Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

[t-dub]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

THANKS GUYS, This thread has been MOST enjoyable, informative, and sometimes even humorous, and has definitely been the BEST thread of the year! Keep it coming Larry, Ken, TJ, and everyone else who has contributed! This is what a thread is all about, and I know I speak for thousands when I say MORE, MORE, MORE!!! My contribution is a couple of shots in '88 with Skip flying his patented line around the course. What a beautiful plane she was........

[TWD]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

<<<<<

TJ, Interesting what you said about Bowland's suggested airfoil not workable. What you said about Flanagan that he plotted out and made templates of and all that and forming blocks and ribs is what I thought we did, or something close to that. I must have missed the boat on that deal in a big way. The thing about the new spar being wider than the stock one really has me guessing.>>>

Larry, I always wondered how that could be, because the rudder fits, but I was all excited to show Flanagan the ribs he could make up and he grumbles at me "they're not wide enough College Boy". Never could figure that one out. There is a picture that Ken posted a couple of pages back that I had a hard time understanding. It's the silver tailcone with the new spar attached and the new addition on top all cleekoed (sp) together.
I recall seeing a picture (pre-racer) with what looks like a NOS tailcone on it. Any idea what that was about?
TJ



<<<Your comment about me being a true "stand- up man" kind of gave me a chuckle. "if you only knew", maybe something about that will come out at some point.>>>

LOL - Makes the idea of rebuilding an airplane all the more daunting.
TJ

Larry

[MUSNTCHIT]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

LARRY BURTON.jpg

[Flyer57]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

I just got in here and have been blasted by memories.
I met Larry in 1987. I was a late comer to the crew. BMB was in its final stages.
Mayday51 made the comment about Larry being a stand up guy. I'll let larry get to his chuckle about that. But you are right in every other sense of the term. I walked in the hangar one day because I saw the Percival Prentiss sitting out on the ramp in front of the hangar. Strangest looking plane I had ever seen and I had to ask.
I went in and Larry was ready to talk about it and I asked what the plane in the hangar was and he told me a Sea Fury. I looked out and thought, "no... that 's not a Sea Fury." Then Larry told me they were modifying it to be a racer. I was an aircraft mechanic in my dreams and immediately asked if he needed help. I'm a 30 year old ramp rat and Larry didn't miss a beat. "What can you do?" I told him Electrical and Hydraulics.
He said I can't hire you. I kind of stood back and said " Ok well can I come by and watch?" He said sure. I came back the next day and he came over to me and said I can't hire you but if you want to help, and show me you will work I'll talk to the owner next time he is here.
I think I worked there for about a month and one day Larry came to me and said I'll pay you $XX a week. but you won't be on the payroll. I suddenly had realized a dream. As time went on one day he told me to quit my job and come to work here.
I'll give an analogy here. People say Brian Wilson new the sound he wanted in every song he wrote.
Larry is that way with aircraft. He looks and it seemingly takes about a second to know what he wants this plane to look like or do, and then goes about telling everyone how it will work and bang it does. The guy is an artist at this game. I remember learning how much I didn't know about anything when I was taken under this mans wing. Between Larry, Tommy ,Ion, & David. I proceeded to learn how real mechanics work. As for Larry, I have never met a more "Stand Up Guy."
I ended up working for him for a long time and consider that time the best in my life. I can tell those of you who don't know him. The man writing these posts is the man that you think he is. I'll leave the story telling to him because he was there and it was his inspiration that made Blind Mans Bluff the great plane that it was. I could add some side stories but Larry is on a roll and I love having been a part of this tale.
Go for it Larry. You have the attention of some who want to know.

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

TJ, Did you mean NOS as in "new old stock"? If that's the case, then I will explain what I think you are referring to. Before Lorentzen bought N85SF it had been flipped over on it's back. The story I got was that during taxiing, whoever was at the controls down in Texas at Stokes place hit a curb, and over she went. When I first saw the aircraft I noticed that on the top of each outboard wing panel was a round circle, kind of pressed into the paint. Later, after getting it parked in the hangar, and really looking it over more closely It was obvious that there had been some significant damage to the vertical fin. There was some primer spots here and there, and it was pretty rough in spots, like it had been patched up and Bondo'd in in some places. Didn"t think much more about it at the time since the plan was to restore the aircraft at some point, and I would fix it at that time. When we decided to do the racer, and I had brother Dale drag her from Levitz hangar to Levolor and started taking it apart some one said that it looked like a 55 gallon drum had been sitting on both wings. Dale measured a drum we had in the hangar, and then the circles..perfect match! I told Ralph Payne about it and through his connections, found out the whole story. While she was on her back they jacked it up and put a drum under each wing to raise her up for whatever reason. This all had something to do with being able to lift her up and get it back on the wheels. Another thing that I noticed was that the spinner sure was ugly, and just didn't look right. When we removed the spinner and looked inside it was obvious that there had been a real bad patch job done. To make the story shorter, we discovered that the reason it looked so ugly is because the SF spinner had been damaged in the flip over and the front had been cut off, and what Ralph said was a part of a "Hurricane" spinner grafted on. When Dale started stripping the paint off of the tail cone big gobs of Bondo fell off, and underneath was steel wool, and other crap stuffed in as something to give a base for the Bondo. As we removed the fillet, etc. there was a lot of evidence of a real bad patch-up job. I hope this answers your question regarding a NOS tail cone.
Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

AAFO WSAGAR, My brother Ron has been trying to add some photos regarding BMB. I think it might have been post 65 or so that said: Larry Burton jpg He just E- mailed me that he has been trying to figure out how to do this. He is: MUSNTCHIT Maybe if you do a post you could explain how to go about it.
Thaks, Larry Burton

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Ken, We thought we got a speed of 406 mph, possibly on alcohol, but not real sure of that. I do remember that after Skip flew with the alcohol, several of the guys from out on the pylons came by and told us that it sure sounded really loud and different and was going like hell! As to the "polished semi's, yeah, polished wheels and all, a couple of Levolors company trucks normally used to deliver blinds. I don't know quite how to start this caper, but I will try this: My wife Sandy, and Eric's wife Jennifer had gone up to Reno several months before the races and had rented three houses right there at Stead. These were for crew members, I wanted them close by instead of in town in motels because we knew going in that we were in for a lot of working long hours. We brought two fresh engines because we figured that we may have some problems, since as Tom Dwelle said best, " we had spring fever". Also all the crew members had to bring bedding,(Sandy had rented beds) their clothes, tool boxes, we had lots of "promotional material" that was distributed to race fans, box after box of hats, t- shirts, golf shirts, etc that we were selling, just lots of "stuff". Yes, we had brought a "full time cook" also, so that if anybody wanted something to eat day or night, it was available. Again, I wanted the crew close at hand, not wandering off into town to eat and all that. This mentality on my part was due to going to the Indianapolis 500 with Mickey Thompson, and when we, the crew got there after driving from Long Beach, California to Indy hauling the race cars and all, we were tired and hungry, so we went into the cafeteria right there by "Gasoline Alley" to relax and have some lunch. We no more than got set down when Mickey came storming through the door, and said;"Did you come here to eat or did you come here to race, you could have stayed in Long Beach and ate!" Something else you and others may not know, I had two sets of double tankers there with 30,000 gallons of alcohol just in case it worked out that we would be able to run it. My figuring was that if needed we had enough alky for 30 to 40 hours of flying. We always got our alcohol fuel for race cars free from Valvoline, so I called them and told them what I wanted and how much, and the phone got real quiet for a while, then they said "How much?" I repeated, 30,000 gallons. They said, "NO WAY!" But I insisted, and they finally said, O.K. but not free, we'll do it for 10 cents a gallon. Needless to say, after all was said and done, I had a lot of methanol to get rid of. I made a few calls and got the word out and some guy in Oregon said that he would take it since it was free. The tanker drivers were really happy, they were tired of setting around. We also had seven 55 gallon drums of nitro- methane, although I am not sure that we took them all to Reno. Is that crazy, or what? Oh, I forgot, we also had our own gasoline that we got from VP, some kind of blend that Brad had come up with for anti- detonation after running the engines on the dyno. And I also had Champion make me some special spark plugs with my own number on them, I gave them all to you guys. Tom should remember that.I got them free from Champion, but had to pay some local distributor in Reno $10.00 each for some reason. Hope there aren't too many typos, My fingers are tired, and so is the rest of my Ol' body.

[t-dub]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Hey guys, to post pics, scroll down below the smilies to the "manage attachments" click on that and attach your pix. Be sure to downsize your image to 600 - 700 pixel width for best results. Post on!

[Ken Dwelle]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Oh this is good stuff, most of that I never heard before. You must have had some kind of budget! Is it true that Levolor went bankrupt after Reno 1987? The bits about the outer wing panels and the 55 gallon drums are priceless. I know where both of those wing panels are now and I sometimes think about what it would take to get them back and reunited with the airplane. I'll find something else to think about now!
Do you remember what the number was on the sparkplugs? We have boxes and boxes of plugs in the hangar. I never understood what Dad was on about collecting them all.... Most of this happened when I was off in the Air Force, I left in early 1990 and didn't come back until 1999.

Ken

[laminar]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

More pictures!!

[taichi]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry,
I sent you the 5-views and a color profile of BMB on Sunday, so I think they will arrive to you within two-three days.

This thread is the most interesting ever on AAFO! I've never seen BMB, but saw flying on 2003 Gold race as Critical Mass. She sure looked like a racer!
Attached are the BMB pin, and the front page of 20-page booklet of BMB.
Both are given from Mr. Bradley Miller two-three years ago.

taichi

http://www.taichiunlimiteddrawings.com

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

No, Levolor did not go bankrupt. It was becoming difficult to compete with the "off shore" (Japanese) companies price-wise, and Lorentzen's brother died of a heart attack while jogging on the beach in Hawaii. The blind company was put up for sale, and I think that when all was said and done Sears became the new owner. The BMB caper had nothing to do with any of this. It just happened that BMB was an asset of the company, and the sale of the company included "all" the assets of the Levolor company. Eric was not unhappy or disgruntled regarding our performance or non- performance at Reno. He understood that we just did the best as we could under the circumstances. We had learned a lot, and were looking forward to getting our act together for 1988. There was probably a lot of eyes rolling about the quantity of alcohol and flight hours, etc on my last post, but I will explain that later. I am going "flat out " today trying to get some parts together for a Formula 1 Racer for Reno. The holiday week-end delayed receiving some parts I need. Some came in this morning, but still waiting for another shipment. Have to go for now, must get the F-1 stuff ready to send to Reno. Larry

[Red]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry, thanks for taking the time to tell us stories. I, like many others I'm sure, check this board about every 1/2 hr. hoping there is more to this thread.

Mind telling us about the F1?

[Flyer57]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Here are some pics of BMB. The last one I took one night, just before we left for Reno, of the headers. Tommy built these, and they were a fun deal to assemble at first but after we did it a few times we could have them on or off in about 45 minutes. And yes they are tuned.
Larry can give more detail but this was one of my favorite pics because, Well... They just looked awsome.

[wyhdah]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Roger, when you say tuned do you mean equal length or did you guys tune the exhaust individually on the dyno?

Oh I almost forgot great pics and awesome work.