Before it was Rare Bear

[wingman]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Wonder if that shot just happened to catch the Bear as it started to roll into pylon 7-8-9.

That's quite possible -- I shot from several places along the old fence line over the years. These look right for a location where all the older houses are in that development. I remember racers being pretty level there, but it's also not real far from pylon 7.

Neal

[L.E.D.]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Wonder if that shot just happened to catch the Bear as it started to roll into pylon 7-8-9.

[knot4u]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Interesting... If the Valley of Speed he'd be somewhat straight and level, and pulling minimal Gs. That does seem like a considerale amount of up elevator and aileron deflection. What is that thin stream of vapor coming straight out at 90 degrees from the fuselage? That's not the oil cooler exit you're talking about, is it? I have a couple other shots from that session -- one shows the stream and one seems not to.

Neal

Would you mind posting the other images?

[knot4u]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Interesting... If the Valley of Speed he'd be somewhat straight and level, and pulling minimal Gs. That does seem like a considerale amount of up elevator and aileron deflection. What is that thin stream of vapor coming straight out at 90 degrees from the fuselage? That's not the oil cooler exit you're talking about, is it? I have a couple other shots from that session -- one shows the stream and one seems not to.

Neal

The wing root intakes fed air to the oil cooler, and fed the carburetor, there was a big hole in the belly to let the oil cooler air exit (it has to go somewhere otherwise it would just create drag). The spay bar water nozzles were obviously just above the oil cooler, and the water would exit with the fresh air hopefully cooling down the air/oil heat exchanger as it changed from a liquid to a gas, cooling the air and oil in the process. Lot's of people way smarter than me had figured out how to do this long before I ever knew what a Bearcat was. Regarding the pissing of water out of the belly it looks like the spray bars weren't putting out the volume. There might be a few reasons for that but at this point I have no idea why, it should've been a trail of steam behind it like we've seen in some of the recent Dreadnought pictures posted here. The aileron position isn't disconcerting.
Edit: The visible flame coming out of the exhaust doesn't give me the warm fuzzies. I wonder if this picture might have been taken at a moment when whoever was flying it might have been pulling off the course for reasons we don't know.

[wingman]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Interesting... If the Valley of Speed he'd be somewhat straight and level, and pulling minimal Gs. That does seem like a considerale amount of up elevator and aileron deflection. What is that thin stream of vapor coming straight out at 90 degrees from the fuselage? That's not the oil cooler exit you're talking about, is it? I have a couple other shots from that session -- one shows the stream and one seems not to.

Neal

[knot4u]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

My apologies, I edited my original post. People spell my name wrong all the time as well so I know how you feel.

I don't have the intimate knowledge of the airplane like others do so I'm not certain what I should be looking for. What I see is some sort of blow-by coming from the belly, a partially open gear door and maybe some oil canning in the fuselage?

Neal says that photo was taken in the valley on monday of the '97 races. That was the year Lyle got back into flying the airplane, I don't know if John Penney or Lyle were in the airplane when that picture was taken, it was a long time ago. Most of your observations are correct, except the blow-by from the oil cooler exit, it should've been a waterfall of steam, and all of that oil was normal (the first time I ever saw the airplane in person it hadn't had an engine mounted on it for over two years and it was still leaking oil). My concern has more to do with the control surface deflections on the elevators and rudder and the trim tab positions.
Edit: I forgot to mention the pocket door hanging open, an open gear door was a bad deal for that airplane. We had issues trying to find sector gears for them, I suspect the repeated higher speeds put loads on them they weren't designed for. I know the Bearcat had a gear issue a few years after I left but I've always wondered if that might've been a contributing factor.

[CJAM427]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

What do you see when you look at that picture? And my name is Lief, not Leif, I've been battling that assumption my entire adult life.

My apologies, I edited my original post. People spell my name wrong all the time as well so I know how you feel.

I don't have the intimate knowledge of the airplane like others do so I'm not certain what I should be looking for. What I see is some sort of blow-by coming from the belly, a partially open gear door and maybe some oil canning in the fuselage?

[wingman]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Reno 1997 labelled Monday from the Valley of Speed fence, late in the day, IIRC.

Whether I recall anything correctly after 24 years is, of course, open to question...

[knot4u]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Reposted

Do you recall when and where that picture was taken?

[wingman]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Reposted

[knot4u]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

I'm curious to know what John and Leif have to say about the second photo here...

What do you see when you look at that picture? And my name is Lief, not Leif, I've been battling that assumption my entire adult life.

[CJAM427]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Everybody so loved that three blade...

I'm curious to know what John and Lief have to say about the second photo here...

[wingman]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

And I still have questions about that first engine. It came from a scrap heap -- never sealed up or preserved. So were the cylinders still usable? What about accessories -- pumps and hoses and such. How much support was provided during build up from AC&T? Was the work done in Hangar F-8? Did Cliff Putnam do most of the engine work?

When did Mel Gregoire get involved with the program?

What was done about ADI? These engines did have ADI in airline service, didn't they? I understand that ADI was installed but not working during that first Reno.

This Birch Matthews photo of the first Reno is the best I've ever seen. Does anybody have color shots they could share?

Neal

[wingman]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Those shots are really quite nice. They clean up well and show lots of detail. If this is fall 1974 shouldn't there be more victory markings on the fuselage? And does anyone know what is written on the wingtip? It is unreadable in this scan. It seems they had two radio sponsors -- a sign of troubles to come?

Neal

[Big_Jim]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Okay, Johnny Boy....here's a couple of Scooby Snacks for you. Photographer Gary Maisak posted these on FB this morning. Race 77 from November, 1974. After some heated discussion, our best guess is the ANG open house at Van Nuys.