...and its Claws are Sharp
ANN On-Scene Coverage of Reno 2003
One of the two fastest
Unlimited racers at Reno is the once-dominant F8F2 Bearcat [the
winner in 1988 through '91, and again in 1994], Rare Bear,
the plane Lyle Shelton rescued from a neglectful home and made into
the fastest (official) airplane ever to fly in the Reno Air Races
(481.618 mph, in 1991).
This year, it's clearly on the front row of the big boomers, and
it will be no surprise when the 500 mph lap is finally flown --
this year.
I talked with Stacy Thomas (right, below), the crew chief for
this remarkable beast, who said it was a team effort -- and what a
team! "It took twelve guys, all year long, to get it back to its
winning form, like back in the 80s and 90s, when we battled with
Strega all the time," he said. The Bear was here
last year, but it wasn't really ready. Now, it's ready. "We're
looking to give Dago Red competition for years."
Rare Bear is wearing new paint this year, a fitting
covering for the near-total rebuild the ship got. Stacy said the
new paint job is "a little lighter, not a lot" than in the past;
but it became necessary, because the classic paint job's "fillet
and paint was cracking, coming apart here and there."
Ask Sherwin Williams
"Sherwin Williams gave us everything we needed," Stacy noted, "
-- the sandpaper, chemicals, right down to the handi-wipes." They
also supplied a pro: "Clint Baker runs the training here for
Sherwin-Williams," Mr Thomas said, "and he painted 95% of this
plane -- and it's a big job." The team "pulled off
everything that could be painted in a booth -- the wing tips, the
sheet metal [cowling, doors, panels]; then we made the hangar into
a makeshift paint booth." I remarked on the great paint job. "It
was a lot prettier before we started flying it," he said.
Got Gear?
One of the biggest
headaches the team faced after the flying started in earnest this
Spring was a peculair problem with the gear doors. At speed, the
doors would pop free of their hooks, and open a bit; they'd close
only until they hit the back side of the latches -- and that meant
they'd be stuck open an inch or two. Say good-bye to top speed!
"Once it pops," Stacy explained, "it rides on the back of the
hooks. To get it tucked back in, you've got to cycle the gear."
That strategy wouldn't work in a race.
"The stock uplock springs weren't strong enough to stay
latched," which was a problem that resulted from two things, he
said: "We've been running 3.5~4.5 Gs normally." That was one
problem. "When we really got bookin' the air pressures from inside
the cowl would leak past, and pressurize the accessory section. At
low speeds, it's no problem, but when we start bookin' -- that's
when it rears it ugly head."
Fly the airplane. We'll watch the engine and stuff like
that.
Rare Bear has a whole new, and quite comprehensive,
telemetry system. "We put telemetry in, in 1994," Stacy told us,
"but this system is better." No kidding. "Clark Thompson -- he's a
nuclear engineer at Los Alamos -- he is the telemetry engineer. We
monitor all the engine parameters in real time, while the pilot
flies the course." What -- is pilot John Penney lazy, or something?
Hardly: "He's got a lot to do, like flying 500 miles an hour, a
hundred feet off the ground, with other airplanes all over the
place." Oh.
There is a lot of work to do.
"We had quite a few
bugs last year," the crew chief admitted "... we had the engine
off, the prop off, the plumbing off, the cockpit stripped -- this
airplane had been sitting so long it was evolving into a hangar
queen." It wasn't ready for a museum, though. "We weren't ready to
retire it -- we think we have a few good wins left in it."
Still, it wasn't easy, even starting from a bare shell. When
they started flying this year, "we had over 100 sqwaks -- CHT,
induction temperature, gear, comm problems, alternators --
basically every system you can think of." It's better, now: "We've
finally got the beast tamed a little."
Speaking of alternators... "Craig Phillips at
Skytronics -- he's the greatest. We run two
modified 80 amp alternators -- one one day, the other the next
day." Rare Bear needs about 50 amps in flight, to power
the ADI, the spray bar pump, the fuel boost pump, radios,
telemetry. Any one of those systems could end the race.
Hood Machine helped with a critical area. "The
Achilles heel of this machine -- of all Bearcats -- is the exhaust
system," Stacy said. "The engine, the horsepower [4000+] puts such
a load on the system, you see cracks; you get clamps, pork chops
breaking." He spent a lot of time on those pipes. "I went through
the whole system with [Hood's] Lance Lopez."
He continued, "There
were a lot of what I call 'combat repairs;' we patched in new
metal, we gained some clearance -- there were two pipes that were
beating against each other before we straightened it out. We must
have spent two, three hundred hours on the exhaust alone. Since
then, it's settled in..."
You can sponsor the Bear
Lyle Shelton, Rare Bear's owner, "Isn't one of those
independently wealthy guys your hear about owning these things,"
Stacy said. "A critical part of our sponsorship comes from our
fans. This machine is so popular that our fans support us... and
they're a key to getting this done. Our fans are lifesavers."
One fan, particularly, got into the mix. "Howard Lowery --
that's his Stinson Air Center [sticker] on the
fuselage -- he donated funds, he bought us the air compressor to
paint with. He and his girlfriend are here helping us, wiping down
and polishing..."
There's a lot of 'wiping down,' too. Even a typical
'exercise' run just covers the fuselage in oil.