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BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

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  • BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

    Here's a mini-gallery of Super Sea Fury- Race #88 - BLIND MAN'S BLUFF (NX35SF), making it's premiere at Reno '87 (to compliment Larry Burton's great extended narrative in another thread):

    Photos 001-006: Hopeful rookie Unlimited race pilot - Joanne Osterud arrives at Reno/Stead Airport on Sun. 9/13/87, and taxis down to the CIA Hangar at the east end of the field. Following shutdown, she receives a warm welcome from Rick & Anne Brickert, Frank & Ruth Sanders, Dennis Sanders, and members of her Levolor Racing crew, including crew chief - Larry Burton.

    Photo 007: Race #88's first R-3350 engine change in progress inside the CIA Hangar late Tue. 9/15/87.

    Photo 008: Replacement pilot- Skip Holm's first qualifying run on Wed. 9/16/87 captured along the West Chute approaching the W. Guide Pylon. BMB posts a Q-speed of 394.103 for 10th place amongst the 25 Unlimiteds that qualified.

    Photo 009: Wed. 9/16/87 evening's second engine swap - CIA Hangar.

    Photo 010: Thur. 9/17/87 - Heat 1A. Skip Holm drives BLIND MAN down the Valley of Speed, and gets the aircraft's first race win by finishing in first at 388.894 av/mph for the 6-lap event. (He beats-out Ray Cote in Dago Red, after being awarded a 1-mph time adjustment from the Contest Committee due to a start mixup).

    Hope everyone, especially Larry (& anyone involved with BMB), enjoys viewing this selection of vintage photos. The amount of effort put out by the Levolor Racing Team to keep their big beautiful bird in competition was incredible to witness, (& will likely never be equalled!!! 3 engine changes?). TOTALLY - AWESOME!
    Attached Files
    Last edited by BuckyD; 11-09-2007, 01:44 AM.

  • #2
    Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

    Great stuff. Thanks for posting.
    No pixels were harmed, honest.

    http://www.ignomini.com
    http://www.pbase.com/ignomini

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

      Very nice Bucky... looks like you have the scanner working good
      Thanks for the pics
      Mark K....

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

        Good stuff, Buck...

        Glad to see the scanner up and running. Maybe Wayne could eventually move or duplicate these to the appropriate place early in Larry's thread.

        Neal

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        • #5
          Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

          Thank you for sharing... I'll treasure these photos...I wasn't there for Larry's "BMB" coming out party...We had an Indy car race at Nazareth, if I remember right... Brother RB

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          • #6
            Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

            I stumbled on this thread by accident while checking out Ask.com today, never knew it existed. Some super photos there that I had never seen. It brought back a lot of memories, that was quite a day arriving at Reno with BMB.

            Larry

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            • #7
              Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

              Wasn't Joanne scheduled to race this plane? Why did Skip qualify it, and who raced it? If it wasn't Joanne, why was she not selected? Just curious. Thanks

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

                More great stuff from the archives Bucky. Thanks again for posting.
                Matt
                Super Genius Rocket Scientist
                NCAR Rocks!!!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

                  Supercub, Joanne was to be the pilot after the Air Force changed their mind about us using Lt. Shiela O'Grady. Joanne flew BMB in and out of Scottsdale, and flew it to Reno with no problems. She even ran a few laps around the pylons at Reno, but "others" decided that BMB was too highly modifyed for a rookie pilot. There were other pilots that had shown interest in flying the aircraft, in fact Skip Holm had made a comment that he would make foot-tracks up her back to beat her into the seat, or words something like that. Then there was a "pilot meeting" where several said that if she was allowed to fly, they would not. Then she had to do a flight test observed by Rick Brickert, and it was determined that she did not pass the test. I called Lorentzen to inform him of the problem, and he told me to withdraw the airplane, and return to Scottsdale. I told him that since we were already at Reno, we should at least get someone to fly it so we could get some idea of how BMB would perform. He wanted nothing to do with that, if we couldn't use a female pilot, he didn't want it flown at Reno, and just have Joanne fly it back to Scottsdale. I told him that I had spoken to Dale Clarke, who had taken me for a ride in his Sea Fury,Nuthin Special, Race 40, and he said he would like to fly it. Lorentzen said that was not acceptable, then I said, "How about Skip Holm." He knew about Skip, and his flying ability, and said that that would be O.K. So Skip raced BMB, then Joanne flew it back to Scottsdale. That pretty well sums up the incident.

                  Larry

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                  • #10
                    Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

                    "and it was determined that she did not pass the test"

                    Bluffman, I´ve read about this issue in other threads, and still have the same bittersweet taste..., did she performed well but they bad qualified her because of other businesses or she performed not so well and was correctly qualified?. Just to know how actually it was. Thank you.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

                      Originally posted by taglialavore View Post
                      "and it was determined that she did not pass the test"

                      This was before they had PRS. In those days rookies still had to show they could fly at a certain level before they were allowed to race. She did not impress her peers. End of story. (not trying to put words in Larrys mouth or be harsh to tag. I just don't think that it was sexism witch led Skip to take over)

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                      • #12
                        Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

                        Enough said. Larry has given info that should be accepted as is.
                        Lockheed Bob

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                        • #13
                          Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

                          Who was the Air Force pilot ? What were her qualiications....why was she selected and not used?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

                            Re: SCEPTER I didn't say anything about sexism, and they certainly did do the flight test. The main part that was said by Brickert was that when he had Joanne cut power to similate engine failure, and land the airplane she did not do it to suit him. Due to the limited visability with the rearward placed cockpit, she had to land it sort of like a Corsair on a carrier, but she landed safely, just not in the predetermined parameters. Nuff said about that, I reckon, it was 21 years ago. I remember that several race pilots sat in BMB to see how the visability was, one that I recall was Alan Preston, who said it was not any worse than a Corsair. Joanne, Bill Norton, Steve Bolan, and Skip all flew the aircraft in and out of Scottsdale, and there were no problems with any of them.

                            Sheila O'Grady was a flight instructor at Williams Field in T-38s. I mentioned this on the other thread, but I called the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and told him that I wanted the best female pilot in the Air Force, and he asked me what for, and I told him about BMB, and Reno, and he said, "You've got her", and Sheila showed up at the Levolor hangar. I sent her, Joanne, and Norton over to Frank Sanders to get checked out in a Sea Fury. Everything was O.K. until Air Training Command in Texas discovered that we had not followed the chain of command, and felt slighted, but said that we could use Sheila in 1988, which of course did not fit our schedule.

                            The whole female pilot thing was Lorentzen's idea, said that women, not men bought Levolor Blinds.

                            Larry

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF - Air Racing Debut

                              Thanks for the history lesson Larry. Mom was a B-25 driver, but never cared much for blinds (too dusty in Nevada).
                              Matt
                              Super Genius Rocket Scientist
                              NCAR Rocks!!!

                              Comment

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