Critical Mass Practice and Qual, Reno 2003
Jason
Jason
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Jason Schillereff -
Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
I was always a big fan of that airplane. Sadly they never won but came in a very respectable 3rd in the gold in their final race. If I recall, 3rd that year was very fast. Hats off team Dwelle and all their efforts over the years. Lots of development problems for sure, but they persevered and made a podium finish. That airplane was a unique beast and brought a lot of character to the unlimiteds.
Great stuff Jason! Thanks for posting this and the other videos.
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
Great stuff, Jason. Thank you.Comment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
Why was the cockpit moved to the back? Did they install tanks up front or ? Beautiful airplane, always like the way she looked.Comment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
We would always stake out our spot on the deadline in front of the Critical Mass pit (when we were young and could stand all day). When they finished 3rd, did not break the plane and were able to fly it home, Peggy Dwelle was ecstatic, it was like a win for them. The Dwelle's are such a nice family.Comment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
Thanks guys, much appreciated!!
JasonJason SchillereffComment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
If you start doodling on what the perfect air racer would look like you tend to get something very similar to Tsunami and the NXT. Engine and propeller up front in clean air. Wing that is clipped down as small as possible. And then you want all of your fluids on or as close to the CG as possible so that the balance remains constant throughout the whole race. When you do all of that the only place left for the pilot (who's mass remains constant during the race) is behind the fluid tanks.Originally posted by supercub View Post
There is also some area ruling in effect, though at 4-500mph I'm not convinced it helps much.
The downside is now you have to watch the pilot's weight because that's been designed into the stability of the aircraft. Something that needed to be accounted for in the delivery of the NXT to the Smithsonian
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
The entire story of Blind Mans Bluff/Critical Mass is here on the site. It its told by one of the guys who built it. Its a fascinating read. Sadly Larry passed away a few years ago.Originally posted by supercub View Post
WillComment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
It sure looked every bit the racer with the cockpit moved way back. I am really glad Larry took the time to share the story with us in that thread.Comment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
This makes me think a bit about taking really interesting threads like these and "promoting them to article".... which is an option I've never used but I believe it's part of the board software...Originally posted by RAD2LTR View PostThe entire story of Blind Mans Bluff/Critical Mass is here on the site. It its told by one of the guys who built it. Its a fascinating read. Sadly Larry passed away a few years ago.
Will
Might make them more available to those of us who are pretty bad at using search or just remembering the actual events!Wayne Sagar
"Pusher of Electrons"Comment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
Wayne,Originally posted by AAFO_WSagar View Post
There are so many amazing articles on this site it makes my head spin. It would be awesome to be able to promote some/all of these. The BMB, RRIII articles, I think there was one on Stiletto, and more than I can't remember. There was one article about reading the oil trails on the undersides of the wings and sides to see what the airflow was doing that was pretty interesting as well. There is a lot of knowledge posted on this board, it would be really awesome to be able to find it easily for other pertinent threads in the future.
WillComment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
Wow.. oddly enough, your post showed me a link "promote to article"..
I know some of this **** probably seems to most of you as something I should just "know"..
I'm gettin' older every year...
Bet you can't guess my age.. LOL
Anyway, between the fact that we have to migrate to a new server just due to software EOL.. (how can that be?)
I'll see if I can figure the easy way to help promote the wealth of stuff in the archives of the forum!!Wayne Sagar
"Pusher of Electrons"Comment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
I was out-n-about yesterday and the former Critical Mass was up and flying around town. Sounded awfully nice.Comment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
You sure did, that flight is on FlightawareOriginally posted by Bigger Al View Post
Glad she's out and about.
Reno from '99 to '23Comment
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Re: 'Critical Mass' Practice and Qual 2003
I was just going through home video that I had digitized and have some footage of after the gold race finish. Good stuff. I also have some pretty good footage of the jet Waco. If I can ever figure out how to convert avi. Files to .mov files without own a Mac computer so I can edit on iMovie I will upload.
Wayne, on long posts like the Larry Burton Blind Mans Bluff thread, could you copy and paste that into a standard web page or blog type set up? That way if an expensive message board sent away it could be maintained for next to nothing. You could even upload that to Wikipedia maybe? There is some amazing stuff in that threadComment
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