rare bear engine problems?

[AAFO_WSagar]

Originally posted by hattend
Hi Wayne,

Yes, I have Picture Publisher and I can size to pixel size. The problem I think I'm having is the 600 x 0 size limit. If the length is 600 pixels and the height is zero, I don't think the picture will be very good.

LOL.. Don, the 600x wide is just the width limit. The program doesn't care about height So 600x and whatever the picture turns out in height if you keep the ratio...

Usually that'll wind up being 600x450, or, 600x400 or in the case of my off ratio Nikon, 600x394.. Slides usually are the x400, small digital cams are usually the x450.. or in the case of scanning negs... prolly the same as the slides... or however you crop the scan....

That work for ya?

Wayne

[hattend]

K, Let me try this again.

The cockpit looks sleek to me....

Go Bear!
Don Hatten
Galena, Alaska

[AAFO_WSagar]

Originally posted by hattend
The cockpit looks sleek to me....

Yea... I agree!

There are some aero mods that they can do to the airplane. I don't think the canopy is one they need to put a lot of effort into..

I really can't speak with a lot of authority on what they need to do first or will do first... one of the things I think they really are wanting to look at though is what the airplane does when it starts getting above 495 while in the turns.. According to both Lyle and John, it becomes quite a handful at those speeds.. it wants to go down in a hurry and deft handling is needed at that stage to keep it on course..

Just looking at photos of the airplane with the light hitting it right shows areas where it could be slicked up a bit.. The wings are notable in that they do not look very "smooth" there area also other areas with "things" sticking up that could prolly be slicked up...

I know the guys are ALREADY at work on the airplane.. Most every team I've ever met, after Reno, they take a few months off, not wanting to even look at the airplane for a while..

The Bear guys are in the cave and at it already!!!!!!!

It's a good thing that team consists not only of the mechanics but their wives as well!

Wayne

[Leo]

Flying the Bear

There was an article (I think in Air Classics) a few years back where John Penney described in detail what it was like to fly the Bear. It did'nt sound like much fun.
I know the various mods they do to all these racers effct the handling, mostly for the worse, but the Bear seemed to have more than it's share of quirks.
Could a good study of cause and effect on here aerodynamics and handling help in the overall picture? Could she be made a little tamer and with that faster?
Perhaps an excercise for one of these Mustang experts in making a roundie better.....

[AAFO_WSagar]

There was an aerodynamicist who was going to help on The Bear, unfortunately, he does not work for free and they did not/do not have the $$ to pay fees...

Losing the three blade prop might well do something to help the handling issues, at least, that is one thing I heard speculated by the team for a possible cause.. Gyroscopic effect, perhaps, caused by the prop is the cause..

The biggest problem that ANY race team have. There is really no way to actually test anything under the same conditions as Reno, other than at Reno...

It's not like in NASCAR where they can rent a track and test all day long. Pylon School has helped somewhat in that teams can at least get some time on the course and still have a month or two to work out kinks.. Other than that, it's largely, fly high and see if you can simulate the conditions...

Wayne

[Bill@Interstell]

I've heard talk about going back to the old prop before. This one has huge bite, but I think it may be the case that the prop if flying the plane rather than the plane flying the prop.

I've alos heard Matt Jackson make commnets about how much back pressure you had to use at race speed. I suspect the design of the plane was planned to be neutral at a much lower speed. Fixing that won't be a trivial exersize.

[Reever]

I got the idea about the canopy from the late John Crocker. He made the comment that the VISIBILITY out of that shape of canopy was not that good.

Now, I don't know if J.C. ever flew Rare Bear.

But, I made the comment based on visibility not aerodynamics.

[Howard]

Rare Bear"s engine RPM..

I only saw Rare Bear fly once... but my impression was that they were pulllilng the RPM"s way down compared to other similar aircraft...
Is this actuallly the case or does it just sound that way?? Is that prop taking a real big bite??

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Rare Bear"s engine RPM..

Originally posted by Howard
I only saw Rare Bear fly once... but my impression was that they were pulllilng the RPM"s way down compared to other similar aircraft...
Is this actuallly the case or does it just sound that way?? Is that prop taking a real big bite??

Howard,

There are those who visit this board who could answer this with great technological expertise... I'll take a stab at it.. though, you'll have to bear with my rather "general" knowledge base..

Rare bear flies with one of the very rare "slow nose case" units from a variant of the Lockheed Super Connie. This does, indeed, gear the *prop* down further than most any other R-3350 out there... There are others flying it.. (the nose case) notably, Critical Mass has one.. Rumors out there indicate that Mike Keenum also has one on Riff Raff but I've never confirmed that as fact...

So yes, the prop is turning slower, allowing the engine to turn faster... more engine rpm, more boost, more power.

Until something goes.. **BANG**

Right now, the Bear flew this year probably in the best overall condition that it's flown in years. They've got a "few" mph that they can get out of the airframe and I think that is where they are going to concentrate. They may not go a whole lot faster overall, but they will have to work the engine less to get there...

About the only way a team like Rare Bear can afford to stay around is if they can keep the engine costs per year in a realistic range.. Meaning, no major overhaul for a few years.. Unlike the Merlin, which, unless I'm remembering wrong, requires pretty much a teardown/overhaul after every year of racing.

If all goes well, this should be the beginning of a very interesting period in the sport of Air Racing..

Wayne

[Reever]

Nose Cases

Wayne,

Would this "Slow Nose Case" be found on the Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star?

Reever

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Nose Cases

Originally posted by Reever
Wayne,

Would this "Slow Nose Case" be found on the Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star?

Reever

Good question Reever, one that I don't have the answer for... but I doubt it..

I don't have all the details on which "Connies" had the slow nose case motors but from my understanding, there were very few of that "special" "Super Connie" version built.

Randy Haskin, I believe, has quite a bit more knowledge on this than I do, Ran.... you there?

Wayne

[Race 29]

Reev,
I really doubt that. My Dad flew EC-121's in Vietnam and for a few years after. He told me they almost always lost engines during their missions. That tells me they had to run them pretty hard when they were 50 feet off the deck and the reliability just wasn't there.

Race 29

[Reever]

Well, from what Wayne wrote, the slow nose case results in higher engine RPM, which would account for less reliability.

As a kid I use to see the EC-121's come back to McClellan AFB in Sacramento, after flights. And VERY often they were coming back with one or more feathered props.

[Howard]

Rare Bear prop vs engine speed...

Thanks for the information. I think many of the radials have internal reductions... such as the Russian M-14. Don't the V-12's drive the prop off the camshaft???? The sounds I hear on the geared down props confirms what I had been told... that it is the prop that we hear and not so much the engine. The props get really noisy when the tips go supersonic and they also begin to loose efficiency at that point also. I guess it becomes a complicated trade off between engine rpm, prop rpm, prop diameter and number of blades... and probably other things we can only guess at..
Keeping these aircraft flying must be dependent on existing (left over) spare parts and being able to find them

[Derrek]

The merlin engine does not run the prop off the camshaft. it has its own gear reduction box on the front of it. The difference in sound can also be attributed to the difference in RPM of the radial and the v12, the radial turns less I bleieve 2800 rpm(although czechmate sounded good @ about 4000rpm when the prop went flat a few years back) is really cranking for a radial, the race v12 run around 3200. Then you have shape of engine, firing order, etc.