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**wingman** · 08-30-2007, 10:03 PM

Re: Blind Man's Bluff

Larry -- Is it true that the original plan was to have the airplane race in 1988, and that you hurried when you saw it could possibly make 1987?

A couple of things I've been curious about, if you'd be willing to talk a bit:

About how many hours were on the Racer when you got to Reno? Was the Arizona testing on gasoline, and did it fly on alcohol before Reno? Who did the flight testing in Arizona, and who ferried it to Reno?

Blind Man's Bluff was really a heroic effort in many ways, even if the final result was disappointing to the crew (and to JoAnne). It was a great looking racer, and its life as Critical Mass proved its potential. Thanks for coming around and sharing a few of your memories.

Neal Nurmi
---Wingman Photo---

**wyhdah** · 08-31-2007, 06:59 AM

Re: September Pops Update

What a fine looking racer.

**RAD2LTR** · 08-31-2007, 08:37 AM

Re: September Pops Update

What year were those pics taken?

Will

**Peashooter** · 08-31-2007, 08:48 AM

Re: September Pops Update

I love the helmet-hair! A true pilot in any "man's" book!

**MMPerk** · 08-31-2007, 09:08 AM

Re: September Pops Update

Originally posted by 440_Magnum

Yeah, its all physics. But that means more than *just* power/weight ratio. Its going to be very interesting to see how it plays out, precisely because the airplanes are so different in many ways.

But I'm also going to be keeping my eyes on a purple Mustang, too

All too true. I overlooked the fact that they are different airframes. I'll slap myself in the back of the head for that one.

Many thanks for posting those great photos!!

Lonnie

**bluffman** · 08-31-2007, 02:02 PM

Re: September Pops Update

Wingman, you asked some good questions. The original plan was to race in1987. We got behind due to an accident where the wing center-section fell on me and I suffered significant injuries. I was taken to a hospital by paramedics and checked over by the docs, but I refused treatment, telling them "We've got a race to make". This happened on a Friday late afternoon, and I went back to work on Monday morning. I was suffering quite a bit but was trying to keep the crew working. Shortly thereafter the guys said, "We aren't going to work this week-end because we aren't going to make it to Reno anyway". There's a lot more to it, but at a point in time I called them all together and told them "I'm going to Reno with this airplane with or without you, the choice is yours". They all stayed. The deal is that in all my years in auto racing I was aware that the race will go on with or without you, they never held up the Indy 500 waiting for someone to arrive late. Your question as to how many hours on the racer, roughly 3 hours plus the flight time from Scottsdale to Reno. The flight testing was on gasoline, and never flew on alcohol until Reno, but we had ran engines on a dyno in Hondo, Texas on it for many hours. They performed great there, but like they say in auto racing, it isn't always the same when the engine is put in the car. We were confident that it was O.K. to try it at Reno, but it didn't start right away, and all the cranking over was allowing the fuel injection to keep on squirting lots of alcohol into the cylinders, and most of it went to the lower cylinders and hydrauliced them and caused some piston and probably rod damage. Skip did fly several laps though.Hard to keep this short, so will try to address your other questions.Flights in Arizona were done by Bill Norton, and Joanne Osterud, and Joanne ferried it to Reno and back.

**wingman** · 08-31-2007, 02:13 PM

Re: Blind Man's Bluff

Thank you for this, Sir! Don't worry on our account about keeping it short -- many of us have all the time in the world for untold history. Blind Man's Bluff is truly interesting and compelling history, and most of us have never been able to find out much about her other than what we saw on the ramp during Reno week (along with the many silly comments and snide remarks that floated around that week).

So Captain O'Grady (and I hope I have the right name) never got to fly the airplane at all?

**bluffman** · 08-31-2007, 08:17 PM

Re: September Pops Update

Wingman, you ask some good questions. Lt. Sheila O'Grady never got to fly BMB. She got checked out in a Sea Fury at Frank Sander's place. I got permission to use her from Gen.Welch, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and her squadron commander at Williams Air Force Base here in the Phoenix area where she was an instructor in T- 38's. My conversation with the General went like this: "What can I do for you young man?" I responded : "I want the best female pilot in the Air Force to fly an air racer at the Reno Air Races." He responded: You've got it." A couple of days later this beautiful young lady came marching into the Levolor hangar in a flight suit, and introduced heself to me. "Lt. O'Grady reporting for duty". The way that this came about was that Eric Lorentzen's father in law had gone through the acadamy with the General. Everything was going well until I got a phone call from a Colonel in San Antonio, Texas wanting to know what was going on. Air Training Command had not been notified as to what we were doing with Lt. O'Grady. Seems that they weren't pleased that we had cicumvented the "chain of command". The top of the chain and the bottom of the chain never sent any information from either end to the middle. We flew down and met with a room full of "Bird Colonels" and tried to straighten out the mess, and things were going well except for one "Bird". He was a real jerk, and for some reason felt severely harmed by the fact that we did not follow the chain of command. It came down to a vote, and they went into another room for a while, and when they came out the main guy said the vote was 11 to 1, and we lost because it required a unanimous decision. We wanted to pursue it further with a phone call to the General, but Sheila was concerned that if we coninued it could jeapordise her Air Force career. They did although tell us that they would let us use her the next year. That's the name of that tune!

**Ken Dwelle** · 08-31-2007, 08:53 PM

Re: September Pops Update

Great Stuff Larry, keep it coming!

Ken Dwelle

**bluffman** · 08-31-2007, 09:32 PM

Re: September Pops Update

Ken, How is your rebuild of your Sea Fury coming along? I was sure sorry to hear about your dad losing some fingers in some kind of explosion. I have been out of touch for a while, in and out of assisted living facilities, nursing homes, etc. Am back to the real world now, and my brother got me connected to this AAFO site. I have been very surprised at all the things posted about Blind Mans Bluff/ Critical Mass. There sure seems to be a lot of interest in "our bird". For sure she looked the part of a racer.
Tell Tom I said hello, and good luck with your rebuild. I am building a 1/7 scale model of BMB, very detailed. Scale retracts, flaps, etc. It is an R/C model and will fly at some point, although I have had several people wanting to buy it, even though it isn't finished yet. It is almost ready for paint. (Maybe a Critical Mass version later?) Larry

**FedexBob** · 08-31-2007, 10:37 PM

Re: September Pops Update

Beautiful thread guys. Great stuff, and great pics.

**Jason S.** · 09-01-2007, 02:29 AM

Re: September Pops Update

Hi Mr. Burton,
Thanks a ton for the stories, there great and if your fingers can handle it keep typing away. You guys built up an awesome airplane and it was too bad that you had all those problems during the 87 race. I have the World Aviation Video Magazine (I believe that�s what it�s called) from that year and there is some great video, as well as interviews with some of the crew. There�s also an interview with Joann about her not being able to race which is pretty interesting.
Thanks again,
Jason

P.S. If you can post some pictures of your R/C project that would be great.

**Ken Dwelle** · 09-01-2007, 07:26 AM

Re: September Pops Update

Hi Larry-
Good to see you are still kicking. The rebuild is going well, the fuselage is in Ione, the outer wing panels and center section are out to the paint strippers. I spend most evenings and weekends painting and assembling the smaller components so that when we get the big parts back we can begin assembly. The only big piece left in Auburn is the new tailfin you see in the picture here. It has never been on an airplane. We have been scouring the world for the better part of a year to locate all the parts to replace the ones you pulled off and gave away! I don't suppose you kept anything... Any idea what happened to the cockpit seats? We are having a terrible time finding a some. I have a great photo which was taken in your Scottsdale hangar of the pile of parts removed from the airplane which Dennis came and picked up. He tells me that most of those parts are flying on Argonaut. I'm glad they were saved and not scrapped. He still had the original tips for the horizontal stab in his container. You did a really nice job of drilling them off!
-Ken

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