My first winter in Oregon came and went. The weather’s been fairly nice leading into spring, or at least my surroundings look just as they did in Washington, so I feel right at home and often forget I jumped states. Many aspects of my life are different and yet things feel the same—and yet better. Comfortable. I still work with the same people and Brian still calls me to chat every time he hops in his Jeep, even when he’s headed home for lunch. “You realize you’ll see me in five?” I’ll ask. “So the stabilator…” he’ll continue, disregarding my subtle nudge to postpone the RV-15 talk until after I’ve eaten.

I don’t leave the house a whole lot—a major aid in my recent increase in comfort. I buckled into my car the other day only to find the battery was dead. “I didn’t want to leave anyway,” I smirked, crawling up the stairs to return to my sweatpants or, in my case, work pants. The same image was drawn three weeks later, a jump-start occurring somewhere in between. Oops!

Brian and I spent the past few months indoors, ripping down wallpaper and making things pretty. I haven’t gotten to fully take advantage of our hangar because there currently aren’t any projects in there for me to work on, so there were a handful of days where I forgot where we live—that there’s a runway out there. One day I found a plastic bag in our crawl space that read Cleveland Brakes under a fine layer of dust. “What are the odds!” I thought, before remembering the previous owners were airplane nuts too. A short while later Brian tossed a Basler Aircraft keychain down from the attic. High. The odds are high.

My People

As you know, there are many general aviation businesses in Oregon and with that a large number of airparks nestled between cities, crawling with homebuilders. It’s a short drive from here to Rob Hickman’s house, where his children and I steal beer he brews in his hangar. He makes it using an all-grain process just like the pros, not with extract, which is the more common method among home brewers because the all-grain method requires more specialized equipment. Speaking of special equipment, Rob couldn’t help himself and added some automation driven off of an AF-5000 prototype EFIS, complete with a 3D-printed bezel. On nice days we hang out in the driveway and Greg Hughes, another member of the Van’s Aircraft crew, wanders over to chat. All are based at a grass strip called Dietz Airpark, which lies just to the east of Aurora’s Class D boundaries.

How many airports in this part of the world? If you drew a circle with a 40-mile radius centered on Portland International, there would be more than 50—yes, five-oh—airports inside it. Some are sleepy farmer’s fields that don’t see much activity. Some, like Hillsboro and McMinnville (home of the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum and the Spruce Goose), are overflowing with training activity when the weather permits. On a sunny weekend day, the patterns are packed.

My airpark is pretty sleepy in comparison. There are fewer active pilots than at Dietz and not many people fly in to sample the crabgrass. When I am serenaded by that familiar engine sound it’s almost always the one and only high-wing RV followed by a low-wing one. Van’s test pilot Axel Alvarez and Brian chase each other to “collect data” while I peer out my east-facing window and enter yet another purchase order. “All work and no play,” I’ll say to the cats who have no idea their owners have hobbies that don’t pertain to them and who can’t appreciate the desire to replace the computer keyboard with a control stick most every day.

Axel flew the RV-15 over on one of his few unaccompanied flights. I stood in my lawn and watched him execute a handful of simulated engine-outs on either end of the runway since winds were calm. This was my first time seeing the -15 in action and I must say, I want one. Brian’s landing gear looked great—perfect for the grass runway our 95-year-old neighbor sometimes lets get a little tall. (We cut him some slack.) From my vantage point, the airplane sure looked slow on approach and stopped quickly. Our runway is 2200 feet long and all I can say is, Axel certainly didn’t need much of it.

The Van’s employees aren’t the only ones having fun around here. Marc Cook and I went up in his GlaStar a couple times so I could knock out my required six instrument approaches for currency. He played safety pilot while I got used to slowing down a slippery airplane with a fixed-pitch propeller—the trickiest part about shooting approaches in his plane. I had to shake some rust off, of course, but overall everything felt great and I was thrilled I still knew how to chase the needle.

This was my first time flying a GlaStar. I have over 50 hours in the larger, more powerful Sportsman and roughly 250 in a C-172. Initially, the GlaStar felt more like the C-172, which I mostly chalk up to horsepower and the little wheel being up front, since all of my Sportsman time is in a taildragger. With a fixed-pitch prop, Marc’s GlaStar is more like the Cessna in that it doesn’t slow down as easily as the Sportsman. I also got my first landing at home, which was exciting! I had to go around on my first attempt because I came in a little low and slow, but avoided making that mistake on my second attempt, the bossman coaching me down. It felt great to be using my new home runway, finally, and not have it seem like an abstract thing—nice grass for someone else to mow.

Out on the Town

Canby is really small, but charming. We’ve got some good restaurants, which make for a nice escape when I’ve had it with pajamas. Brian and I often run into members of the Pudding River Bearhawk Gang. “What are the odds!” we’ll say, sidling up to Ken Scott and Rion Bourgeois for a beer and quick chat—about airplanes, of course. It seems there’s no escaping aviation around here and I’m OK with it. This surprised me at first—even the local news meteorologist is a pilot—but it helps reinforce why I moved to this part of Oregon.

I suppose the odds of bumping into a homebuilder are fairly high since Oregon played a major role in establishing what would become the Experimental/Amateur-Built class of aircraft—and helping to set in motion the vital industry that supports it today. George Bogardus flew his homebuilt airplane, the Little Gee Bee, from Oregon to Washington, D.C., on three separate occasions to convince the Civil Aeronautics Administration and the Civil Aeronautics Board that people could and should be able to build and fly their own airplanes under the guidance of sensible rules and regulations. In 1952 the CAA enacted the legislation and a year later Paul Poberezny founded the Experimental Aircraft Association. It’s true: We have aviation in our veins—and Basler keychains in our attics to prove it.

Photos: Ariana Rayment and Brian Hickman.

The post What Are the Odds? appeared first on KITPLANES.

The Zenith Aircraft factory will be open from 8:00 am – 1:00 pm for self-guided factory tours, demonstrations, and more. There will be coffee in the morning and a local food truck will be offering a delicious lunch.

In contrast to the annual Zenith HOMECOMING event in September (with scheduled workshops and forums), the June event is an informal morning fly-in, with no specific scheduled activities. Zenith will be holding one of its popular hands-on kit building workshops immediately prior to the event.

For more information: https://conta.cc/3OZpFZV
Facebook page and photos from past years.

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We often treat the propeller as a uniform “actuator disc” and the slipstream as a uniform stream tube of accelerated and swirling air. While this simplification is valid for many types of analysis, a propeller is composed of discrete blades. Each blade generates force and also sheds an individual aerodynamic wake downstream.

The discrete nature of the propeller blades has several effects on the propeller, the engine and the airframe.

Blade Loads

The loads on the propeller blades are not constant in flight. There are several conditions that change the aerodynamic environment of a blade as a function of its angular position along the orbit of the propeller. This variation produces a cyclic change in the force generated on the blade.

Angle of Attack

As we saw in last month’s Wind Tunnel about P-factor, the lift on the blade can vary as it goes around its orbit, even if the propeller is rotating at a constant rpm. There can be several causes for this variation in blade lift.

The first is the effect of the angle of attack of the airplane on the angle of attack and airspeed the blades encounter over a full rotation of the propeller.

A positive airplane angle of attack tilts the prop axis relative to the wind. Individual propeller blades encounter different conditions at different points in the propeller rotation. An up-going blade has a lower blade AOA and airspeed than if the shaft were parallel to the wind. A down-going blade has a higher blade AOA and airspeed. This causes the lift of each blade to vary cyclically within a period of one cycle per revolution.

Wake Impingement

If the wake of any part of the airframe impinges on the propeller, it affects the forces on the blades. This is particularly true on pusher configurations because the propeller is some combination of the wing, tail or engine support structure.

The frequency of the perturbations to the forces on a blade depends on how the blade passes behind an airframe component. For example, if the engine is pylon-mounted, as is the case on the Lake Amphibian, each blade passes through the wake of the pylon once per revolution. If the engine is in line with a wing, like on the Rutan canard designs such as the Long-EZ or on an airplane with wing-mounted pusher engines like the Piaggio Avanti or Beech Starship, each blade passes through the wing wake twice per revolution.

Upwash and Downwash

A lifting wing deflects the airstream. There is an upwash ahead of the wing and a downwash behind it.

On a multi-engined airplane with wing-mounted engines and tractor propellers, the props are immersed in the upwash ahead of the wing. This means that the propeller axis of rotation is tilted upward relative to the local airflow at the plane of the prop, even if the propeller shafts are physically aligned with the direction of flight. The blades will encounter the same variation of local angle of attack and airspeed around the prop orbit as we saw in our discussion of the effect of airplane angle of attack.

The downwash behind a lifting wing changes the angle of attack of the parts of the airplane behind the wing. On a pusher configuration, wing downwash affects the inclination of the oncoming airstream relative to the propeller axis of rotation. This produces the same type of once-per-revolution variation of blade forces as we saw as a result of airplane angle of attack.

Effects of Blade Force Variations

The aerodynamic effects we have just discussed produce cyclic variations of the loads on each propeller blade. The characteristic frequencies of the variations in blade load are multiples of the propeller rate of rotation.

Resonance and Blade Fatigue

The cyclic changes in blade thrust can excite flapping oscillations of the blade. This can be a significant problem if the natural frequency of a flapping mode of the blade is at or near the same frequency as the excitation caused by the fluctuation of the aerodynamic loads on the blade.

If the two frequencies couple, the blade will experience a resonance. The cyclic aero load will excite the structural flapping mode of the blade, causing the flexing of the blade to grow and the transient forces on the blade to increase far above the initial magnitude of the aerodynamic load. This can cause fatigue failure of the blades and is a particular problem for metal propellers or props with metallic shanks holding on wooden or composite blades.

It’s important that the propeller blades be stiff enough so that their natural frequencies are well separated (usually higher frequency) from at least one-per-revolution and two-per-revolution blade-passing frequencies. Certified propellers are tested extensively to ensure that they do not suffer from resonance issues within their normal operating range. There have been problems in the past with Experimental props with metal blades that were not so extensively tested, and at least two early attempts at variable-pitch props for homebuilts had to be withdrawn from the market after a series of in-flight blade failures.

Cyclic Loadings From the Prop

In addition to affecting the blades themselves, the cyclic variations of blade loading are transmitted into the propeller hub, the prop shaft and eventually the airframe via the engine and engine mount. This creates structure-borne vibration in the airframe and also cyclic loads that can fatigue mounting bolts and other structural components.

The frequency of these vibrations is different than that experienced by a single blade because it also depends on the number of blades. In essence, the characteristic frequency is multiplied by the number of blades. If, for example, a single blade experiences a one-per-revolution variation of load, a two-blade prop will put a two-per-revolution force variation into its hub and a three-blade prop will generate a three-per-revolution excitation.

The number of blades also affects the amplitude of the vibration caused by blade-force variations.

The amplitude of the propeller-induced vibration is a function of the loading of the individual blades. The cyclic loading on each blade is proportional to the nominal or average load the blade is carrying.

To the first order, the thrust generated by the propeller is divided equally between the blades. Increasing the number of blades reduces the load carried by each individual blade and therefore reduces the amplitude of the cyclic variation of load on each blade.

The result of these phenomena is that as the blade count increases, the frequency of the propeller-induced vibrations increases and its amplitude decreases. With more blades, the propeller will generate higher-frequency, lower-amplitude vibration.

The lower amplitude and higher frequency of the prop-induced vibrations are one reason to use a prop with more blades. In general, using fewer blades and more diameter is more efficient until the blade tip Mach number becomes the limiting factor on diameter, but the reduction in vibration amplitude with more blades is often worth the slight reduction in efficiency. Also, higher-frequency vibrations are less objectionable to people, so both effects make the propeller seem “smoother” to the occupants of the airplane.

The post Prop Blade Effects appeared first on KITPLANES.

On the test bed NX Cub, the company uses a dozen small electric ducted fans to blow air across the top of the wing. The faster air over the top surface increases lift by a factor of 1.5 to 4, depending on the flight profile. The patented technology can be added to existing airframes or incorporated at the factory. “As our research and development continues, ELAS may prove to have the ability to dramatically enhance the short field performance capabilities of fixed-wing aircraft in general aviation as well as commercial aviation,” Horgan said.

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As air racers collectively search for new venues in a post-Reno world, the Sport Class continues to lead. Step one is achieving FAA accreditation for their aircraft and racing program, where the big hurdle is holding one successful demonstration race.

To reach that goal the Sport Air Racing Council—the organization the Sport Class has formed to negotiate such events—has three demonstration races planned in the near future. In fact, all three races are planned before the big finale at Reno this coming September.

Two of these events are in western Canada: The Red Deer Regional Air Show, Spring Book, Alberta on July 29-30 and the Alberta International Air Show in Villeneuve Airport, Edmonton, Alberta August 5-6. The U.S. event is The Airshow of the Cascades Festival in Madras, Oregon August 24-26. All three are air shows where the Sport Class would run its single-class race (no F1’s, Biplanes, Unlimiteds, etc.).

Bill Beaton, SARC’s point man for future racing, stressed that contracts had not been signed with any of the three air shows, but he expected all to finalize shortly.

As these are SARC’s first-ever races outside of Reno and are intended as demonstrations to the FAA of SARC’s ability to run a single-class contest, entries are limited to seven race planes running 240 mph or slower, plus one pace plane. Once accreditation is gained more and faster planes will be allowed in future events.

As expected, the only real weather front in all this is insurance. A web of three levels of insurance among the event promoter, SARC and the individual pilots is required and apparently there are only two underwriters in the world who will even contemplate such policies. It appears that if insurance can be written the planned races will takes place.

Past the three 2023 demonstration races, Beaton says SARC has significant opportunities lining up in 2024 but says it is too early to discuss details regarding them.

More anecdotally, we asked the race pilots in the fast, expensive Sport Gold division if they were ready for support running more than one event per year, as has been the norm with just Reno on the schedule. All said yes, explaining they’d need to dial the power down to about the 350 mph level to get engine reliability into the three-race neighborhood, but were excited about such a series. They’re hoping to eventually arrive at several races around the country with one final race annually for the championship as this would help them secure sponsorship and bring new fans to the sport. They predicted all bets on manifold pressure would be off at the year-ending championship race and it would take 400 mph to win the Gold as is currently the case at Reno.

There’s certainly strong interest in Sport Class racing. No fewer than 13 rookies are attending Pylon Racing Seminar this week in Reno, and the ramp is covered with 42 Sport Class aircraft at PRS. That’s more than all other racing classes combined. Furthermore, our wanderings in the pits at PRS this week have uncovered high interest in Formula 1 as well, with more than one story of dormant race planes being dusted off for pylon duty. Certainly there are plenty of F1 racers in the backs of hangars across the U.S., along with many eligible Biplanes. Rumors of F1 races being planned outside of Reno are also in the wind. Given their smaller, internationally defined and recognized 3 km course often fitting inside the runway confines of larger airports F1/Biplane racing seems assured in 2024 and beyond.

These may be interesting times, but they are not without hope by any means for air racing fans.

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It could be you’ve heard the Brennand name associated with the idyllic floatplane base southeast of Oshkosh, on Lake Winnebago. Beginning in the 1970s, Bill donated the use of his waterfront land for floatplane operations and chaired the base for 20 years. Maybe you are acquainted with the Brennand
Airport, equally idyllic, a short hop north of Oshkosh. Both locales are linked to the Brennand name, though neither define the man. Nor does the fact he dated Betty Skeleton.

To my recollection, I first saw Bill Brennand in the 1990s, at a grassroots aviation gathering that happened spontaneously every Saturday morning, west of Oshkosh, on the farm of Munsil and Shirley Williams. The weekly gathering attracted all manner of aviators and aviation enthusiasts, their spouses and their children. It was everything aviation should be: accessible, friendly, diverse and fueled by coffee and donuts and, occasionally, accordion music. Stories were told. Lies repeated. Air medals re-earned. Munsil’s, as it was known, went on with or without its namesake. It was at Munsil’s that I first approached Bill Brennand. The conversation was likely brief. I didn’t know what to say to him and he was a quiet man. The ice, however, was broken by coffee. Over time our conversations expanded to include the donuts and the weather. On a lucky day, Bill would accidentally share one of his flying stories.

A Pivotal Pairing

In 1943, with a service deferment to work the family farm, 19-year-old Brennand began taking flying lessons at Wittman Flying Services. Steve Wittman—you’ve certainly heard his name—was, at that time, training pilots for the military. Prior to the war, Wittman had established a successful air racing career with two aircraft that sprang from his own mind and hands (Wittman was homebuilding in Oshkosh before EAA founder Paul Poberezny was 3 years old). His first racer, Chief Oshkosh, was raced from 1931 until 1938, when it was heavily damaged near Oakland, California. It was trailered home to Oshkosh and placed in the rafters of Wittman’s hangar while he concentrated on campaigning his other racer, Bonzo, a Thompson Trophy contender that was faster than the military aircraft of the day. Wittman had also designed a two-place aircraft, Buttercup, the predecessor to his Tailwind, which he licensed to Fairchild Aircraft. The onset of WW-II, however, brought both civilian aircraft production and air racing to a full ground stop.

By April 1944, Brennand had earned his pilot certificate and was working part time for Wittman. Brennand said the first thing he worked on with Wittman was a four-place airplane Wittman designed and designated Big-X. Fairchild, like every other aircraft manufacturer pivoting to a post-war economy, envisioned returning military pilots wanting their own aircraft. But, as with Buttercup, Fairchild never put Big-X in production. For Bill, however, building an airplane with Wittman was “amazing in every way.”

All the while the injured Chief perched in the rafters. Wittman reminisced about it. Brennand dreamed about it. They both talked about fixing and flying it. In the summer of 1945, with Wittman uttering, “Yeah, I suppose that’s something for me to get killed in,” Chief Oshkosh was lowered from the rafters. Brennand knew that statement—a statement he never forgot—was meant for him. By the summer of 1946, Chief Oshkosh was reborn as Buster.

In September 1947 Bill Brennand, age 23, lowered his 100-pound frame into Buster’s cramped cockpit to compete in the Goodyear-sponsored Midget class race at the National Air Races in Cleveland. Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier idled nearby. LeVier was experienced at both racing and winning. His airplane, Cosmic Wind, had the full, though unofficial, backing of Lockheed Aircraft and its vast resources. Brennand, a farm-boy-turned-flight instructor, had never raced. Ever. Brennand’s steed was a homebuilt aircraft built during the Depression (when it is said Wittman lived on $1 per day, including what he spent on building his airplanes). It was raced, wrecked and raftered before being resurrected in its new configuration. Bill had only flown Buster 10 hours for recreation before being sent to compete in Cleveland.

September Surprises

A rescue crew arrived as Brennand swung Buster’s canopy open. Buster’s propeller broke during Bill’s final qualifying flight, forcing him to pull up and glide over the grandstand for an emergency landing. “What happened?” the rescue crew asked. “I don’t know,” Bill replied, “I just got here myself.” The next day, with a borrowed propeller, Brennand won the inaugural closed-course Goodyear Trophy race with an average speed of 165.8 mph. Tony LeVier finished fourth, at 159.1 mph.

Some 60 years later, in September 2007, Bill Brennand, age 83, his storied air racing, barnstorming and aviation career behind him, lowered himself into the right seat of Metal Illness. I swung the canopy shut.

When offered control of an airplane many passengers, even pilots, demur. Those who accept often hold the controls neutral, altering neither altitude nor heading and certainly not piloting. Bill was an exception. He flew with skill and confidence. He didn’t move the controls tentatively. He wholly and instinctively piloted the aircraft without overcontrolling it. If Bill was happy to be piloting again, I didn’t see it. His eyes were outside the cockpit, where all good pilots’ eyes should be. Where an air racer’s eyes must be. My eyes were on Bill. Not out of concern, but out of awe. If Bill had performed an aileron roll or pulled up into a stall before spinning earthward I was all in. If I had any concerns they were in my ability to get Bill back on the ground with both him and my pride intact.

“I was not one to ride around the patch very much; the flight had to have a purpose. I guess 65 years of flying was enough.” Those words are recorded on the final page of Brennand’s biography. (Bill Brennand: Air Racing and Other Aerial Adventures by Bill Brennand and Jim Cunningham, ISBN: 0971163766, published by Airship International Press.) He may have spoken those words often, after health issues grounded him. While I helped Bill off my wing he said, quietly, as was his way, “I really don’t miss it. I did it for so many years.”

I was at once taken aback and relieved. I had often thought about what it would be like to have my wings clipped, to age out of ability if not desire. A few weeks later, Bill’s girlfriend gripped my forearm, held my eyes hostage with hers and delivered unexpected news. “Bill has not stopped talking about the airplane ride you gave him!” Turns out, Bill Brennand lied to me—and likely himself.

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My choice for new ignition was to install a pair of E-MAG Electronic Ignition 114 Series P-MAG units. These units, which have been around for more than a decade, are designed to be as simple as possible to install. Each takes the physical space of a magneto—slightly less, actually. There are, of course, a few more wires to run through the firewall, plus you’ll have to route new spark-plug wires, make a connection to a manifold-pressure source and install new automotive plugs and the associated adapters. (See Paul Dye’s story for some tools and techniques around those adapters.) I also used some corrugated plastic tube for cooling the units, which is considered mandatory by E-MAG. I would say the retrofit was involved but not difficult. The documentation is extensive.

As with many aspects of my airplane, I’m installing over existing systems. So I kept the keyed ignition switch­—first removing the jumper whose normal function is to keep the non-impulse-coupled mag from firing while starting—though I also advocate using one because it’s like so many certified airplanes, which makes it easier for other pilots to transition into.

A note about power for the P-MAGs. They need ship’s power only to start and in the event of the internal supply’s failure; in fact, during normal operation they’re not even using main-bus power. This is how I justify not having a truly redundant electrical system. In fact, I have considerable avionics redundancy because many pieces either have their own backup batteries or are powered through a TCW Technologies IBBS.

The P-MAGs’ internal power can be relied upon as low as 850 rpm. Below that, the internal generator can’t keep up and the system falls back on external power. Some builders wire momentary switches to test this function periodically but I used pullable breakers located right next to the ignition switch to do the same thing. (And partly so I wouldn’t have to run power all the way from the other side of the panel.) The procedure for landing with a total aircraft electrical failure is to maintain 850 rpm or greater until the runway is made, a small change from the SOP.

Advance and Performance

P-MAGs have two internal advance curves, chosen by a jumper; I used the less aggressive one. I also attempted to set the baseline timing to coincide with my engine’s spec, which is 20° before top dead center (BTDC). The P-MAGs are designed with an internal 25° BTDC timing, the most common, and are set with TDC as a reference. By setting mine 5° after TDC, the system fires at the correct timing for my engine.

The two main functional advantages of electronic ignition include variable timing and a stronger spark on all plugs during start. Agreed on the strong start. My engine has never been easier to light off, hot or cold, first thing in the morning or right after a quick refueling—that aspect has been a solid win.

The variable timing comes into play at altitude and, especially, when running lean-of-peak mixture settings, which I almost always do in cruise. A lean mixture takes longer to burn, so advancing the timing helps move the peak of the power pulse back to where it does more good.

Once flying, I compared before-and-after engine data and was surprised to see higher EGTs with the P-MAGs. Retarded spark usually raises EGTs—it’s why a mag check sees the EGTs rise on one ignition source—so I was surprised when the P-MAGs seemed to be running late. I double-checked the timing and it was right where I wanted it. But the advance curves follow both engine speed and manifold pressure. With my fixed-pitch prop, I’m way down on the rpm-based advance curve for takeoff and the initial climb compared to an engine with a constant-speed prop that can turn 2700 rpm for takeoff.

After a lot of head scratching, I began incrementally advancing the installed timing to get the real-world spark near where it would be with magnetos. The engine remained happy with nearly all the offset removed. This is another reason to watch your data and try to interpret what it’s telling you. In addition, my experience speaks to the value of really understanding how systems work.

After tweaking the overall timing, I tried a prop adjustment. Because, well, everything is interconnected. By reducing prop pitch by “one number” in the Sensenich ground-adjustable, I was able to get static rpm up above 2200 and climb in the 2350–2400 rpm range, which made the airplane a bit more sprightly off the runway and during the climb to cruise—though I did lose 2–3 knots in cruise at any given engine speed.

More Testing…

I thought I was done. But one nice spring day I decided to take Charlie up to altitude to fill out missing fields in my cruise data. It revealed a couple of things. First, the timing advance really begins to show by about 5000 feet in the climb. At first you think the engine’s too rich because the EGTs are falling, but it’s really just the advance moving the combustion event ahead. I’ll have to recalibrate my sense of absolute EGTs to fuel flow during the climb phase. That’s not a bug, just a matter of learning the system. I do see higher cylinder-head temps later in the climb as the manifold-pressure-based ignition advance starts to take hold, but it’s been manageable so far.

In cruise flight, two characteristics stand out. First is that the engine will run much deeper lean-of-peak EGT prior to roughness. In fact, most of the time, as you lean, the engine just quietly stops making power. No fuss at all. The other change is that the engine is definitely making more power at altitude—not orders of magnitude but enough to show up as greater engine speed on any given prop setting. I’m now thinking I should have moved to electronic ignition sooner—but I also know exactly why I didn’t.

The post Forward by Degrees appeared first on KITPLANES.

Matt reports the Formula 1 class already has 26 entries for the September races and only 24 available slots. It’s just another data point saying the last Reno races are going to be well subscribed as everyone tries to get one last shot at air racing’s now ancestral home.

Matt, who’s from Reid Hill airport in San Jose, California, is running race #1, the now ACME Special ll seen in the foreground. It’s a bit scruffy at the moment with its vinyl wrap tattered in spots and wearing a wooden prop and low-po daily driver motor. Not to worry as Matt will race prep his new-to-him plane for September with a race engine, composite prop and new graphics.

The ACME Special ll was previously Zipper and won the F1 Gold in 2009 with Thom Richards on the stick.

Race 31 in the background is the also very fast, multi-Gold winning Fraed Naught, now owned by Josh Taylor. He’s planning on getting used to his new mount at PRS, saving any modifications for next year. So far Josh finds Fraed Naught attention getting at lower speeds with little aileron feel and touchy elevators, but coming dead stable once over 200 mph. Sounds like a race plane!

The slab wing Cassutt with the green leading edges and 3-blade toothpick prop is Josh’s earlier racer, which will be run by his wife Jen this September.

The post 26 into 24? appeared first on KITPLANES.

Tom’s racer is jammed full of custom work we’re photographing for Kitplanes, and in the meantime he took us along during an outstanding if tiring formation clinic flight. Those guys get close to each other!

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Pilots interested in polishing pylons at the National Championship Air Races learn their trade at the Pylon Racing Seminar, or PRS as all the cool kids say.

The official PRS school begins Monday and runs all next week, but many racers are already here at Reno-Stead where a formation clinic is in full swing. As the Sport class sees formation flying as the underlaying fundamental of pylon racing, gaining a formation clinic stamp of approval is a requisite for PRS entry in the Sport class. It’s also fun, with many racers saying they enjoy the clinic and PRS more than the races because there isn’t the competitive and time pressures of the big air racing weekend.

For us it’s a low-key opportunity to catch-up with the racers and ferret out their latest speed secrets, not to mention their attitude towards Reno-Stead going away after next September’s races. In short, their collective attitude towards a post-Reno future is somewhat apprehensive to upbeat. Count us in the upbeat camp as there is simply too much interest and passion for pylon racing for it to disappear. Certainly there are plenty of racers here at PRS. We haven’t counted spinners here today, but there are enough for at least four flights of Sport racers, along with several Jet flights. The F1, T-6 and Unlimited classes are scheduled for later in the week, so they’re not expected here yet.

We’ve only been at Stead for a few hours, but so far the formation clinic is going well. A few cowlings have come off for light-duty tweaks or look-sees, but mechanical mayhem has been thankfully nil and the flying routine. Well, as routine as winging around with your race buddies gets.

The big sour note is the Biplane class is not here for PRS, foretelling a complete shut-out of the Biplane class in September. The problem is an intramural lawsuit inside the Biplane class and their subsequent resignation from Reno participation. We had been hoping a positive resolution would appear, but it hasn’t yet.

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