09/21/2014
The Redbird Air Racing Team is home safely and getting caught up after an intense and exciting week of air racing. The Reno Air Races couldn’t have been more exciting for the team, and we are very proud to bring home a Silver Sport Class 4th Place Finish! Attached below is a brief recap of the challenges, highs & lows, and celebrations of the week.
When Redbird Air Racing pilot David Robinson arrived at the hangar Saturday morning, September, 6th 2014 he was ready for the exciting week of racing to come. All preparations were made with the aircraft, racing team, crew, folks at Reno, and personally. He climbed into N386DM, the Lancair Legacy which was to be Race 92, and started the engine for one final test flight before departing to Stead Airport (KRTS). Unfortunately the momentum was about to come to an abrupt stop. The engine was reading ZERO oil pressure! David quickly began to make phone calls to his local crew to troubleshoot the problem. Aaron Brook of Advanced Aviation, and the owner Dan Ballin were quick to the rescue, and the process of figuring out what was going on began immediately. Keep in mind, both the pilot and the airplane had to be in Reno by the noon deadline in order to enter to race.
In the discovery process we determined it was not an indication issue, but we had an actual loss in oil pressure. We pulled the oil pump gears, all looked good there, so we continued. We discovered the oil filter, which was just replaced the night prior, was completely dry. At this point we had a direction. We assumed we had an oil pick-up tube/oil path blockage. Next we drained the oil, dropped the oil pan, and tried to figure out where the blockage was coming from. Unfortunately, the blockage was inside the engine case, and when the oil pan dropped, we found two good size pieces of metal in the pan. It was clear at this point the airplane was not going anywhere. We were grounded. Still keeping in mind, we have to be in Reno by noon, or the whole deal was off anyway. Fortunately the flight from Bend, OR to Stead, NV is only about an hour.
As you can imagine, while the team was trying to fix the airplane many conversations, phone calls, emails, and text messages were being sent to everyone possible who could help. Some decisions had to be made. Could we still get to Reno in time? Did we have, or could we find an aircraft to race? Can we substitute an aircraft this late in the game? How much would that cost? Could we get insurance and how quickly (remembering it was Saturday). Who do we need to contact to make something work? Is the best decision to just appear and not race? Would the sponsors understand? The list of questions and thoughts were continuous, but at the end of the process we had to make some decisions, make them fast, and make the best of what we had to work with.
As we scrambled, Bob Wolstenholme (Race 88) and owner of Lancair Aircraft flew the short 10 miles from Redmond, OR to Bend, OR to assist us as well. I now had transportation to the race, but at this point no aircraft to fly. As we exhausted our options and called our friends and associates, we found a solution. My business partner in Elite Pilot Services, Inc., Bob Jeffrey, another race pilot (Race 142) agreed to let me enter and race his aircraft. His airplane is a fixed-gear Legacy, which wouldn’t be as fast, but we had an airplane and something to enter. We scrambled to get the airplane out of the hangar and into the air. Thank you Bob Wolstenholme for sticking around and flying my wing on the way down!
We made it, landed in time and had an airplane to race. As if all this wasn’t enough trouble, we were about to make yet another change. I ran into friend/Lancair customer Jon Socolof shortly after arriving in Stead, NV. After a quick conversation we realized his Lancair Legacy was positioned at a location that proved to be very convenient for our team. Jon’s Legacy is a retractable landing gear aircraft, and of course would be faster and a better representation of where we intended to race within the Sport Class. Fortunately, it didn’t take much convincing, and Jon agreed to allow the Redbird Air Racing team to enter his airplane in the race. Thank you SO much Jon for your willingness to support, and trusting our pilot David Robinson to race your beautiful airplane! It couldn’t be a better replacement! The colors matched very well with the Redbird Logo’s, it showed well in the hangar, and his Legacy paint scheme just sort of SCREAMED racing. The team couldn’t have been more excited and thankful we had this option
The practice and racing went great all week. We qualified at 274 MPH, and after the teams’ hard work on the airplane we were able to run laps in the 285 MPH range while advancing from almost last to 4th in the Silver Sport heats. We are very pleased with this result.
On a more personal note, we want to take a moment to remember Lee Behel. As most people who will be reading this probably already know, we lost one of the most important individuals to the Sport Class, and the Reno Air Race as a whole. If you don’t know Lee, he was one of the best pilots, biggest personalities, best friend and person any of us had the pleasure to work with. Lee was always willing to help anyone to be a faster, better, and more professional pilot. He was a true mentor to so many, and someone I believe all pilots at any level strive to be more like. He will be so greatly missed as a friend and mentor. Our thoughts and prayers stay with his family and close friends! Lee’s spirit and memories will live on forever!
I want to make sure we send a giant THANK YOU to everyone who made this year possible. The 2014 Reno Air Race was a year we will never forget! It was certainly an emotional rollercoaster with the highest of highs, and some of the lowest of lows. It took everyone pulling together to overcome obstacles and make our experience and race year successful. We could not have done it without our sponsors, especially Redbird Flight Simulations being the largest contributor and major sponsor. Thank you so much Redbird! We also want to thank Advanced Aviation and Beringer Aero for their contribution as well. Jon Socolof for allowing us to race his airplane and being a great team member! James Peterson and John Fred Hadlich for crewing and working so hard to make sure the airplane was fast, safe, and ready to race. Bob Mills and Rick Vandam of Sport Class Air Racing for keeping us all focused and on track. Jill Sweeney for her continued support, Colleen Joy Kucera for the amazing pictures (more on that to come soon). Mary Humphrey with Hardy Insurance for getting us insured and ready to race on extremely short notice. Last but not least, Dan Ballin for everything he did leading up to and during the races. We could never do this without such a fantastic team. I’m sure we could have missed someone too, so if you were involved and supported, THANK YOU very much! Can’t wait for 2015!
