“Blue Thunder
II Crew Report”
November 30,
2009
I am happy to
announce that I am now three weeks and one day
out of the hospital and am recovering nicely.
Jan and I had a very pleasant Thanksgiving, and
we certainly have a lot to be thankful for.
I was hoping
that I would have a lot of Thunder Mustang climb
and cruise data for this report, but my
transition to Windows 7 has not been a seamless
as hoped.
Last month
you saw the window that the ground crew was
watching during each Blue Thunder II flight.
This month you can see two of the print outs
from the data collected during Super Gold race
September 20th.
This may not
have helped Gary Mead predict his ensuing engine
failure, but it shows us that all 12 cylinders
were running within 100 degrees of each other
and that cylinders #8 and #11 could use a little
individual fuel trimming. It is interesting to
note that the induction system is getting very
close to 100% ram recovery.
The
important information on the graph below is the
oil temperature and pressure, and engine
temperature. The MAPx10 is shown as a reference
to the amount of power. It can easily be seen
that the engine temperature was trending upward
during the race but was stabilizing near 190
deg. The oil temperature was trending upward
but did not approach any limit and peaked at
about 200 deg. As one would expect, the oil
temperature was trending downward at the same
ratio as the oil temperature trended upward.
If Gary Mead
had our type of data recording and telemetry
system, graphs like this from previous flights
would have shown a long term trend toward the
failure he had. Noting the trend on previous
flights Gary could have spent his time adding
spray bars to the oil cooler instead of changing
the engine. Gary is a very nice guy, dedicated
to performance improvements of his Glasair. In
racing, if you do not go way out to stretch the
limits, you are not trying hard enough, and Gary
has proved he is trying. I am using his engine
failure during qualifications only as an example
as to how an air data recorder and telemetry
system may pull back a daily performance a bit
but keep you in the race all the way to the
finish line.
I am not sure
at this point as to what we will be doing with
Blue II next month, but I am starting the
planning for setting the FAI world speed record
next summer over the 100 Km closed course and
getting back on flight status. Stay tuned for
the schedule for 2010.
Again, Jan
and I with the entire Blue Crew wish everyone a
very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Regards,
John Parker
Blue
Thunder Air Racing
5805
Alpha Avenue
Reno,
Nevada 89506
(775)
677-4860
www.bluethunderairracing.com
