Remember when... (and a quiz question)

[wingman]

Anybody but me remember when Sea Furies had 5 bladed props? Sea Furies were few and far between back then, too.


A quiz question: Who remembers who first put a 3350 into a Sea Fury?

Neal

[L.E.D.]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

HMMMMMM....

... I seem to recall that he tried to use alcohol to call a blind man's bluff..

[wingman]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

Sheesh -- 13 minutes?? I thought that this was too easy. So then who was the second 3350 Sea Fury at Reno? I'm not even sure of that one.

This was a good looking race plane...

[wingman]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

Dennis Buehn sets up for a high speed pass in his Albatross. As I remember the story he went to Arizona one year to buy one when they were being sold off surplus. He ended up with the very airframe that he had been crew chief of many years before when he was in the military.

Neal

[L.E.D.]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

Just to give full credit: The person we're talking about here is Larry Burton, who built up "Blind Man's Bluff" for Eric Lorentzen, who was part of the family that ran Levolor window blinds company (hence the name.)

I don't know for sure the answer to "the second 3350 sea fury" but I will guess Frank Sanders, based on the stories told about the creation of BMB.

Another fun tale is ... who was the intended pilot for BMB the first year out?

[Wingnut]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

Sheesh -- 13 minutes?? I thought that this was too easy. So then who was the second 3350 Sea Fury at Reno? I'm not even sure of that one.

This was a good looking race plane...

BMB was beautiful and revolutionary. But the alcohol stack fires were crazy. I'll never forget watching paint vanish in the invisible flames.

For the second R-3350 Sea Fury, how about Cottonmouth in 1988? IIRC flown by John Muszala.

Two weeks...

[Wingnut]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

Another fun tale is ... who was the intended pilot for BMB the first year out?

Reaching way back now but I remember Joanne Osterud bringing BMB to Reno and flying a few laps. Soon after, a group of pilots raised objections to a rookie in such a radical plane. Skip flew the remainder of the event.

I believe Lorenzen originally insisted on a female pilot form the outset of the project and the team had selected an accomplished air force pilot for the job. I've long forgotten her name, but the government nixed the plan.

[mdwflyer]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

I believe you are correct, Jerry bought 51SF and the centaurus failed before he got to fly it. From memory, Bruce Boland assigned some Lockheed engineers to do the engineering for the installation. Jerry went to Transport Canada to register it in Canada, they responded "no way, we would need a full engineering report before we could even think about it". Jerry reached into his briefcase and pulled out a huge binder from Lockheed with Bruce Bolands stamp, he said "You mean like this?". They responded "How about a flight permit and you keep the N# on it...".

Mark

BMB was beautiful and revolutionary. But the alcohol stack fires were crazy. I'll never forget watching paint vanish in the invisible flames.

For the second R-3350 Sea Fury, how about Cottonmouth in 1988? IIRC flown by John Muszala.

Two weeks...

[wingman]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

I think Cottonmouth is indeed correct. I actually thought it would be Howard Pardue's #66, but looking into the RARA database Howard's Fury did not appear til 1989. Ezell did Howard's Fury with the engine mount design from Burton, I believe -- was the engine installation in Cottonmouth done independently of the Blind Man's Bluff design?

Neal

[Airrace7]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

Reaching way back now but I remember Joanne Osterud bringing BMB to Reno and flying a few laps. Soon after, a group of pilots raised objections to a rookie in such a radical plane. Skip flew the remainder of the event.

I believe Lorenzen originally insisted on a female pilot form the outset of the project and the team had selected an accomplished air force pilot for the job. I've long forgotten her name, but the government nixed the plan.

Joanne had problems with the rudder while pulling some G?s. She didn?t have the strength in her legs to fully operate the rudder pedals.

[Airrace7]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

Does anyone remember how much time Skip Holm had on the clock to quality Blinds Man Bluff.

[TWD]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

Joanne had problems with the rudder while pulling some G?s. She didn?t have the strength in her legs to fully operate the rudder pedals.

I would seriously doubt this. There is a strip on the trailing edge of a stock Sea Fury rudder to "heavy up the rudder so you don't over control it". BMB didn't have this strip.

I think Sheila O'Grady was the name of the Air Force pilot that was initially targeted for the seat.

[TWD]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

Does anyone remember how much time Skip Holm had on the clock to quality Blinds Man Bluff.

Do you mean: time remaining in the qualification period or flight time in the seat?

[Big_Jim]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25788[/ATTACH]

Great pic, there, Neal.

Bill Harrison's widow has been scanning tons of photos of his various airplanes though the years. Some cool pics of Wasa Hooker she's been posting on her FB page.

FWIW, Wasa Hooker was one of the birds John Stokes imported from Doug Arnold in the UK. It was sold shortly after Bill raced it at Reno '78, and destroyed in a fatal takeoff accident in Chicago. The remains, along with the N-number, were purchased by Papa Frank and was the basis for Dreadnought (along with a lot of other 'parts').

[wingman]

Re: Remember when... (and a quiz question)

Thank you Brad -- that shot has been a favorite of mine for many years. Has anybody ever worked up a list of all the airplanes Dr Bill was involved with over the years? He raced at least three, and also flew the B-17 at Miami, but there were many more over the years. He seemed to be known for bringing something new and interesting to Oshkosh each year.