Following the heartbreak of having to stand-down for Reno 2022, pilot/owner Brent Hisey is not letting any time waste away before beginning work on Miss America to diagnose the problem(s) that lead up to it. Despite anything and everything that could stand in the way - the team remains more committed than ever to get the aircraft to Stead for Reno 2023. According to team member Greg Butler, "Even though we have a long time until Reno we're not going wait one second - Brent said let's get it done, so that's exactly what's happening".
The race motor was removed and sent down to Rick Shanholtzer's shop down in Texas where he went through every part of the motor including the heads, blower, aftercooler, heat exchanger, and the nosecase (cover all your bases). In the attached photos you can see pretty much everything was taken out of the aircraft's nose, with the canopy removed for easy access to the heat exchanger. After many hours spent inspecting all of the components Rick's assessment couldn't have been better. The damage was totally confined to the nosecase only, the motor and all the other components are 100%.
The bearing in the nosecase spun... and upon inspection was found to have been three-times oversized (removal of the previous bearing must have caused some damage, which would require the flange to be machined larger and oversized bearing fit in place, so this must have happened twice before.) Not that it being oversized is a bad thing, it just became the weak point (during take-off & in-flight the prop was heavily loaded for the first time, putting stress on the bearing it hadn't seen yet). So with that said, the really awesome news is that the gears themselves look great but will be sent off to get magnafluxed to check for micro-cracks in the metal, just in case. The nosecase is now at Roush Aviation where they are adding metal to the nosecase and then will machine for fitment of a stock sized bearing. The team also has another nosecase just in case this process doesn't work out (adding metal or welding to it AND produce acceptable results isn't 100% doable all of the time - accidents happen and it only takes a very small one here to trash the entire assembly). I do recall some fitment issues with the nosecase & block causing some unfortunate delays back in September, so I'm assuming the fitment issue would be harder to complete as I remember Rick having that thing off and on the motor no less than a dozen times before he was satisfied with it. Whichever way they decide to go, it will be corrected and soon.
Current plans call for the motor to arrive for install sometime before Christmas, which means that the motor should be on the test stand and running around mid-December (Rick wants to complete the break-in period on the test stand since they now have the time). After the team gets the race motor back in Miss America and after Brent successfully completes some initial test flights, the team will take ferry the aircraft to Stead for the 2023 PRS where Brent will have to opportunity to take Miss A out on the course at speed. Getting acquainted to that much power from that yellow motor hanging out there on the nose is going to take a little getting used to, and the PRS is a perfect opportunity for that. Both team members Scotty & Greg Butler let us know that Miss America has a "stash" of race fuel & there's a good possibility we'll see some full-power laps at the PRS this year as Brent does intend to push it a bit!
After the PRS the aircraft will be "pickled" for September's race and left at Stead. Since the team intends on running race fuel at the PRS, the tanks need to be drained and cleaned. Fuel pumps will also be replaced during this maintenance cycle as well as a host of other little things. Talking about replacing the fuel pumps, you can see the replacement pumps in the photo above (bottom center-right) still in the plastic shipping wrap. The ones in Miss America now were new and never having seen race fuel are good to go. Besides the set shown above, the crew has yet another set that is in the process of being rebuilt - never hurts to have a backup.
So there you have it... damage minimal and limited to the nosecase bearing only leaving team Miss America well ahead of the power curve in preparation for Reno 2023. More as it becomes available!
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