Do y'all have any interest in a little air racer project?

[bdk]

Here's a question--notice the elevator deflection in Neal's in-flight photo? I'm curious as to how the flight controls are set up.

Maybe that's needed to counteract the massive torque available from the O-200 race engine?

[Neal Nurmi]

I had not noticed the elevators. I almost looks like one up and one down. Here's a tight crop of the image



while this shot from the same race does not seem to show any sort of differential deflection. Could be a trick of the light and the bright reflections ??

[Neal Nurmi]

Gary -- these are not especially good photos (I was just a beginner back then, LOL) but here's the Lady herself -- Judy Wagner at Mojave 1979, and a shot from 1980 of #44 in action:

[retroaviation]

I think that the elevator photos are just like BDK said...extreme torque from the mighty 0-200! Okay, okay, not really. I suspect it's just a reflection issue.

I have not received the tail section yet, but it should arrive any day now. I will certainly post pictures of it whenever it arrives. I can't wait!

Thanks again for the pictures, Neal. Not bad for a beginner.

Gary

[Second Air Force]

After seeing the other in-flight pictures it looks like the tiny bit of red on the tips of the stab and elevators might have given the optical illusion of different deflection angles. The picture of the right side of the airplane makes it appear as though the left is up and the right is down.

Scott

[ebutner]

Greetings form Bishop CA Gary. Awesome job on your project!!

[retroaviation]

Thanks Eric. Got your PM on the aafo.com website. Thanks for that offer of fuel!

Gary

[Old SAR pilot]

Between the paint and the light angles, just an optical illusion. The angles on the trailing edges of the elevators match up.

[retroaviation]

I can unequivocably tell you that it was indeed an optical illusion. How do I know this? Because the tail arrived here today (YAY!!! ) and you can see how the paint lines would make one think that in certain angles. Did I mention the tail section showed up today?

It has a couple of little dings here and there, and dang sure needs to have that paint stripped off the vertical fin (no offense Santa Paula Air Racing folks). But I couldn't be more excited about having this neat piece of history now in my possession. YAY!!!






Gary

[mustanglover]

Beautiful!!!!!!

I sure wish you were re-skining the vertical as I would love to purchase at least one side.

We had some fantastic battles with "Sitting Duck" when Hep Porter owned her.

He had t-shirts/polos made up with the duck flying the plane and his arm straight up in the air with a frazzled cat ("Pushy Cat") in its grips. I got a couple of the polos from Hep and it really used to piss Jim off when I walked into the pit with one on.

[retroaviation]

Sorry man, the vertical is too nice to reskin. I can clean it up and take some good close up pictures of it if you want, but I can't sell you the skin off of it.

Its neat to hear the stories from folks that have flown against this wing/tail combination. I recently heard how Jim Miller would comment on how he could see this metal tail on the Wagner Solution oil can a bit when rounding the pylons as the sunlight would reflect off of it (which certainly couldn't have been worse than th amount a Cessna 310 or even a B-24 tail moves around...yeeoww ). Those two used to have some really close races back in the day and both airplanes were certainly two of my childhood favorites. It may sound kind of hokey, but it's such a cool feeling to be able to be the custodian of such history now, in my adult life.

I can't wait to get these wings and tail back around the pylons...where they belong.

Gary

[Second Air Force]

Gary ain't lyin'--that tail was worth his wait! I was lucky enough to be here today to look it over, and it is a metalworker's masterpiece. The horizontal is so thin it reminds me of an F-104 wing. An impressive piece of sheetmetal craftsmanship, indeed.

Congrats, Gary!
Scott

[retroaviation]

Man, it just keeps gettin' better.......I just spoke with the guy I bought the tail from, Hep Porter, and he told me that he's now just going to rip up my check for the tail and just consider himself a sponsor of the project! He also just remembered that he's got what he thinks to be the forward attach bracket for the horizontal and vertical fins, which I need.

This is such a cool and fun project!

Gary

[Beachy]

May the good stuff keep headin' your way, Gary!!!!

[bdk]

How many ribs and spars in that horizontal? I'm curious how it was made so thin too!