A- 'HOLE in one'...

[BuckyD]

'Monday-after-the-races' at Reno/Stead Field - 9/17/84:

A classic example of a severely- 'holed' RR Merlin piston, is illustrated here in a macro view of this gremlin-kissed unit - extracted from P-51D Mustang Racer #7 STREGA's motor, which forced race pilot Ron Hevle to execute a premature Lap-7 exit out of Sunday's Reno '84 Unlimited Gold Championship final.

Word from the late & great Doctor Dwight noted that Strega pilot/owner- Tiger Bill retained this one as a keepsake mantel memento for himself (-definately a v-spendy piece of metal arts there, 4-sure!) DBD

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

'Monday-after-the-races' at Reno/Stead Field - 9/17/84:

A classic example of a severely- 'holed' RR Merlin piston, is illustrated here in a macro view of this gremlin-kissed unit - extracted from P-51D Mustang Racer #7 STREGA's motor, which forced race pilot Ron Hevle to execute a premature Lap-7 exit out of Sunday's Reno '84 Unlimited Gold Championship final.

Word from the late & great Doctor Dwight noted that Strega pilot/owner- Tiger Bill retained this one as a keepsake mantel memento for himself (-definately a v-spendy piece of metal arts there, 4-sure!) DBD

Hey Bucky, thanks for sharing the history! What's really amazing to me is the size of the Merlin piston!

It would be wonderous to be able to see one of these engines under power, up close/inside with one of the new cameras that seem able to capture impossible images!

Detonation is a very ugly thing, indeed!

Wayne Sagar

[First time Juke]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

Cool pic.

Funny you should mention golf ( term anyway ). I was thinking I should become a pro golfer and win some majors to earn money to build an AC.

This is my back-up plan since I did not win the 6.5 million € that was at stake here in Finland last weekend.

-----------

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/618386

Is the data above accurate...anyone ?

[BuckyD]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

'Monday-after-the-races' at Reno/Stead Field - Mon. 9/20/82:

A- 'Hole in (another) one'...

John Crocker's gold Hovey-prepared racing Merlin rests in its' cradle, in P-51D - #6 SUMTHIN' ELSE's pit after removal, following crankshaft failure on Lap-4 during Sunday's Unlimited Gold Championship final. Crocker made it safely back down onto the runway during his mayday, but Race #6's prop was damaged while landing.

An unchallenged rookie Mustang- Racer #4 - DAGO RED won the race at 405.092-av/mph, w/Ron Hevle piloting.

DBD

[BellCobraIV]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

DBD, I think it was you that had a picture of the 1992 Piston from the end of Rare Bears streak? possibly not, maybe it was Neal. It was not taken at the races as it took some work to get out at home. That piston was given to Tiger by Lyle at Christmas in 1999. Tiger and Lyle have quite the set of "ashtrays".

[Big_Jim]

Re: A- \'HOLE in one\'...

\'Monday-after-the-races\' at Reno/Stead Field - Mon. 9/20/82:

A- \'Hole in (another) one\'...

John Crocker\'s gold Hovey-prepared racing Merlin rests in its\' cradle, in P-51D - #6 SUMTHIN\' ELSE\'s pit after removal, following crankshaft failure on Lap-4 during Sunday\'s Unlimited Gold Championship final. Crocker made it safely back down onto the runway during his mayday, but Race #6\'s prop was damaged while landing.

An unchallenged rookie Mustang- Racer #4 - DAGO RED won the race at 405.092-av/mph, w/Ron Hevle piloting.

DBD

As I recall, there was a blue propeller with some paint missing from the tips after that landing too. I recall John landing on 14 and rolling out downwind a little \'hot\'. Brake check! 4.0

[BuckyD]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

DBD, I think it was you that had a picture of the 1992 Piston from the end of Rare Bears streak? possibly not, maybe it was Neal. It was not taken at the races as it took some work to get out at home. That piston was given to Tiger by Lyle at Christmas in 1999. Tiger and Lyle have quite the set of "ashtrays".

Hi John-

Must've been Neal. Perhaps you're thinking of this shot, that I did manage to take during Team 77's late Tue. nite (9/15/92) thrash inside the CIA Hanger (prev. posted in my- 'Things That Go-'BUMP!' In The Night' thread)???

Anyway - it's the only pic I took of a Bear piston extraction that year, & w/o any closeup detail shots of the piston itself (With all that was goin' on, I was tryin' to stay out of the way as much as possible, understandably!) DBD

[wingman]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

This may be the shot John is thinking if -- taken at the races though. I think this is the one burned up on the practice run on Tuesday or so...

[BuckyD]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

Thanks, Neal for posting this rough & raw piston pic. (Believe your shot is a closeup detail of same piston shown on the work bench in my nite hangar shot.? Cool to see it in the daylight, closeup).

The piston John's referring to, must've been another one - damaged later during the subsequent Reno '92 Gold heats or final, and extracted after the races, as he mentioned. (John?)

DBD

[BellCobraIV]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

Thanks, Neal for posting this rough & raw piston pic. (Believe your shot is a closeup detail of same piston shown on the work bench in my nite hangar shot.? Cool to see it in the daylight, closeup).

The piston John's referring to, must've been another one - damaged later during the subsequent Reno '92 Gold heats or final, and extracted after the races, as he mentioned. (John?)

DBD

DBD, Neal<
Great job guys! Yes, that is the piston from the early in the week, first cylinder change. We had a great running engine that year and we brought the plane up through Mojave. The test flight on Tuesday was supposed to be flown at lower power settings to burn off the 100 low lead that was used for the flight up to Reno. However that part of the briefing did not make it to the cockpit. We ended up changing three cylinders that year, one on Tuesday, and two on Friday. Guess we should have done one more after all.

[Big_Jim]

Re: A- \'HOLE in one\'...

However that part of the briefing did not make it to the cockpit.

At the risk of treading on what seems at times to be sacred cow, in spite of some great success stories over the last two decades, this seems to be a weak link in an otherwise powerhouse organization.

[TWD]

Re: A- \'HOLE in one\'...

At the risk of treading on what seems at times to be sacred cow, in spite of some great success stories over the last two decades, this seems to be a weak link in an otherwise powerhouse organization.

I missed something, what did you mean by that?

TJ

[BuckyD]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

Here's a series of shots documenting some serious RARE BEAR 'heart surgery' aftermath, at Reno '99 NCAR, beginning w/the Tue. 9/14/99 early p.m. shot at left of Bill Hickle & Race #77 crew inspecting their sick R-3350 for gremlin mayhem.

From the next day on, & throughout race week, the team had this table full of removed powerplant items displayed in their pit to appease some of the race fan curiosity regarding Rare Bear's racing status.

DBD

[wingman]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

I remember that -- a classy way to deal with fan questions. It was always odd to be in the pit and see fans from a crew perspective -- the good and the bad...

[BuckyD]

Re: A- 'HOLE in one'...

A- 'HOLE in one'...SIZE L-A-R-G-E!!!

Mon. 9/11/06 - Reno NCAR:

Stu Eberhardt's P-51D Race #22 MERLIN'S MAGIC (N151SE) suffered a major rod failure in it's Sparrow racing motor while out on the racecourse, just after turning Outer 6 Pylon, during the practice & qualifying session.

Stu executed a textbook mayday exit & emergency landing, to get his wounded bird back down onto Stead Field's RW-08. The extent of the severe damage to #22's Merlin wasn't evident until the engine cowlings were removed by the crew, which is illustrated in the following detail photos shown here. (Note: The 5-Gal. pail contains the 'loose change' held by the lower cowls after the engine let go!).

Despite the serious setback, the team managed to swap over to a stock motor to successfully qualify MM, & race in their scheduled heat races Thurs. & Friday, w/Bill Eberhardt piloting.

Saturday morning brought the scary oxygen bottle gremlin incident, that ended team's race competition at Reno 2006. Great job of flying by the Eberhardts & no serious injuries in the bottle explosion, ('WHEW!') & MERLIN'S MAGIC was repaired to fly & race again.

DBD