Before it was Rare Bear

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

John will correct me if I'm wrong It may well be possible that there was only one pilot who had the natural instinct, years of experience, knowledge of the systems and confidence in his machine and control of or complete lack of fear to extract all the airplane had to give. It can never be argued that the Rare Bear is an extraordinary machine created by amazing people but would it ever have been the racer that it is without Lyle Shelton flying it?

The circumstances that brought Lyle to where he was, military training, years of experience with the engine. innate ability to feel what was needed. and I'm sure I mentioned complete lack of, or control of, FEAR!

I just don't think you can discuss the accomplishments of that airplane and extraordinary crew without factoring in the extremely rare skills and determination of Lyle Shelton!

I have nothing to disagree with there.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Let's take a second to align ourselves with what this thread is trying to accomplish. In the last couple of days we as a group participating in this thread have deviated from the concept of the thread.

The concept of the thread was the early development of what would become the fastest piston engine airplane of it's time. To the point of what Rod Lewis has brought to air racing and the warbird/classic aviation or what he has not brought, well that belongs in another thread not this one. It would be to easy as people do to criticize Rod or Lyle for that sake of the argument for what they did or did not do. I'm not try to jump on anyone who has a critique, but lets stay focused on the subject at hand.

The Rare Bear is truly a unique experimental journey. Unfortunately for the airplane quite a few of the original people that banged their heads against the wall to overcome what would work, did work, and did not work have either passed away or flat out decided that they had enough.

The program at the time Lyle operated it achieved more than every goal that we set for it and then some. The original goals were to restore the Bearcat. The next goal was to make the airplane "overly competitive" and enjoy multiple year wins that would define the competition level for the sport. To set the 3Km world record, to set the time to climb to 10,000 feet. All of the goals were met and achieved.

For those of you that missed it the era of the 7s when Reno was won by either Rare Bear or Strega was the best air racing ever. Both teams fed on each other for inspiration to go faster and faster. I'm glad that I was an integral part of the effort.

Let's not go down the road of criticism of Rod Lewis's efforts. Nobody, freakin' nobody else was thinking about the next year of racing on the final approach to the landing as much as Lyle, he thought about the program 24 hours a day, 365 1/4 days a year.

[CJAM427]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Connor,

The stock canopy was used until the 1971 era, after that the first canopy modified was the "cut down shaped canopy" with the fibreglass rear section. Lyle didn't really like how much that canopy interfered with cockpit lighting and shadows, but it's what we had so no priority was set for it's replacement.

Lyle always supported the Reno National Air Races downtown parade. For Reno 1972 the Bearcat was flown from Stead to the Reno Cannon airport to be towed in the parade through the town, if I'm recalling correctly Clay flew his Mustang down for the parade as well. Lyle stood in the cockpit during the parade and the canopy was rolled all the way back, we had noticed at that point in history that when the canopy was rolled all the way back the emergency jettisoning mechanism would strike part of the structure for the overturn brace, so a pre-flight item was added to check that the mechanism was secured. The next day after the parade when Lyle was flying back to Reno Stead, the item was missed. Lyle got back to Stead and flew around the course kind of high to look at it. Suddenly the canopy released from the airplane catching Lyle by surprise and striking his head as it went. So as a result we borrowed the stock canopy from Bud Fountain and left his Bearcat covered in plastic. When we got back home after the races Lyle, Myself, and my Mom with out dachshund Susie all piled into the F250 and returned the canopy to Reno and installed it back on Bud's Bearcat. We didn't have an extended cab truck and it was a manual transmission so after a while Lyle would say what gear he wanted, push in the clutch and I shifted. I always remember that horribly crowded ride to Reno and back from Orange County. It was fun.

So after Reno 1972 the new all plastic canopy was made using the same windscreen as the previous one.

The shape was made by making a plaster piece and basically removing plaster where it didn't look right. There was one of the aerodynamic guys I think from Douglas that came by the hangar to look at it and he said that everyone had done a good job, he commented that the fineness ratio was ten times better than Darryl's little bubble canopy so we were all happy and the guy that made everybody else's canopies made that one as set from the plaster mold.

We would eventually in the 1980s replace that canopy due to age and sun damage from when the airplane sat outside after the belly landing in Mojave. That new canopy had an integral antenna on the inside rear surface which allowed us to remove the wire antenna and their resultant drag. At that point the area behind the canopy on the fuselage was built up slightly and the rear of the canopy frame modified to match, also at this point the rollers were replaced with Teflon slides that reduced the amount of rocking and play the canopy had making the whole assembly really tight. There was of course still air gaps around the canopy that allowed a slight bit of resultant drag. There were thought of taping the canopy closed for the 3Km record but ultimately the runway was too narrow to line up on Lyle tried lining up with the canopy closed but aborted the landing when transitioning from the slip to the landing. (Side note: this point of the landing when you are slipping to line up with the runway and transition to the nose up 3 point position, the tiny ailerons would momentarily loose effect and the airplane if you didn't stay on too of it would like to roll onto it's back, not a problem as long as you know it's coming and knew how to avoid it.)

That is the canopy story.

Another excellent story, thanks John!

-Connor

[gp70442]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

What I've never understood is Rod Lewis buying the fastest racers he can get his hands on and then parking them.... What a waste, he should be ashamed of himself for the disappointment he's left the fans of this sport with.

That's a little harsh...even for someone that has a lot of sweat equity in the Bear.

Rod Lewis should be congratulated and thanked for what he did bring to air racing for several years. And he brought a lot. A couple of fast racers and some of his great collection for all to enjoy year after year. Because he experienced (what had to be) a financial hemorrhage along the way, doesn't necessarily mean he was a "flash in the pan". His priorities undoubtedly changed after that. About that time he has also undertook another huge restoration project at what has to be an enormous expense, so that we can all enjoy seeing an airworthy Connie in the skies again one day. He was not ultimately successful by winning the Reno Gold, but winning at Reno is no easy task.

I say thank you Rod Lewis & company for all you brought to Reno and sharing your collection with the fans.

GP

[marada mx3]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

What I've never understood is Rod Lewis buying the fastest racers he can get his hands on and then parking them. Tiger isn't going to sell him Strega, and Bob Button isn't likely to to sell him Voodoo. What was his ambition? Buy fast airplanes and make them slower? He has a nice collection, and some of them actually fly, but he's got the two fastest round motor racers ever and they're both parked. What a waste, he should be ashamed of himself for the disappointment he's left the fans of this sport with.

From a way out in left field spectator's point of view, Rod bought into the upper echelon of air racing and thought he would dominate. When things didn't pan out, exit stage left. (No doubt a ton of details I don't know about that would tell the story) I've seen the same situation play out in sprint car racing through the years. Typically we'll see new faces arrive with the best equipment money can buy, they hang around struggling for 3-5 years, then you never hear from them again. Just gone from the face of the earth. Would love to get a historical account of Rod's air racing /warbird career.

[ZacYates]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

I'm sure glad the thread is still moving along. Probably a bit slow and meandering for the Millenials among us, but working pretty good in Geezer time...

This Millennial (1987 model) is perfectly happy with how this thread is progressing! Fascinating stuff with every post.

[knot4u]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

What I've never understood is Rod Lewis buying the fastest racers he can get his hands on and then parking them. Tiger isn't going to sell him Strega, and Bob Button isn't likely to to sell him Voodoo. What was his ambition? Buy fast airplanes and make them slower? He has a nice collection, and some of them actually fly, but he's got the two fastest round motor racers ever and they're both parked. What a waste, he should be ashamed of himself for the disappointment he's left the fans of this sport with.

[knot4u]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Correct. It was always interesting to watch Lyle and Clay Lacy together. This was in the pit Sunday afternoon before the 1990 Gold Race, I think. Lyle was different when talking to Lacy...

Neal

I worked on jets for Clay for a number of years on the 145 repair station side of of his Van Nuys operation. He had a reputation as "ruthless" but I never saw it, he always treated me very well. I remember a CJ2 pulling onto the ramp and BCIV, Lyle and some other guy got out and walked into the building, I pondered (remember I said I was an expert ponderer?) going over to speak to them but they all had very serious looks on their faces and I was already pretty busy. Turned out that other guy was Rod Lewis and for some reason they chose to do the paperwork for the sale of the Bearcat at our facility. I never really understood why it happened there, but it is what it is.

[knot4u]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

You want it to go away? I've got lots to replace it with...

Neal

No. I'm not a supporter of erasing the evidence of our history.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

You want it to go away? I've got lots to replace it with...

Neal

Please don't make it go away I'm working on another wordy answer for it.

[wingman]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

The second picture is uncomfortable to me for a few reasons.

You want it to go away? I've got lots to replace it with...

Neal

[wingman]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

The people in the background in the second photo are Lyle, BCIV and Clay Lacy.

Correct. It was always interesting to watch Lyle and Clay Lacy together. This was in the pit Sunday afternoon before the 1990 Gold Race, I think. Lyle was different when talking to Lacy...

Neal

[knot4u]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Everybody so loved that three blade...

That's me and Gil Iwamasa (RIP), who was my supervisor at Cal-Prop at the time, holding the chocks in that first picture. Must've been a higher RPM run. Notice that fancy GPU? It's the same one the team always used, but Craig Jellison decided to make it look nice. The source for the little Mooneyes fuel tank and the fat tire wagon as I recall might have been a bit suspect, but I doubt anyone would've tried to take it from us. Why would you put a wing on a start cart? Why not?

The second picture is uncomfortable to me for a few reasons.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

It's sad that many people remember Greg as that guy in the third photo. I think he felt he had enough friends and with a few exceptions he wasn't looking for any new ones. He had a huge heart that would melt occasionally, evidence enough would be seeing him around a puppy or a young child. But not many got to see that side of him. Oh well, water under the bridge

Funny I wrote my response without having read yours.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Before it was Rare Bear

Lief -- Here's one where Greg is part way to a smile. It's Sunday morning after a long evening and he's not thoroughly awake yet.

Later that day he's not smiling. Three interesting and identfiable characters in the background -- anybody want to guess them?

The last shot is 4 years later. He's officially crew chief by then, and is not smiling.

Neal

I originally wrote a response to the pictures, that started in Van Nuys and ended the last time I saw Greg face to face. It took me over an emotional hour to write. I met Greg when I was a 14 year old kid, Greg was Bob Guildford's 16 year old Crew Chief on his Corsair. We became friends, I'd say for the rest of his life we were friends. We raced airplanes and cars together. It was a great journey, lots of water under and over the bridge of time.

Thank you Neal for pictures that bring back thousands of memories of my friend.