“Blue Thunder
II Crew Report”
October 31, 2009
Let me start off
by wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving coming
up in 25 days or so. The Blue Crew highly
recommends Diestel Farms turkeys for
Thanksgiving. They can be obtained at most high
quality grocery outlets.
Last month I
said I would talk about the future plans for
Blue Thunder II, and I will when those plans are
a little firmer. So, this month I would like to
talk a little bit about our Air Data Computer
(ADC) and the Telemetry system used in Blue
Thunder II. The amount of data that can be
recorded by the ADC is limited only by the
number of sensors positioned throughout the
aircraft. About a hundred and twenty selectable
parameters are transmitted to the ground via a
two way communications modem that can be
monitored by the ground crew in real time as
long as the antenna in the aircraft is in line
of sight of the base station antenna. When the
system is fully developed, all the crew needs
the pilot for is the hit the starter button.
With the currant development of the ADC, the
crew monitors critical parameters of the engine,
such as oil pressure and temperature, as well
the aircraft location, speed, altitude, lap
count and lap speeds.
The photo below
shows the display on one of the crew’s laptops
and is relatively self explanatory as to what is
displayed. The time frame on this snap shot is
nearing the end of lap two on Sundays Super Gold
race at Reno 9/20/09. The seven horizontal
windows with the ordinate from -90 to 0
represent the trend of for the last 90 seconds.
The trend windows show that the oil temperature
was slowly rising with the cooler doors fully
closed but still well below any limit
temperature.
The photo at
left is a display of the aircraft location. The
location is at the end of lap two on Sundays
Super Gold. The trace of the first lap is proof
that I left gigafeet of clearance for Mike Dacey
to go by on the inside as I was ordered to do.
Next month, I
would like to show you a little more about the
capabilities of the ADC and the telemeter system
and correlate it with some of the problems Garry
Mead had with his Glasair and show how our
system may have been able to save him about
$50,000.00.
As always, the
“Blue Crew” sends heart-felt thanks for your
continued support.
John Parker
Blue
Thunder Air Racing
5805
Alpha Avenue
Reno,
Nevada 89506
(775)
677-4860
www.bluethunderairracing.com
