Press release: For immediate release.
 “Blue Thunder II Crew Report”
May & June 2010

The Blue Thunder appearance schedule is included again with this up date to remind everyone
where we will be and ask that you come out and support us.
 
EAA Golden West Show Marysville, CA June 11, 12 & 13th.
Reno Pylon School  Reno, NV   June 17, 18 & 19th.
EAA AirVenture  Oshkosh, WI  July 26 – 31st.
Reno National Championship Air Races    September 13 – 19th.

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.
 
 
Blue Thunder Air Racing
5805 Alpha Avenue
Reno, Nevada 89506
(775) 677-4860
 
www.bluethunderairracing.com 
 
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.