Video: The Gorgeous GP-5 Racer At Reno 2010
Saturday, September 3, 2011 at 10:01PM
Griffon Powered P-51 'Precious Metal' Gets Dressed For Reno 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 10:54PM 
Recent test flight of the ungreened Precious Metal, the Griffon powered P-51 racer
(3 pix, all from Precious Metal pilot Thom Richard's facebook page)
The Unlimited racers for Reno 2011 (Sept 14-18) are lining up to make this an incredible year of racing. While I'm certainly no expert on all the aircraft that'll be racing, I have spent some time soaking up some info on several of the most notable... and the Rolls Royce Griffon powered mixmaster P-51 (with counter-rotating props) known as Precious Metal is certainly one of them. The airplane is now based at the Kissimmee Air Museum in Florida, where it can be seen when it's not at Reno. I had the pleasure of talking with PM's race pilot Thom Richard on the phone Wednesday about how progress is coming along for one of the most unique P-51 racers ever built. Here's some of what I found out.
On Wednesday 8-30-11, the PM team put two test flights on the airplane totalling about an hour of flight time. They were testing out a variety of mods to the airplane that they've been working on for a while (sorry, no specifics to share) and everything worked! That's a pretty critical test to pass with the races starting in about two weeks. You may know that PM has been around for quite a few years but it's never really lived up to the potential that's packed into the front end... and the dreams that Don Whittington had for the airplane. The new Precious Metal team is hoping that these mods they've been working on will move the airplane from being a fascinating and entertaining novelty at Reno to being a real contender in the fast pack along with Strega, Voodoo, Rare Bear and last year's new kid on the block: Galloping Ghost...
(click pic to enlarge) Precious Metal... highly modified P-51 looking pretty mean in flight
P-51, Racing, Reno, WWII, engine, taildragger Email Article Oshkosh Pix #3: Tuesday 7.26.11 - A Perfect Day (14 Pix)
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 10:54AM 
Tuesday morning started very early for me as I joined a handful of other fine folks with cameras at about 5am to get images of Warbirds at dawn. It was a perfect morning for it with still air, an excellent temperature, and some really fabulous clouds in the sky. For my first time out on a 'Dawn Patrol' I thought I got some great images. The following are some of the best ones. And, even of you aren't big into photography, I highly recommend you get up early like this sometime and experience beautiful airplanes in the light of a rising sun. It's awesome.
Oshkosh Pix #2: Monday 7.25.11 - Let The Fun Begin! (14 Pix)
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 11:19PM 
Early Monday morning, Oshkosh 2011 officially began... the weather was great and the airplanes were definitely moving! One of the first things I caught were two Ford Tri-Motors working the airplane ride detail. It's pretty amazing to think that these airplanes are technically 80+ years old and yet they are still great flying machines for giving lots of people a view of the world's greatest aviation event from above.
Oshkosh Pix #1: Sunday 7.24.11 - Before It Starts (14 Pix)
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 09:21AM 
Even tho Sunday is still a day before Oshkosh officially begins, there's still a ton of things to see and do. One that's always interesting to check out is the Sonex open house over on the east side of the airport at Sonex headquarters. I ran over there at 10am when things got started to see what I could find out about the Onex. As these first two pix show, the Onex is all prettied up for OSH11 with (surprise) yellow paint. I found out that the airplane is still short of 40 hors total time but that flight testing has progressed nicely.
Initial kits components for the Onex are just beginning to ship to customers, tho the Sonex team is still finishing up the complete package. The good news however is that Onex airplanes will soon be under construction, and there's every reason to think that the follow-on components will be fully prepped soon to keep these builders moving forward. As expected, the prototype Onex was drawing a lot of attention at the open house, and I'm sure it'll be heavily gawked during the week!
Inside one of the hangars was a second Onex aircraft still under construction, and as you can see, it's a trike version. The airplane looked pretty decent, but in my mind, there's never been a tricycle version of any airplane that looks anywhere near as nice as the taildragger version. However, the already more pleasing lines of the Onex over the Sonex translate to a good looking little airplane, even without paint.
OSH11 Will Be The Best Oshkosh Ever! (10 Pix)
Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 11:41PM 
The Farmers Zeppelin NT is on site at the world's greatest aviation event: Oshkosh!
(10 pix)
If you've been paying attention, you'll know I typically put up a pre-Oshkosh post that claims that the current year's event will be the best Oshkosh ever... and each year I believe it's true because the best Oshkosh ever is the one you're at right NOW!
OSH11 is no different. Even tho this is somewhere around my 34th Oshkosh experience, (just imagine all the memories I have from all that avgeekery) - the reality is that this year will have the greatest impact on me because it's here, and it's now. I hope you're either already here or will be making the trip here soon. I arrived late Friday night and spent the day today setting up my part of the #CampBacon plantation (lots of cool people are living here!) and then I went out to survey how things were looking for the official start of the event on Monday.
Under the tail of the Farmers-branded Zeppelin airship looking forward
A big highlight for me already is seeing the Farmers Zeppelin airship from AirshipVentures already on-site and looking fantastic. As is common at Oshkosh, the weather can change pretty significantly thru the day, but the sky was pretty much perfect for these pix.
Saturday morning waking up with clouds and light rain at Camp Bacon
The day started out with the remnant of an overnight storm still bringing us light rain. Nothing like the rains seen last year tho! It wasn't long before the rain stopped and got started setting up more of the campsite along with the sizable @larryoverstreet family and @pilot2b were setting up more of the campsite. By the end of the day, Camp Bacon was filling in with more avgeeks like @adamcanfly, @PilotConway, @DaveFlys and @PilotStu - see pic at bottom of post. Another wave of cool campers are expected to squeeze in on Sunday.
A Challenge From Brazil - The Speedy Record Setting CEA-308
Monday, June 27, 2011 at 04:48PM 
Record setting CEA-308: 223 mph on 80 hp (photo: CEA308Record.wordpress.com)
Here's an article by my friend Elliot Seguin, a project engineer and flight test engineer at Scaled Composites. It's on the Brazilian CEA-308 aircraft and the world records it set in December 2010 in the class for internal combustion powered landplane with a takeoff weight of 661 pounds or less. The article was originally written for the Scaled employee newsletter.
This good looking little airplane may be the most exciting thing to happen in record setting in the last few years. This one off homebuilt recently took the time to climb to 3000m as well as the 3km, 15km, and 100km speed records for its weight class. It was built by students of the Center for the study of Aeronautical Engineering at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, directed by Professor Paulo Iscold.
The CEA-308, Pilot Gúnar Armin, and Professor Paulo Iscold
The design phase started in 1999 as Paulo’s undergraduate project. The construction of the design started in 2000 and used wood and steel for the fuselage with white foam formed in between bulkheads and stringers which was carved to shape and covered with fiberglass. The wing is built-up wood ribs and a wood spar; like the fuselage the spaces between the wood parts were filled with white foam which was carved to shape and covered with fiberglass.
Early CEA-308 2 cycle engine installation - records were set with the Jabiru engine
Fab Video Of Fab Aeroplanes From The Fab Shuttleworth Collection
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 10:04PM If you've had a frustrating day like I have, then the gorgeous sights and sounds of fabulous vintage aeroplanes flying at Shuttleworth (as captured by FlyingMachinesTV) is almost sure to make you feel better. A lot better. Such an amazing collection of stunning flying machines : )
Video: Alaska Taildraggin' At The 2011 Valdez Fly-In
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 07:19AM Ok, it's true that you'll see a few trikes in this video, but c'mon, the sweetest STOL performers drag their tails! This past weekend was the Valdez (Alaska) May Day Fly-In & Air Show and once again they had a pretty exciting short takeoff and landing competition. It's the good ole pioneering spirit of America mixed in with pure avgeek fun!
You also get some stunning Alaska scenery at the start of the video while the nice people who put the video together were on the way to Valdez. I think I really like Alaska.
Alaska, Cub, STOL, taildragger, video Email Article CoolPix: Classic Cessna 195's And Oshkosh Sunshine (2010)
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 11:00PM 
(click pic for hi-res)
Yesterday I posted that fab video from back in the day of Bob Hoover flying the Shrike Commander... and that had me thinking about the special day of recognition for him coming up this year at Oshkosh. And then today the EAA sent out a press release reminding us all that Oshkosh is now less than 100 days away. And so, I'm now experiencing my first OSH11 butterflies. That's what Oshkosh does to me - I get so excited about the thought of thousands of airplanes and hundreds of thousands of really nice people gathering together that I literally get all tingly inside.
As a result of all this child-like happiness stirring inside me, I dug into last year's OSH pix and found one that makes me feel really good. It's a gorgeous line up of Cessna 195's (someone sharper than me can tell us all if there's any 190's in that line) - and if you click the pic you'll see it nice and big in AirPigz CoolPix style!
I hope you enjoy the pic, and if you haven't committed to making the trip to Oshkosh this year, I'd like to suggest you get on that. It's simple little moments like the one I experienced when I took this pic that make Oshkosh the greatest place on earth : )
