.
At this time
I have estimated out logistics cost, sanction
fees and NAA expense reimbursement at about
$20,000.00. I am spending a considerable amount
of time trying to find a few sponsors to cover
that cost. Considering the fact that an
advertiser’s name and product will be seen by at
least one million people this year, sponsor
advertising costs are extremely low. If any of
the Blue Thunder fans know of a company
interested in using us in their advertising,
contact me and I will be glad to send
information on the demographics of our fans and
viewers, and the value of being a Blue Thunder
Air Racing partner.
The last two
weeks of May was very busy testing for the speed
run we had planned for the Golden West air show.
Overall, the testing went quite well. We
smoothed out the fuel and ignition map in the
ECUs considerably netting smoother engine
operation. The automatic cooler door controller
gave Fred a little problem, but he had it
working flawlessly by the time we had to leave
for the Golden West show. After we were able to
obtain the target speed of 375 MPH here at Reno,
and our testing went so well, I was confident
that we could set the record at 375 or better at
sea level. I was wrong.
On Friday,
June 11, I took off for the first attempt and
even after several gear cycles, I could not get
the inner gear doors to close. I had to abort
the Friday attempt and after landing, we jacked
up the aircraft and cycled the gear four times.
It worked perfectly each time. Because we could
not find anything to fix, we increased the
hydraulic pressure 200 PSI so that we could say
we did something and cycled the gear three more
times. The FAA maintenance inspectors who were
at the show to watch us were more concerned
about the log book entries than if the gear
would work or not.
Except for
the miserable wind condition, the record
attempts on Saturday and Sunday went well and we
set the C1-c 100 Km record at 363 MPH. Jim Adams
and Ron Tindall are missing from the crew
picture because they were on their way back from
the mid course site where they were monitoring
the telemetry. The gentleman in the red shirt is
Brian Utley, the NAA observer documenting the
event.
Sunday
afternoon when we were headed for home, the
engine would not start. The battery was dead and
there was a short in the Tilton starter
solenoid. We were able to borrow a battery from
a friend of Jim Adams in Vacaville, CA and the
crew spent several hours diagnosing the starter
problem and devising a presidential solution to
get the starter to work.
Monday
morning, June 14, George Giboney and I started
the FAST training and Pylon Racing School. The
week went as smoothly as you can expect
considering we were flying Thunder Mustangs. On
Thursday, Blue II broke one of the oil lines on
the PSRU spraying oil everywhere which caused a
little concern on the landing. After several
hours of cleaning up the ramp, the hangar, the
airplane and making a new oil line, we were
flying again Friday and Saturday.
Blue II is
now being configured for the flight to Oshkosh
and we hope to see you there.
Once again
Jan and I along with the entire Blue Thunder
Crew wish to thank all of you for your continued
support. This month special Sponsor thanks go to
Tim Kern at www.121five.com for the use of his
photos in this report.
John
Parker
Blue
Thunder Air Racing
