Sport Class Heat
Race 1-A was mixed with triumph
and heartbreak for the entrants today. As
the field came down the chute, it was
instantly apparent that someone had a
runaway prop.... then the
"Maydays" began...
David
Anders, flying Race 25, Eggstra
Special had a prop governor failure at
the start of the race with the sickening
sound of of the runaway prop filling the
sky over Stead.
Anders
engine lunched immediately filling the
cockpit with smoke – David landed
long and fast, the plane veered off the
runway, going into the sand apparently
hitting a rut or a concrete footing along
side the runway, sheering the gear off
and flipping the aircraft.
Anders
walked away from the crash and his newly
designed carbon-fiber canopy frame is
accredited to his survival. When rescue
crews finally reached the crash site.
Dave Anders was hanging upside down,
strapped to his seat in the cockpit,
reaching for the cockpit release. The
rescue crew flipped the aircraft right
side up and the cockpit latch was quickly
released and Dave got out – a little
bruised and battered but nothing broken.
This was a
tough break for David, who has put much
effort into his Questair Venture aircraft
over the last year, he was favored to win
the sport class... Damage to the airplane
was severe.. Unknown if Anders will
rebuild..
Michael
Dacey, Race 71, Fool's Gold
– Michael's landing gear wouldn't
fully retract and as the race started,
Dacy called a Mayday when the landing
gear would not lock down for landing.
There was some concern by race control
that Dacy would foul the only available
runway with Anders already sitting upside
down on runway 14.. leaving no active
runway to recover the racing field... The
problem was made immediate though as Dacy
was reporting a dangerously high oil
temp.. Dacy landed safely with the fire
crew following close behind. Quick action
by the recovery crew had the runway
cleared for use by the returning
racers...
Dave
Morss, Race 99, Lancair IV
– Even though we were following this
series of mayday's closely on race
control frequency... We're not sure
exactly the order of the calls...
Obviously, Anders' runaway prop and
subsequent bad landing was the worst of
the three. But when the normally calm
Morss called his Mayday, the immediacy of
his problems were apparent in the tone of
his voice.
Plagued
with cylinder problems all week, the
Lancair team was bitten again, when
apparently, ADI failure burned two
pistons. Lou Meyer flying in the Thunder
Mustang, first noticed Morss smoking and
called this to Dave.. Morss too, was
becoming aware of the problem as it was
beginning to enter the cockpit. Pilots do
not like smoke in the cockpit, thus the
immediacy in Morss' mayday call..
Dave
landed safely, the Lancair team was
putting the finishing touches on the new
cylinder installs, as of 9:00 this
evening.... The Race 99 will be back out
again tomorrow in The Sport Class Heat
2A...
THUNDER
MUSTANG: FIRST RACE – FIRST PLACE
Speaking
of Lou "Sky Slut" Meyer (we're
not being mean... Lou loves his
nick-name) and the Thunder Mustang,
Thunder Rose.... WOW! Congratulations to
newcomer Lou Meyer and the Papa 51 team
who have been working on this airplane
intensely for months to get it ready for
Reno 2000!
"I
went to school" said a beaming Meyer
just after the race in the Sport Class
hangar today... "I knew that no one
had more experience on the course than
Lee [Behel]" Lou continued "so
I followed him and watched"
This
"education" process worked well
for first time racer, Lou Meyer, dogging
Behel for the entire six lap event, Meyer
flew closer to Lee's Venture on each
circuit... "I saw him cut the
pylon" Meyer commented, "I knew
I had it, I don't think Lee knew he cut
the pylon, but I did, because I was right
there."
The
airplane sounded GREAT from our vantage
point on Pylon 8! Lou's mount is
different than when we last saw it, being
outfitted with the "Version II"
Falconer V-12 engine... A different crank
design and firing order make this
airplane not only look like a 3/4 scale
P-51... it SOUNDS like a 3/4 scale P-51!
The
airplane is sitting about 50' behind our
temporary office at American Air Racing
and there is not a drop of oil or trace
of any problem anywhere on the machine.
All of
this bodes well for the design and the
future of Papa 51..
