Speaking of Bearcats...

[wingman]

OK all you Rare Bear fans and historians, here's a little quiz. Who is the rather unkempt, serious-looking young man in this picture? The photo was obviously taken a couple of years back -- he was a fairly important part of the program at one time, but has not had much involvement in recent years.

As always, Speed Goss and Shawn excluded for now. I think we'll also have to exclude BellcobraIV for now, as I know he'll know the answer -- he does have an unfair advantage since he was part of the team around that time...

Neal

[tomy2gunn]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

.................... This is JOHN SLACK.......................

[tomy2gunn]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

.................... This is JOHN SLACK.......................

Always working hard to help Lyle every time he needed it.

I remember John being first to help...........

[wingman]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Sheesh... four minutes? Maybe I'm making these quizzies too easy!

So who are you Tomy2gunn?? You've obviously known John and Lyle for a very long time -- do I know you?

Neal

[tomy2gunn]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

I have know John and Lyle since 1969 when the Bear came to life, many stories. Neal you sound like I should ...Tom

I dont think John remembers But I remember him and his Mom Great people...Big Hearts ooh I have pic's too somewhere??

I was part of the crew from start to 84 see if you can find me.....

[speeddemon]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Man, he ALMOST looks like he's having fun there. :-)

[speeddemon]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Take a look at the condition of the Bear in that picture, too. That was 1980...first year it was called "Rare Bear".

Notice the spots on the 'tri-color' swoop where the paint is burned off? That, I believe, is left over from the oil catching fire during the gear up landing at Mojave in '76. This was the first race back after sitting out in the weeds for 4 years at Van Nuys.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Wow,
That one took me a while to figure out. Great shot though and yes, Lyle probably was telling me to get a haircut when that picture was taken! I think it was 1980 or 1981 when sometime during race week he looked up while I was strapping him in and asked if I could get my hair under control. LOL!

The paint that is messed up on the fuselage is due a couple of things; the first of which is that when the airplane was flown to Mojave in 1976 the paint had not been mixed right and was still wet when we sent Lyle off. The other factor is that prior to the work done with augmenting the air out of the accessory section, the super hot exhaust used to run right down the side of the airplane. Burning up the paint, the pilot, the radios, etc. In 1980 we went through about 6 of the Narco MK12 radios, in 1981 we went through three more even after packing them in dry ice! The capper was when Carl Schutte couldn't fly his Bonanza home because we cooked his one year on Sunday.

[wingman]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Tom -- Possibly not-- In 1980 I was still just another excited spectator of the Bear. I met Lyle when he was running the last Mojave race, but in 1980 I doubt if he remembered who I was. In the early to mid 80s I got to know John and Chris Wood and Bill Hickle a bit, but did not get personally involved with the Bear crew til 1987-88.

I wonder just how many "ex Rare Bear crew" there are at this point? In 36 years or so there have been an awful lot of names on the gear doors...

Neal

[Leo]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Boy she looked rough that year.
Was it 80 or 81 that RB had radio troubles? I remember one race he took off, ended up coming down the chute wayyyy behind the rest of the pack, made one or two fast laps where he passed EVERYONE then pulled out. They said he got a DNS due to a non-functioning radio.
I've got a nice front shot of it being taxied in 80.

[wingman]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Here's a shot of John 6 years later, with a different pilot and less hair...

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Neal,
The arrival picture jogs the memory hard also, Chris Wood and I were the only guys on the team that were there. We had left Van Nuys with the Ryder truck full of stuff needed for the Bear, all kinds of junk, More stuff than needed really. We got to Reno and quietly, yes for me that was hard, set-up the pit. guys asked who we were with and we just made no comment. The last phone call back to Van Nuys had left doubt in our minds if the Bearcat was even going to get there. We had talked with the guys in the pit next to ours and told them we just came up to see who we could help out. If the Bearcat didn't make it Chris and I planned on sneeking out after dark and leaving the empty pit. But well after we expected Lyle I heard someone say there was a Skyraider overhead. Nope it was Lyle. And the Circus that was 1980 started. Sometimes I look back on that plane and wonder how we met the primary objective. For one race we actually launched Lyle with a handheld radio.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Boy she looked rough that year.
Was it 80 or 81 that RB had radio troubles?

And the answer is BOTH and 1983, and 1985, and 1986, Oh and rebuilding those freeking Brakes three times a week. and the hydraulic leaks from sitting in 1980. I think today the Tech committee would have just said enough is enough.

[tomy2gunn]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Nice pic of the Bear. See the patch on the guy (looks like john again)in the cockpit, I still have mine.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Speaking of Bearcats...

Here's a shot of John 6 years later, with a different pilot and less hair...

Yeah, the hair went down to above my lip, something that when the hair on top of my head went shorter was the new point of discontent for my Dad. On two lighter notes, the other night Lyle got to witness a moment when my 8-year old daughter and I "diagreed" on something and I caught a smile out of him I had rarely seen before. Payback, eh Lyle? now it's my turn.

The other note of point is that this was taken around the time we were first grooming John Penney for the seat. Lyle had me spend some time with John on the wing and the point of ponderance could have been into the multitudes, anything from discussing oil temp vs. pressure or this is the switch that makes all the smoke and noise start. it is quite apparent from the cleanliness of my clothing that neither one of us had pushed the smoke and noise button at that point.