Mr. Awesome

[Rigby]

Saw some pics that people posted on FB about the fate of Mr. Awesome. Apparently it is at an aviation museum in Amarillo, TX. It is out side, with all the cowling off. People who have seen it recently report that spark plugs are missing and water is in more than one cylinder, and engine is possibly hydrolocked. According to one poster, the person who donated the plane stipulated that it never be sold nor flown again. Again, take all that for what it is worth, but looking at the pics, it does appear in pretty rough shape.

[Lon Moer]

Re: Mr. Awesome

You can see it on google earth, outside the Texas Air & Space Museum. And you can see the cowling is off.
There is also a C-123 and a Huey Cobra nearby.

[Race5]

Re: Mr. Awesome

That engine is just an old scrap core that was bolted on when it was donated. The museum plans to make new cowlings for it (the originals were badly damaged at some point) and paint it as funds allow.

[Rigby]

Re: Mr. Awesome

Very glad to hear that. Like I said in my original posting, take everything with a large grain of salt. Still wish it would have continued racing.

[John Richard]

Re: Mr. Awesome

This plane gets the Most Beastly Award of all for the Unlimited Class. Can't tell you how much I have so wanted to see this plane race again; an instant contender for anyone that could have tamed her.

Does anyone have any good photos? It would take me years to try to dig mine up, not that they were ever that good.

[planecrazy2]

Re: Mr. Awesome

Still wish it would have continued racing.

This is a classic example of, "you should be careful what you wish for".

I was there to see Mr. A. race. Those were the real "good 'ol days" in my opinion. That era hosted a bunch of custom super unlimited birds.

Mr. A. was a beast. Think Skip was the pilot. This thing was a frankenstein monster with stability issues. There is a good reason the prior owner stipulated the bird never fly again. Gotta respect that.

[Race 29]

Re: Mr. Awesome

I just checked their website and it has a picture of Mr. Awesome on the top of the home page!

http://www.texasairandspacemuseum.org/yak-11-mr-awesome.html

Race 29

[Sneauxman]

Re: Mr. Awesome

If memory serves, this is an early pic of Mr Awesome. After the General Dynamics F-16 test pilot Neal Anderson balled it up on landing (after a couple of laps erratic butt dancing) it was rebuilt with a "borrowed" T-33 tail section for better linear control. When a test pilot complains about flight characteristics, one might just realize that this thing is a nose heavy pig that was not completely thought through. Same with grafting Lear wings on a '51 with or without a Griffin on the nose. But then these late '80s creations and others were certainly fan draws.

I think it was '88 when Strega qualified nearly 20 mph faster than the previous year. When I asked Kerch if he had bolted on more ponies he replied no and told me this. "We did 200 things that gave us 1/10th of a mph each - and you can't even find'em! Oh hell that was an exciting time.

[Big_Jim]

Re: Mr. Awesome

If memory serves, this is an early pic of Mr Awesome. After the General Dynamics F-16 test pilot Neal Anderson balled it up on landing (after a couple of laps erratic butt dancing) it was rebuilt with a "borrowed" T-33 tail section for better linear control.

That's not exactly the timeline for this.

It was built and tested by Joe Kasparoff's crew (including Matt Jackson) with all the modifications but a STOCK Yak-11 tail.

Skip Holm said emphatically that there was not enough directional control, so right before Reno '88 they fabricated the 'slab tail'. In this configuration Skip qualified at 417 mph, and finished fourth (off the top of my head) in the Thursday Silver heat. Even with the slab tail, the directional control was unsuitable under racing conditions, so Skip and Joe sat the plane for the remainder of the event.

Between Reno '88 and '89, Joe Kasparoff's crew removed the slab tail and empennage from the racer and installed the vertical/horizontal from a T-33. The intent was for Skip to continue racing it, but shortly before Reno (as many of these transactions occur) 1989, Darryl Greenamyer purchased Mr. Awesome from Joe Kasparoff. Greenamyer got Neil Anderson to be the pilot. All reports were that the T-33 empennage modification made a significant improvement in handling. There was no 'erratic butt dancing'. The engine overheated and seized on takeoff for qualifying and that was where Neil cartwheeled it off the runway.

[FlyKidChris]

Re: Mr. Awesome

That's not exactly the timeline for this.

It was built and tested by Joe Kasparoff's crew (including Matt Jackson) with all the modifications but a STOCK Yak-11 tail.

Skip Holm said emphatically that there was not enough directional control, so right before Reno '88 they fabricated the 'slab tail'. In this configuration Skip qualified at 417 mph, and finished fourth (off the top of my head) in the Thursday Silver heat. Even with the slab tail, the directional control was unsuitable under racing conditions, so Skip and Joe sat the plane for the remainder of the event.

Between Reno '88 and '89, Joe Kasparoff's crew removed the slab tail and empennage from the racer and installed the vertical/horizontal from a T-33. The intent was for Skip to continue racing it, but shortly before Reno (as many of these transactions occur) 1989, Darryl Greenamyer purchased Mr. Awesome from Joe Kasparoff. Greenamyer got Neil Anderson to be the pilot. All reports were that the T-33 empennage modification made a significant improvement in handling. There was no 'erratic butt dancing'. The engine overheated and seized on takeoff for qualifying and that was where Neil cartwheeled it off the runway.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but for the accident flight, one of the main gear wasn't coming down as well. It appeared to me (so, speculation on my part) that Neil Anderson was trying to cycle the gear to get both mains down, but began to run out of runway before that happened.

[mdwflyer]

Re: Mr. Awesome

From memory, and I'd happily be corrected if I got it wrong.

The T-33 significantly improved the control issues. On arrival at Stead, due to system setup/fingers in the cockpit the tailwheel did not come down, and the tower let Neil know. He elected to do another circuit to try and get it sorted out. Unknown to him, a bullet was lodged in the oil cooler and came out at this time (The hangar had been shot-up by somebody, they found all the bullets but one. The side panels were off the airplane so it wasn't like looking for a bullet hole in the skin....) The oil pressure went away with the oil and the airplane didn't make the runway.

I was planning on putting T-33 tail feathers on my Yak project until kids came along and changed life plans, now it belongs to someone else.

Mark

[CubersWrist]

Re: Mr. Awesome

Mr. Awesome was before my time, but from what I had read and heard (from that video of Skip Holm on youtube talking about flying it) I had always written it off as how to not make an airplane. It's kind of nice to know they eventually got it fixed.

Probably could have used contra-rotating props to help with the torque.

[Big_Jim]

Re: Mr. Awesome

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but for the accident flight, one of the main gear wasn't coming down as well. It appeared to me (so, speculation on my part) that Neil Anderson was trying to cycle the gear to get both mains down, but began to run out of runway before that happened.

They had modified it so the main gear had inner clamshell doors (as a stock Yak doesn't have any). Perestroika/Czech Mate has a mechanical system on its clamshells that when the tire retracts it closes the doors. On Mr. Awesome, there were two separate gear handles. You had to raise the gear then close the clamshells...two separate actions. And it was the reverse on landing, you had to open the clamshells and then lower the gear.

In the heat of the emergency, Neil forgot to open the clamshells and lowered the gear, so the mains were trying to punch through the inner doors. One came down, the other hung up. That was why it went off the runway and cartwheeled.

[Big_Jim]

Re: Mr. Awesome

From memory, and I'd happily be corrected if I got it wrong.

The T-33 significantly improved the control issues. On arrival at Stead, due to system setup/fingers in the cockpit the tailwheel did not come down, and the tower let Neil know. He elected to do another circuit to try and get it sorted out. Unknown to him, a bullet was lodged in the oil cooler and came out at this time (The hangar had been shot-up by somebody, they found all the bullets but one. The side panels were off the airplane so it wasn't like looking for a bullet hole in the skin....) The oil pressure went away with the oil and the airplane didn't make the runway.

I was planning on putting T-33 tail feathers on my Yak project until kids came along and changed life plans, now it belongs to someone else.

Mark

You're confusing two separate events.

On departure from Van Nuys, the tail wheel fell off. Neil landed at Stead and it ground the tailwheel 'posts' down. So they replaced it with a new tailwheel. I have a photo of Randy Goss, Rick Brickert, and Dennis Sanders all bent over 'lifting' the tail of the Yak on their backs while they changed the wheel.

Two days later during qualifying, Neil was taking off and that is when the bullet incident happened. He made the runway, but only one main gear was down (see my other post).

[FlyKidChris]

Re: Mr. Awesome

They had modified it so the main gear had inner clamshell doors (as a stock Yak doesn't have any). Perestroika/Czech Mate has a mechanical system on its clamshells that when the tire retracts it closes the doors. On Mr. Awesome, there were two separate gear handles. You had to raise the gear then close the clamshells...two separate actions. And it was the reverse on landing, you had to open the clamshells and then lower the gear.

In the heat of the emergency, Neil forgot to open the clamshells and lowered the gear, so the mains were trying to punch through the inner doors. One came down, the other hung up. That was why it went off the runway and cartwheeled.

Thanks for the reply. I had known, but had since forgotten, about the inner gear doors. I witnessed the accident and expected that the airplane wouldn't be rebuilt (too much of a "Franken-plane" it seemed at the time), so I was surprised when the rebuild started, but not surprised that it passed through other owner's hands and rests neglected today.