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.