Tomorrow's Record Attempt

[laminar]

Hey Guys,

Tomorrow on the way to rookie school we are planning to attempt two point to point world records (link).

We are super pumped!

There is currently no record between Mojave and Stead, but before the record was retired this record belonged to Lyle Shelton in the Rare Bear. The only thing cooler than attempting a record that Lyle thought was worth setting is doing it in the airplane that another badass racer Ralph Wise (link) designed and built. The fact that my homeboy Justin Gillen will be simultaneously attempting a record in his Tangotimemachine is a mind melter.

Follow along on the spot tracker site (we'll be launching around noon).

Thank you for making air racing awesome!!

Wish us luck!

Airplanes are cool,
Elliot

[Big_Jim]

As an aside, Lyle's point-to-point from Mojave to Stead was his way of sticking it to the Rutans, Scaled Composites, and the Pond Racer guys for all the pre-race bragging they were doing that year.

Laughing all the way.....

[Air Boss]

Good stuff, Elliot! Thanks for letting us tag along! Now. firewall that bad bear!

See you, Thursday.

[Idaho_cowpony]

This is really sweet stuff..
Cool - Cool - Cool

Airplanes Are Cool Elliot . .

- Joseph

[laminar]

Awesome awesome awesome!!

See you guys soon.

Elliot

[laminar]

Hey Guys,

We have pre-coordinated with both towers. The airplanes are ready to go.

Work is pretty nuts so we have decided to slip the schedule an hour and a half.

So we are taking off at 1:30.

Going to be awesome!!!

Ellliot

[GeeBeeZ1931]

OK so now it's the 19th. What happened?

[laminar]

OK so now it's the 19th. What happened?

The flight was made, the paperwork has been submitted. It looks good, but no official word yet.

Elliot

[FlyKidChris]

The flight was made, the paperwork has been submitted. It looks good, but no official word yet.

Elliot

C'mon Elliot - inquiring minds want to know more. What was your speed? More details, please!?

[laminar]

C'mon Elliot - inquiring minds want to know more. What was your speed? More details, please!?

Haha!! Thank you for the interest!

The GT400 is a really cool airplane and I am really glad that we are positioned to share it with so many of the experimenters this summer. The goal with this record was to put a number up without abusing the airplane so I ran conservative power and fat mixture during the flight. We ran 20" MAP, and 2400 RPM, with EGTs at 1400 (ROP) the fuel burn worked out to 14 GPH, and TAS of 240 Knots. Total fuel burned was just over 20 gallons.

We used take-off time to start the record (Thank you Mojave Tower) and time crossing a fix ( at 10,500) to stop the record (Thank you Reno International). With the time and gas spent climbing to 10K and the air to air photos we took for sponsors shortly after take-off it looks like the record will be about 220 Knots for the GT and 180 Knots for Justin in the Tango. Not too shabby and a good starting point.

A big thank you to Spot Tracker for providing satellite tracking devices for our flight, what an efficient way to let friends and family know where you are during these types of high anxiety activities.