Flight Sim Blog ala Paul (P-12C)

Last Saturday, we had beautiful weather and we decided it was a good day to bring the P-12 out into the sunshine, park it in the front lawn and start her up. The intention was to test the various systems in place on the fuselage. We know the engine will run because we've run it several times on the test stand, but we haven't done that with the systems we have now.

Brandon came out to the house for the event and to see the airpark, and he brought his camera. He took some nice shots and many of them are embedded here in this post, but they are duplicated with a few more in the P-12 photo album.

The brakes are installed in the aircraft, but the brake fluid hasn't been put in yet. Plus the tail feathers aren't on the fuselage yet, so there is no way to hold the tail down. To solve this my dad modified a trailer tongue receiver to bolt around the tailwheel and hooked onto the truck hitch. I wasn't completely comfortable solely relying on the hitch so I added a safety rope "just in case."

My dad pumped the pre-oiler lever to get some oil into the engine, then pulled the prop through a few revolutions to make sure we didn't have a hydraulic lock and that the oil was well circulated.

Now it was time for me to get into the cockpit and get ready to start this beast. The engine is started with compressed air which is injected into the cylinders in sequence pushing the pistons down one at a time and rotating the engine and prop. The engine hasn't been run for several years, so the carb is pretty much dry although the electric fuel boost pump should have the fuel readily available.

It's a bit of a squeeze to get my knees under the instrument panel and up to the rudder pedals, but it isn't too tough. Might be a bit harder with a warm jacket and a parachute though... Before starting we turn on the master switch to power the electrical systems, run the fuel boost pump, then hit the primer switch which allows fuel to flow directly into the intake system bypassing the carburetor. Then we let it sit for a little bit and turn the prop through again to circulate the fuel vapors. Once the vapor is well circulated, the engine should be ready to start.

Time to start... The cockpit is setup so that one hand is on the air control lever just behind the throttle and the right hand is on the mag switch. The mags aren't hot enough to supply enough power when the engine is turning slowly to spark the plugs, so my dad built a mag booster using an old VW distributor with all but one lobe ground off. The distributor is attached to an electric motor with spins the distributor and creates a continuous pulse of electricity from the coil directly into the mag. This in turn creates a pulse of energy strong enough to light up the plugs and ignite the fuel/air mix. To start the mag booster the key is turned to the start position after the air has turned the engine over through a few blades. Once the engine catches I can reach the primer switch with a free finger on my right hand and inject more fuel if necessary.

As you can see from the shots above, we did get combustion, but we needed more fuel to keep it going. I held the primer on, but the engine wouldn't catch. We pretty much used up the air in the on-board scuba tank, so my dad went to get the spare scuba tank full of our back-up air and topped off the on-board tank.

We burned through another tank full of air but still no start and no combustion at all for that matter. Now it was time to do some investigation.

While I sat in the cockpit thinking this might resolve quickly, dad and our friend Phil started looking for the cause of the fuel pump not delivering fuel to the engine. It obviously did initially as we had a little bit of combustion at first, but now we had nothing. Soon we went from  checking out the mechanicals to checking out the electrical system. It was time for me to get out...

We took out the boost pump switch and tested that which of course worked fine. We messed with the fuses to see if they were okay, and they were fine, and we were starting to think that maybe the fuel pump just gave out. This would be a bummer as it is mounted partially in front of the oil tank and isn't particularly easy to get to. It was becoming obvious that we weren't going to get it fixed in the front yard, so we pushed her back into the hangar where it would be a bit easier to work on the problem.

As it turned out, the fuel pump works find when connected directly to 12 volts, but something about the wiring was the culprit. My dad rerouted the wiring and hooked it back up, and now we just wait for good weather again. It's not likely to happen this weekend considering it was snowing all afternoon and is expected to snow off an on most of the weekend. We may have to wait for summer at this rate!

In my last post I described the events at the Reno Championship Air Races last year and the virtual races we did in FSX Acceleration. Here are a couple of screen shots taken at the event showing the finish times for the race I was in as well as the race/lap time for Matt later in the week. BTW, these races were run with high realism, engine damage on, terrain crashing on, but aircraft to aircraft collisions off.

Susan took the photos below before and during our race (the same photos are in the Reno 2007 photo album).

Here is Matt (in the Voodoo hat below) getting psyched up for the race and a shot of me chatting with the Leeward family (owners of Cloud Dancer) before the race.

In the pictures below we can see Brandon racing on the far left next to the Six Cat team member (sorry I can't remember his name) and the other very fast racer in the blue shirt (I can't remember his name either). In the photo on the right Ryan Leeward is getting ready for the race.

The two screen shots below show the results of the race taken shortly after crossing the finish line. Brandon was disqualified early on so he watched the race on the cameras placed around the course which he said was just as fun as flying the race. Matt finished second in this race.

Below are screen shots from Matt's practice run the next day where he beat my best time. Great job Matt!

BTW, the top racers at the Reno event won some great prizes for their efforts!

Well I'm a little late with my account of the races last year. However it was a very memorable year, so I can recount it pretty well.

I've created a new photo album with photos taken by Brandon Seltz and Susan Ashlock for you to check out. They are both excellent photographers so I hope you will take a look. There are pictures of aircraft as well as shots of the Flight Simulator X Acceleration displays and races.

This year was different for me because this was our launch event for Acceleration. Considering our focus on air racing, it seemed an appropriate venue for our debut. We had two display areas. One was in the public area near the control tower where the team ran multi-player races every hour (with a full field of eight racers) and another display in a hangar in the pits which was our VIP area.

The public area was always very crowded and the hourly races had crowds of people standing around watching the races. There were several die-hard air racing and aviation fans that would sign-up for the races well in advance and practice on their own between heats. Some of these guys were getting pretty cocky about how good they are, so we decided to plan a race pitting the best of these guys against Brandon and I, the designers of FSX Acceleration.

The build up to the race and the actual race were really amazing. The Six Cat T-6 team were in attendance to offer support and cheer on  their racer, Ryan Leeward had his family (owners of Cloud Dancer) cheering him on, and of course I had my family there as well!

I felt very confident that I could beat all of my opponents, as I knew what their best times were (Mike was keeping track of them) which were slightly slower than my best time. But it's easy to make a mistake and cut a corner or even clip the ground when racing hard, so I had to be careful and aggressive at the same time.

The race went perfectly as I just barely nosed out Brandon in the race with Matt (the fastest of the challengers) in third. Most of the race we were bunched so closely together that Mike watching from the course cameras would see us as basically one aircraft. The race was a rush and one of the most memorable events of the week, and definitely the most entertaining. I know we took a screen shot of the results screen and if I can find it I'll add it to this post. Be sure to check out the pictures of the event in my Reno album.

Later on in a separate race, Matt did beat my best time and speed, and I have to bow down to his expertise as a pilot and a gamer.

The "real" races were amazing as well, in more than one way. They were amazingly upsetting with the tragic loss of several pilots in many aircraft accidents. I don't think there has ever been a year of racing that has had so many tragedies in one week. The FAA shut down the races completely on one day and it wasn't clear if the end of Reno Air Racing was upon us. The mood in the pits with the racing teams was very strange. The ex-military pilots that have been in combat were handling it in stride, but I know several of the civilian racers were pretty shaken up. Thankfully nobody on the ground was injured in any of the accidents. If someone in the crowd had been hurt, or any property or people in the neighborhoods around the course had been hurt, I don't think the races would have survived. As it turned out the FAA agreed to let the races continue, but as far as I know the future of Reno is still in question.

The best race that I was able to watch was the Unlimited Gold Final. The F8F Bearcat Rare Bear had just been rebuilt, and had been fighting gremlins all week, so nobody really thought they would be strong in the race, and the Sea Fury September Fury had been very strong all week and seemed invincible. Of course there was also the Super Sea Fury Dreadnought and the light and nimble Yak 11 Czechmate in the hunt as well.

The race started with Mike Brown in September Fury in the lead and from what I heard, he was up over 500 mph on the back stretch during the race (which is very fast, especially for a large Sea Fury). Bob Button in Voodoo was the only P-51 in the mix and he called a mayday on the pace lap and landed safely. It wasn't more than a couple of laps before John Penny in Rare Bear was passing him on the front stretch to the delight of thousands of screaming fans (including me). That was an amazing sight with a tight grouping of these aircraft flying all out. On one of the laps I held my breath as Czechmate got caught in the wake of the Sea Fury's and banked out of control on the front stretch. Sherman Smooth was able to regain control very quickly and pulled high on the course. I thought he was going to quit and pull off the course, but he rejoined the race after about a half a lap.

Mike kept September Fury right on the ass of John in Rare Bear lap after lap. Just as they were rounding the pylon onto the front stretch, the Bear's trailed some white smoke for just an instant, and you could hear the engine sound change. Immediately after that the Bear started streaming black smoke (Brandon got a great shot of the Bear trailing smoke). The crowd gasped and I'm sure everyone thought it was all over for Rare Bear. Soon the black smoke cleared and the Bear was back at it. All of this took about 4 seconds and apparently what happened is that some aerodynamic filler (bondo) broke off the cowling and was sucked into the wing root intake spit out of the engine. That was the white smoke. Then John powered back slightly to troubleshoot and I guess the black smoke was just the engine running very rich. That was a totally amazing sight! But the excitement wasn't over yet.

Mike in September Fury is a hard core competitor and he was still pushing hard. Unfortunately on the last lap he had to pull off the course in a mayday with his aircraft on fire. Steve Hinton in the T-33 pace plane was on him quick to assess the situation. Mike had to shut her down or risk loosing the aircraft and then he made a safe emergency landing. Apparently what happened is that a hole in the exhaust was blowing super hot gasses onto the inside of the engine cowl which scorched the paint off and lit some oil on fire. He was very lucky the fire was limited as this kind of event can be catastrophic. John in Rare Bear shot across the finish line as the winner with Matt Jackson in Dreadnought in second and Sherman Smoot flying Czechmate in third.

The mayday calls weren't over yet though. John's throttle was stuck and he couldn't power back to land. Steve in the T-33 formed up on him immediately and the crowd listened to the radio conversation between them on the PA. John decided to burn off most of what little fuel he had left and go for a deadstick emergency landing. Keep in mind that Rare Bear has no flaps, has clipped wings, and a prop that is too long to do a true wheel landing. It stalls at around 150 knots! Add to all of this that the wind was blowing pretty good so he had to perform this landing in a strong crosswind. He circled around for awhile, entered the traffic pattern, shut down that big old R3350 and put her down exactly where he planned to without incident. John Penny won the race and due to a penalty levied against Matt Jackson, Sherman Smooth placed second in the giant killer Czechmate.

This was by far the best unlimited air race I have ever seen with the race where Skip Holm smashed the course record in the P-51 Dago Red a close second.

I look forward to the 2008 races and I hope you can attend too!

Check out the forums on Warbird Aeropress and All Aviation Flightline Online for more stories about the 2007 races. There are also some cool photos and videos of air racing aircraft and warbirds at this air racing site.

Yesterday going to the office after a Flight Sim aircraft photo shoot (I put a teaser somewhere on this blog), we drove through blizzard conditions but it wasn't sticking.

After working out at the gym, by the time I got home last  night it was starting to stick at my house and we had about an inch of snow. This morning we have about 6 inches of snow and it's still coming down! Here are a couple of shots of the hangar and part of my back yard.

We have been waiting for some nice weather so we could run the P-12 and check out all the systems, but this kind of weather isn't going to work out too well for that. It did get me out of starting the new horse shelter Samantha needs for her new horse though...