Question for Unlimited race pilots on telemetry & crosscheck scans

[TOMW]

Re: Question for Unlimited race pilots on telemetry & crosscheck scans

Telemetry is the racer's edge.
Or in Randy Haskin's business, the difference between in winning and surviving. Called HUD.
Thanks for the input. It's more interesting than say a football game.
Or any other game I can think of.

Unless you are watching Brett Favre!

[BuckyD]

Re: Question for Unlimited race pilots on telemetry & crosscheck scans

Michael, thanks for your detailed reply, I'm sure that your system worked much better than our original system.

In your mentioning of the late Jim Foss, there may be many on this board who are unaware of his contributions and his pioneering of Air Racing Telemetry. His systems seemed shucked full of quirks and nuances, but always functioned when needed. He would remove the system at the conclusion of racing, of course this was after he finally got it to work perfectly, then tear it all down make some and make a tiny mod. By the time we got it back, arriving in an ACME Truck delivered by the Road Runner of course, 350 days had passed and we were already back at Reno. Invariably the next 6 days would spent recalibrating everything till the darn thing was ready for Sunday's Gold.

To digress a second, Air Racing is much more than the 8 minutes that we as pilots spend on the race course. Its really, in my mind at least, about the struggle, and dedication of the entire crew, working in harmony...... striving for that little piece of perfection. My best memories are not of the races themselves, but of the cast of characters that always made up our crew. Team meetings with Kirch detailing team strategy while Jim 'The Twiggg" Foss is slumped over, sound asleep in his chair or the late night pizza during an all night engine change. Its guys like Jim that made the whole effort truly worth while, those are the things that always brought a smile to my face, racing was just the frosting on the cake. We miss you Jim.

I never felt that I needed telemetry in the a "bronze" or "silver" racers. The visibility is excellent looking out and the instrument panel is very easy to see. It is well lit from the ample sun light. Also the front (flat, stock) windscreen on most all the fighter afford an excellent view of the pylons. Also, you tended to be a little easier on the engine.

Cheers, Bruce

Michael Luvara- Sincere thanks for your valuable telemetry expertise & technological contributions, that benefit many air racers today & make our favorite motorsport a bit safer (& 'faster' in the process in the long run). It's really great that you generously take time to better illuminate us by sharing your detailed explanations & I always enjoy your posts, no matter the subject. Keep 'em comin'!

Bruce Lockwood- Your posts are ALWAYS most appreciated by myself & certainly by just about all who visit this message board. Your technical knowlege & experience, knack for creative writing, colorful descriptions & down-to-earth humor, educate AND entertain. Can't get enough of your writing! (& BTW- sorry I missed ya at Reno '09)

Bruce, you hit the nail on the head w/your reflections about how 'people' are the heart of air racing- on every level. Air racing teams are comprised of so many diverse & talented personalities, whose combined efforts create the dynamic for winning. Win or lose- great friendships are forged in the process. The roster of buddies no longer w/us grows way too fast, it seems.

You both mentioned the late & great crewman- Jim Foss. Here's some pics to help put a face w/the name...

Two incarnations of Terry Bland's DAGO RED - 'Dream Team' (L-R):

1. Fri. am, 9/18/98, w/Bruce Lockwood as pilot. (Jim Foss is standing 2nd from rt. in the back row.)

2. Sun. am, 9/17/00, w/Skip Holm as pilot. (Jim Foss is standing in front, in this team portrait taken on 'Gold Sunday' -see detail.)

The last photo was taken Sun. 9/7/03 atop the DAGO RED team trailer- 'Dago Red Control' & VIP viewing stand area (L-R): another 'late & great'- "Radiator Dave" Griswold w/stopwatch & lap count clipboard, Jim Foss sitting next to his telemetry laptop, Dan Stout (standing), Steve Bartholf & Chris Wood. ('Blue Skies'- Jim & Dave)

Thanks, again- guys, for your talents & great comms!!!

DBD

[bruce lockwood]

Re: Question for Unlimited race pilots on telemetry & crosscheck scans

Bucky,

Thanks for the great photos and kind words. Beautiful photos of the F4U-4 Corsair on your other post. FYI, I had that Corsair, N204CA, in the shop for 6 months and was supposed to deliver it to Anchorage but it went to Florida instead. Man that thing was beautiful to fly.

The photos of our friends long gone, bring back the best memories. Because of the arena we play in, you tend to meet and befriend a lot of people, and its always sobering to reflect on how quickly time..... and they seem to pass. I think 4-5 members of that 98/99 crew shot you took are now gone or close to it.

Sorry I missed you at Reno, tried to locate you, Wayne and Neil but we just seemed to be in different areas.

Thanks for your photos and years of friendship. Bruce

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Question for Unlimited race pilots on telemetry & crosscheck scans

Bruce,

Missed meeting you also, still owe you a series of shots with you in the cockpit putting your helmet and mask on, I think the year you won. Was talking with Kerch at the time and he got "that look" and pointed to you and said something like "photo op"...

We have had the AAFO.BBQ for two years now, a very loosely held after hours meeting with some of the folks from here... tough to get *anyone* together at RENO (term cat herding comes to mind) but after hours always seems the best time to actually find anyone.

Maybe if the site management *ahem* takes a more active role in the planning, we could turn that event into something folks wanted to be at, enough, that most of the folks we all try to hook up with will show for it..

Thanks for the priceless contribution your participation here is bringing to this site! Generating interest in Air Racing and air racing history is what it's all about, you, Bucky, Neal many of the others who are coming in here are certainly doing that!

Thanks again

[Speed Quest]

Re: Question for Unlimited race pilots on telemetry & crosscheck scans

The Super Sport class also had a minimun of 5 aircraft with telemetry this year; Sharp, Eldridge, Dacey, and of course, Daryl in Race 33. I believe Parker in the Thunder Mustang also has some telemetry.
With speeds in excess of 400mph, there is very little time to glance into the cockpit. Heads up and eyes out are the rule of the day. As mentioned previously, you are just too low and too fast,and it takes too long for the eyes to adjust, so a glance with the data extrapollated later is all you have.
We 'discovered' quickly that the data was only as good as the teamwork between the pilot and the ground crew, with the grounders ability to process the numbers and alert the pilot to any 'trends'. Practice and more practice is necesaary to get the most out of the system. But it does allow a pilot to concentrate on flying, knowing that an 'angel' is looking over his shoulder and, hopefully, will be able to alert him in time of a imminent problem.

[gorace71]

Re: Question for Unlimited race pilots on telemetry & crosscheck scans

As "Crew Chief" (bottle washer and "telemetry Guy") for Speed Quest, I can add some to the above. We are a two man team and worked seven days a week for the last five months on "Bad Intentions". Much of it was spent on the paint job so we did not have time to experiment much with the telemetry we had. At Reno we had some great help from the pilots brother, Ross Farnham and Dave.

The response time to something bad showing up can be too long to help. First the ground guy has to see it, transmit to the pilot and then he has to be able to correct it. Depending on where the pilot is on the course, this could be 15 or more seconds If the ADI stops at race power, you don't have a chance of responding. For other things, like the need to richen or lean the engine, we don't need because we run an automotive racing computer driven fuel/ignition system and have single lever (except the prop) from idle to full race boost.

In fact, with a well set up system of fuel, ADI and cooling water spray, the best use is to recognize that the RPM or boost is high or low or that some cylinder is getting hotter than it should.

The major advantage is in testing of the systems before Reno. There you have time to look and the pilot is at altitude without seven other airplanes and flying level. We gave up the telemetry for the races and it would not have helped us with the problems we developed. (Two wastegates failed, including a brand new one. Telemetry did not show the boost going up and down 35" in 1.5 second cycles, but the Pilot sure as hell was aware of it.)

Bruce Patton