About Propellers Other Products Articles Bookshop Gallery Links Contact Supercool
 The Trouble with NACA-4digit airfoil sections



Propeller Dynamics

Essential reading for model aircraft contest fliers. This is the only book on the market explaining propeller theory in non-mathematical terms. A rattling good read, I know, I wrote it.

Read more...

Back to page 3  

 

By Friday the QEC (quick engine change) had been removed from Critical Mass.

 

The colorful Sea Fury 'Furias' powered by a 28 cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360-63A fitted with an R-4360-59 nose case.

 

Just visible are three of the seven water jets that squirt water into the seven plenums that make up the R-4360 cooling system.

 

Close up view of one of the seven water jets used to cool the 28 cylinders of the R-4360 in Furias.

 

RENO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AIR RACES
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2002
UNLIMITED
RESULTS HEAT 2C BRONZE 6 LAPS

         RACE TIME RACE SPEED
 50 Ike Enns
Broken Arrow, OK
P 51 D Miracle Maker Silver/Red Nose  8 25.10 353.584*
 47 John K. Bagley Rexburg, ID P 51 Ole Yeller
Yellow
8:37 24 345.306
 9 Jimmy Leeward Ocala, FL P 51 D Cloud Dancer
Polished Silver
8:50.66 336,573
 6 Dan Martin
San Jose, CA
P 51D Flying Dutchman
Lt. Grey/Red Trim
8:52.95 335.127
 81 Rob Patterson
Corona, CA
TF 51 D Lady Jo
Silver/Blue
8:54.64 278.390**
 44 Brant Seghetti
Vacaville, CA
P 51 0 Sparky
Natural Aluminum/Red Nose
8:58 79  276.246**
 104 Dave Moms
Redwood City, CA
Yak 9 Russian Roulette
Camo Green
DID NOT FINISH LAP 4
*Cut Start Pylon on Pace lap plus 12 second penalty
**Speed calculated on 5 laps completed.
POSTED 1216

 

RENO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AIR RACES
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2002
UNLIMITED
RESULTS HEAT 2B SILVER 6 LAPS

         PACE TIME RACE SPEED
45 Bill Rheinschild
Sun Valley, ID
P 51 D Risky Business
Natural Metal & Grey
 7:11.38   414.034
15 Art Vance
Sebastopol, CA
Hawker Sea Fury Furias
Orange/White/Blue
7:13.82 411.705
114 Dennis Sanders
lone, CA
Hawker Sea Fury MK 1 1 Argonaut
Dark Gray
7:37.89 390.063
117 Gary Hubler Caldwell, 10 Hawker Sea Fury Bad Attitude
Light & Dark Grey
7:44.30 384.678
 38 Ron Buccarelli
Hollywood, FL
P 51 Precious Metal Silver/Green 8:.00.26  371.895
27 Thomas Camp
San Francisco, CA
Yak 3 R 2000 Miss Trinidad
Blue/Green/Brown
8 .16.40 359.803
21 Nelson Ezell
Breckenridge, TX
Hawker Sea Fury Sea Fury
Two tone Grey
DID NOT FINISH LAP 2
POSTED 1433

     

RENO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AIR RACES
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13,2002
UNLIMITED
RESULTS HEAT 2A GOLD 6 LAPS

         RACE TIME RACE SPEED
4  Skip Holm
Calabasas, CA
P 510 Dago Red
Red/Yellow/White
6:33.46 453.937
232 Michael Brown
Carson City, NV
Hawker Sea Fury September Fury
Bare
6:40.29 446.192
5 Matt Jackson
Calabasas, CA
P 51D Voodoo
Purple/Yellow/Green
7:22.85 403.311
22 Bill Eberhardt
Gig Harbor, WA
P 51D Merlins Magic Silver/Military 6:40.67   371.474*
105 Stewart Dawson
Celina, TX
Hawker Sea Fury FB 1 I Spirit of Texas
Dark Grey/Light Grey
6:46.46 366.182*
99 Robert "Hoot' Gibson
Murfreesboro, TN
Hawker Sea Fury Riff Raff
Red & White
7:14.68 342.409*
*Speed calculated on 5 laps completed.
POSTED 1638

    
Saturday September 15:

Randy Baily completed the engine change on Sea Fury 'September Pops'. However during his take-off run he shut it down and taxied in. The manifold pressure gage was not registering.
Furias, the R-4360 powered Sea Fury, fixed a persistent oil leak. Initially thought to be a push rod tube seal ® which was replaced, it turned out to be an oil scavenge line.
Precious Metal, the Rolls-Royce Griffon powered P-51D had suffered cam problems all week. On Saturday, the entire cam rack was changed on the 'B' bank. A design shortcoming that is also shared by the Merlin is that of scuffed cam lobes due to the hard chrome plate on the cam finger breaking due to fatigue. The Merlin guys have a bullet-proof fix for this malady in the form of Merrlin Fingers È developed and manufactured by Walker Wire in Ontario, Canada. Prior to his untimely death, Harry Walker was working on developing Merrlin FingersÈ for the Griffon. After his passing, the project was put on hold. For those not familiar with Merrlin FingersÈ, it resolves the problem by replacing the hard chrome surface with a block of tungsten carbide.
 

#38 Precious Metal

 

Sensibly, Ron Bucharelli is not pushing Precious Metal hard ® not yet any way. Its Rolls-Royce Griffon is made up from a Griffon 58 power section and nose section mated to a Griffon 74 supercharger. Carburetion is provided by a truly massive Bendix PR-100 from a Pratt & Whitney R-4360. The propeller is a highly modified deHavilland unit from an Avro Shackleton.

 

Close up of the damaged cam finger ® a common problem with Merlins and Griffons

 

Part of Precious Metal's cam rack showing the damaged finger.

 

Close-up of the damaged cam lobe incurred by Precious Metal

 

These two line drawings give an idea of the complexity of the deHavilland contra rotating propeller as fitted to #38 Precious Metal. The upper view is a cross section through both propellers, the lower view show the rear propeller.

 

RENO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AIR RACES
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14,2002
UNLIMITED
RESULTS HEAT 3C BRONZE 6 LAPS

         RACE TIME RACE SPEED
47 John K. Bagley Rexburg, 10 P 51 Ole Yeller
Yellow
8:30.70 349.728
6 Dan Martin
San Jose, CA
P 51 0 Flying Dutchman
Lt. Grey/Red Trim
8:44.18 340.734
9 Jimmy Leeward
Ocala, FL
P 51 D Cloud Dancer
Polished Silver
8:44 35 340.624
104 Sean Carroll
Waldorf, MD
Yak 9 Russian Roulette
Camo Green
9:26.77 315.130
81 Rob Patterson
Corona, CA
TF 51 D Lady Jo
Silver/Blue
8:39 32 286.602*
31 Dan Vance
Santa Rosa, CA
P 51 Speedball Alice
Olive Drab/Black/White
8:40.43 285.991*
44 Brant Seghettl Vacaville, CA P 51 0 Sparky
Natural Aluminum/Red Nose
9:20.95 265.333*
911 Randy Bailey
lone, CA
Hawker Sea Fury  September Pops
Blue
DID NOT START
*Speed calculated on 5 laps completed
POSTED 1223

 

RENO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AIR RACES
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14,2002
UNLIMITED
RESULTS HEAT 3B SILVER 6 LAPS

         RACE TIME RACE SPEED
7 Bill Destefani
Bakersfield, CA
P 51 D Strega
Red/White
7:11.48 413.938
15 Art Vance
Sebastopol, CA
Hawker Sea Fury Furias
Orange/White/Blue
7:23.92 402.338
114 Brian Sanders
El Dorado Hills, CA
Hawker Sea Fury MK 1 I Argonaut
Dark Gray
7:37.18 390.669
117 Gary Hubler
Caldwell, ID
Hawker Sea Fury  Bad Attitude
Light & Dark Grey
 
7:48.93 380.880
38 Ron Buccarelli
Hollywood, FL
P 51 Precious Metal Silver/Green 7:55.26 375.807
21 Joe Thibodeau
Denver, CO
Hawker Sea Fury Sea Fury
Two tone Grey
8:01.44 370.983
27 Thomas Camp
San Francisco, CA
Yak 3 R 2000 Miss Trinidad
Blue/Green/Brown
7:15.28 341.937*
50 Ike Enns
Broken Arrow, OK
P 51 0 Miracle Maker Silver/Red Nose 7:29.06 331 444*
*Speed computed on 5 laps completed
POSTED1426

     

RENO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AIR RACES
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14,2002
UNLIMITED
RESULTS HEAT 3A GOLD 6 LAPS

         RACE TIME RACE SPEED
 4 Skip Holm
Calabasas, CA
 P 51 D Dago Red
Red/Yellow/White
6:21.18 468.561
232  Michael Brown
Carson City, NV
Hawker Sea Fury September Fury
Bare
6:31.83 455.825
5 Matt Jackson
Calabasas, CA
P 51 D Voodoo
Purple/Yellow/Green
6:50.23 435.380
22 Stu Eberhardt
Danville, CA
P 51 D Merlins Magic
Silver/Military
7:11.93 413.607
45 Bill Rheinschild
Sun Valley, ID
P 51 D Risky Business
Natural Metal & Grey
 7:12.75  412,723
105 Stewart Dawson
Celina, TX
Hawker Sea Fury FBA 1 Spirit of Texas
Dark Grey/Light Grey
7:22.83 403.329
99 Robert "Hoot" Gibson
Murfreesboro, TN
 Hawker Sea Fury Riff Raff
Red & White
7:02.58 352.214*
*Speed calculated on 5 laps completed
POSTED 1627

      
Sunday September 15:

This was the big day every one had been looking forward to. As per usual practice, Dago Red went out for an early morning flight to shake out any possible problems. At the kind of power settings used by this phenomenal aircraft, it's inevitable that many minor and not so minor squawks surface. Therefore, Sunday morning saw a flurry of activity in Dago Red's pits; cracked exhaust stacks and a cracked outer exhaust shroud. In his own inimitable way, Bill Kirtchenfaut made stainless steel repair panels and spot welded them to the exhaust shroud. In the mean time Mike Wilton, another of Dago Red's highly qualified team was finding one exhaust stack after another with microscopic cracks. Although they looked innocuous, barely perceptible to the human eye, it would take very little time for the cracks to propagate and torch through creating a major problem. And beyond these chores were the normal ones of changing spark plugs and checking valve clearances. These maintenance chores are performed after every flight when high power is used. One can only imagine how many sparkplugs are consumed during Reno week when 24 are consumed after each flight.
 

Hard to imagine that this is Sunday morning in the Dago Red pit. Bill Kerchenfaut and Dave Fagoaga working on the 'A' bank outer exhaust shield. Bill made repair patches that are being spot welded on in this shot.

 

Two views of a cracked exhaust stack that needed replacing on Sunday morning. Several stacks were found to be cracked. Interesting to note that the shape of these stacks are far from stock - they have clearly been made to optimize exhaust jet thrust at Reno's 5,000 foot altitude. Upwards of 400 pounds of thrust can be recovered with a well designed exhaust system.


Provided he didn't suffer a mechanical failure, it was a foregone conclusion that it was Dago Red's race. And so it was. Dago Red romped around the course at a conservative power setting ® at least conservative by Dago Red standards. Michael Brown in the potent Sea Fury came in a well deserved second. With further development, this Sea Fury will be a force to be reckoned with. Undoubtedly due to the awful conditions prevailing during the Gold Race, the average speed was a fairly modest 466mph. Despite the valiant efforts of Strega's crew, this aircraft only lasted a couple of laps before declaring a mayday. Oil covered the cowling when it was towed into the pits. The inside scoop suggested that the Dan Martin engine had holed a piston, PERHAPS MORE, however, with so much oil covering the cowl one would have to arrive at the conclusion that something more significant than a holed piston had occurred. Strega was eventually flown home with Bill Rheinchild's ferry engine. Yet another example of the comrades with top unlimited racers.

 

Oil soaked cowl of Strega after pulling out of the final Gold Race on Sunday


.Another casualty form the final Gold Race was Ron Bucherelli's Precious Metal. After it taxied in from the race I noticed that during his scavenging run where the engine is run up to 1200 to 1400 rpm in order to remove as much oil as possible from the engine, it was smoking badly. Sure enough, when the screens were pulled, they were found to be full of metal ® another toasted Griffon has bit the dust.

 

Once again, Dago Red reigned supreme proving once and for all that this is the aircraft to beat.

 

RENO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AIR RACES
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2002
UNLIMITED
RESULTS BRONZE 6 LAPS

         RACE TIME RACE SPEED
911 Randy Bailey
lone, CA Blue
Hawker Sea Fury September Pops 7:42.81 385.917*
9 Jimmy Leeward
Ocala, FL
P 51D Cloud Dancer
Polished Silver
8:26.37  352.719
6 Dan Martin
San Jose, CA
 P 51D Flying Dutchman
Lt Grey/Red Trim
8:34.55 347.111
104 Dave Morss
Redwood City, CA
Yak 9 Russian Roulette
Camo Green
8:42.14 342.065
31 Dan Vance
Santa Rosa, CA
P 51  Speedball Alice
Olive Drab/Black/White
 
8:23.38   295.678**
81 Rob Patterson
Corona, CA
TF 51D Lady Jo
Silver/Blue
8:24.11 295.250**
44 Brant Seghetti
Vacaville, CA
P 51D Sparky
Natural Aluminum/Red Nose
 8:36.34 288.257**
*Will exercise option to race Unlimited Silver Race
**Speed calculated on 5 laps comp
POSTED 1220

 

RENO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AIR RACES
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2002
UNLIMITED
RESULTS SILVER 7 LAPS

         RACE TIME RACE SPEED
21 Joe Thibodeau
Denver, CO
Hawker Sea Fury Sea Fury
Two tone Grey
8:56.67 388.272
114 Dennis Sanders
lone, CA
Hawker Sea Fury MK 1 1 Argonaut
Dark Gray
8:59.62 386.149*
15 Art Vance
Sebastopol, CA
Hawker Sea Fury Furias
Orange/White/Blue
9:05.07 382.288**
38 Ron Buccarelli
Hollywood, FL
P 51 Precious Metal
Silver/Green
9:06.40 381.358***
911 Randy Bailey lone, CA Hawker Sea Fury September Pops
Blue
9:16.87  374.187
 27 Thomas Camp
San Francisco, CA
Yak 3 R 2000  Miss Trinidad  Blue/Green/Brown  9:17.07  374.053
117 Gary Hubler
Caldwell, 10
Hawker Sea Fury  Bad Attitude
Light & Dark Grey
9:26.86 367.593****
47  John K. Bagley
Rexburg, 10
 P 51 Ole Yeller
Yellow
8:31.29 349.324*****
50 Ike Enns
Broken Arrow, OK
 P 51D  Miracle Maker
Silver/Red Nose
8:33.38 347.902*****
*Cut Pylon Outer 6 on Pace Lap plus 14 second penalty
**Cut Pylon Outer 2 on Lap 1, Cut Pylons Outer 6 and Outer 7 on Pace Lap plus 42 second penalty
***Cut Pylon Outer 1 on Lap 1 plus 14 second penalty
****Cut Pylons Outer 6 and Outer 7 on Pace Lap plus 28 second penalty
*****Speed calculated on 6 laps completed
POSTED 1633

     
 

RENO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AIR RACES
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2002
UNLIMITED
RESULTS GOLD 8 LAPS

         RACE TIME RACE SPEED
4 Skip Holm
Calabasas, CA
P 51D Dago Red Red/Yellow/White  8:30.12  466.834
232   Michael Brown
Carson City, NV
Hawker Sea Fury September Fury
Bare
8:42.28 455.965
5 Matt Jackson
Calabasas, CA
P 51D Voodoo
Purple/Yellow/Green
9:06 68 435.614
45 Bill Rheinschild
Sun Valley, 10
 P 51D Risky Business
Natural Metal & Grey
9:34.53   414.498
22  Stu Eberhardt Danville, CA P 51D Merlins Magic
Silver/Military
9:35.28 413.957
105  Stewart Dawson
Celina, TX
Hawker Sea Fury FB 1 I Spirit of Texas
Dark Grey/Light Grey
8:39.68 400.966*
99 Robert "Hoot" Gibson
Murfreesboro, TN
Hawker Sea Fury Riff Raff
Red & White
8.48.48 394.289*
7 Bill Destefani
Bakersfield, CA
P 51 D Strega
Red/White
DID NOT FINISH LAP I
*Speed calculated on 7 laps completed
POSTED 1705

 
     
Conclusions:

All-in-all, another successful Reno. Dago Red is clearly at the top of the heap and at the present appears to be unassailable. Scuttlebutt in the pits suggested that this would be Bill 'Tiger' Destafani's last year. However, one gets the feeling that Bill will be back campaigning as hard as ever next year. If Rare Bear can get a well funded and cohesive crew together then this aircraft is clearly another top contender. Unfortunately, the Rare Bear has been beset with personnel and financial problems for the last couple of years. Still, with a fresh rebuilt R-3350, maybe the Bear can return to its former glory ® let's hope so. But one thing is for sure, you cannot operate a top unlimited racer on a poverty program; it needs to be well funded with top talent in a supporting role. Anything less and the effort is doomed to failure. Michael Brown's efforts in the highly modified Sea Fury #232 September Fury impressed all who saw this ever improving racer go around the pylons. Although this report is focused on the Unlimiteds, it should be recognized that the day will dawn when these over boosted and over stressed R-3350s' and Merlins will no longer be able to hold their own. And so what will replace these warriors? One need look no further than the Sport class. Daryl Greenamayer's lap speed of almost 350 mph in this years Sport Class puts him right among the Silver class of the Unlimiteds. In a few years I could envision the top Sport Class racers graduating to the Unlimited class and in time taking over from existing aircraft. It should be remembered that with the value of warbirds where it is, it is highly unlikely that any will be converted to racers any time soon. This leaves the option of the top Sport class taking over, or; purpose built racers being built such as the late great Tsunami. But designing and building a purpose built racer takes mega-bucks and the monetary rewards, even if one wins, are miniscule.
In the mean time, every one now has their work cut out for them with the bar being raised to a new level. Dago Red has clearly shown that a 500mph lap is now achievable. Next will be a 500mph race average. Interestingly, years ago the naysayers claimed that a 500 mph lap at Reno was impossible. Another myth debunked. As always, lots to look forward to at Reno with never a dull moment.



Back to page 3