232 to stock, you'd spend maybe $4M to do it. You can see the stock oil cooler openings on the wing root leading edges are GONE (boil off system in place), formula 1 canopy, etc. The wings are profiled and the seams are VERY clean and sealed. Fast Sea Fury compared with most.

The NEXT fastest Sea Fury is a full 30 - 40 mph or so slower. It COULD go faster with a real race engine, but that means a lot of money ... it is ready and FOR SALE if you want to go racing. It has one National Championship behind it, racing as September Fury when owned ny Mike Brown.

Sorry, didn't watch the video, as I am at work and have no sound.

I just misread your words.

No problem. Hope you enjoy it. Here is a video of the Planes of Fame 2009 airshow where we had the Horsemen fly a 3-ship formation of Bearcats. The Horsemen at that time were Jim Beasley (lead), Ed Shipley, and Dan Friedken (both wingmen).

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JWrrctCzes

Here is a video of the 2011 Reno crash, thankfully not taken to impact. You can see Jimmy hit the wake turbulence as he rolls downward in pylon #7. He had modified "The Galloping Ghost" trim system so the entire trim load was taken by the port trim tab, with starboard trim tab being fixed in place. It was never designed for the entire trim load ...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoncG_j5AdI

In this video you can see 2/3 of the port (inside) trim tab depart the aircraft in the pylon #7 turn.

The P-51 is heavily trim sensitive and immediately pulled up with 16 - 18 g, knocking Jimmy out for the duration of the flight.

Blue skies, Jimmy.

If you Google the 2011 Reno race, you can see the result, but the impact is NOT what I was presenting. Rather it was the reason for the impact, which is the trim system modification that was never tested at 500+ mph in race conditions at full power. That won't happen in the future. You can modify the wings and tail, but NOT the trim system without demonstration via full flight test at race speeds including wake turbulence.

So it will be expensive to make a departure from the accepted flight systems of the certified aircraft in the trim system.

Of course, if you make an original aircraft, you must submit full fight test data at race speeds to be accepted for the race. If you BEAT those speeds by much (a few percent or so), then you may be disqulaified for sandbagging the test results.

This may happen again, but shouldn't with the steps taken to make sure the modifications work at race speeds barring structural failure.

Brilliant Greg, thanks for that. Ah.... now if I can just get that big lottery win......

Good stuff!