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Reno 2018

rv6ejguy

Well Known Member
Reno is about a month away now and I'm planning to be there again this year supporting several teams running SDS products.

If anyone wants to meet up, I'll be hanging around race 31, race 33 and the F1 pits a bit. PM or email me and we can exchange cell numbers.

Hoping there will be a couple new Sport Class entries this year if they get all the testing done in time.
 
I'll be there, in the F1 pits a good bit of the time as well, hope to meet up with you.

If the tables at the Peppermill are kind to me, I may just order the EFI setup for my plane. :D
 
Sounds good. BTW for those not familiar with the Peppermill, they have one of the best buffets you'll ever eat at. Not cheap, but a vast selection and well prepared. At one time it was rated in the top 5 in the US I believe.
 
Sounds good. BTW for those not familiar with the Peppermill, they have one of the best buffets you'll ever eat at. Not cheap, but a vast selection and well prepared. At one time it was rated in the top 5 in the US I believe.

I think we?re talking about different tables! :D
 
Not sure of the race numbers and we'll have to see if work and testing is completed in time for the races.
 
The Sport class is huge and that's good.

Unfortunately the age old favs of Strega, Voodoo and Rare Bear are missing along with their blinding speed and that great rivalry. Sadly that is probably the end of the great era in Unlimited racing. Let's hope some newcomers can keep it fast and exciting somehow.
 
In the box.

Hey Ross,

I?ll be there...in a front seat box with pit passes. Im there from the 12th to the 16th. Be good to meet ya.

Don
 
I'll be there. I'm in a box at start/finish. Will also be helping crew for my F1 bud. Hope to meet several of the sport medallion guys. I plan on racing my -4 next year. Race prop being carved now. P-Mag on it. New panel in the works. Aero mods planned. Hope to run in the 220's.
 
Great, hope to meet up with you.

We'll have 4-6 planes running SDS this year in the races so I'll be making the rounds. :)
 
Honestly, I was leaning towards your CPI system. After you said it wouldn't work with my older small flywheel, I looked quickly for a larger one but couldn't find one that I thought was reasonable for a quick swap. I've got the SARL racing disease bad. After I race in Reno and am terminally ill with racing, I'm sure my plane will be ripped apart and redone completely. Lol
 
I'm planning on flying up on the 13th and staying through until Monday morning (17th). That's assuming the current weather holds (looks good for that).
 
Saturday at Reno was good. I got to meet up with several RV guys and racers and many old friends as well.

It was also gratifying to see 2 SDS EFI equipped aircraft win their classes and especially so Andrew Findlay's Race 30 became the fastest Legacy to ever race at Reno and the first guy to beat Jeff LaVelle in something like 6 years. Andy has a tremendous team of really smart and dedicated folks working with him and they've worked really hard to get up to these speeds. It's been a pleasure to be associated with him and the #31 Lancair 320 of Mark Frederickson- the fastest small engine in the Sport Class.

It was also great to see Matt Beaubien's RV make it out racing. We expedited some new fuel system parts out to him less than 2 weeks before the race after a scary fire. He got the new stuff on, re-tuned and working well.

I met Andrew Higgs from AC Aero Engines and saw his new engine (A V12 version) that's been talked about here on VAF. Great looking and well thought out design.

Great bunch of people at Reno, you hear some great stories and always learn some new things.
 
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Congratulations to Andrew for his convincing over 402 mph win in the Sport Gold class, and to SDS and Ross for their FI system. The live tv had a camera in his cockpit and it appeared that his only adjustment was to his boost level. In other words, single lever control with most likely over 70" of boost and automatic control of very large quantities of ADI.

I bet a bunch more Sports class will have SDS inside next year. I remember that Jeff LaVelle asked me about our system in 2009. Probably regrets not going with it. I
 
Yep

Rocket 6 had a bird try to catch a ride with him, but it went through his front canopy instead.

Jim is OK, but the bird didn't fair as well.

Heard it was a falcon, but not positive.
 
We were really proud with what Andy and team accomplished this year with his 2 big wins and blazing speed. We signed up several more racers with SDS EFI for 2019. There were some great races in Sport Class and we'd like to contribute to growing the class with more 400 mph airplanes. It's the future at Reno with the decline of the Unlimiteds now IMO.

Reno is always fantastic for me. They talk of the September Family and it really is. Couldn't meet a friendlier bunch of smart people who love aircraft, racing and aviation people. I made many new friends again this year.

I'll try to piece together a video of these 2 great days in September when I get some time on my return.

Thanks Bruce. This makes it two Sport Class Gold wins for SDS EFI, with you in 2010 and now Andy this year. We're stoked!
 
Here is the link to the race reports for all of the classes. Not news, just timing and positions for each race in each class.

http://reports.airrace.org/


It was a good week, sad to see fewer and fewer of the highly funded Unlimited every year. I tell people that if you what to see the big planes race get to Reno soon because it is quickly becoming a parade of historical planes at an airshow. I believe that the folks that have the hair stand up on the backs of their necks when an Allison or RR/PW 16V or big radial goes past are becoming fewer and fewer as well.

Sport and F1 are starting to really bring a show and some really stiff competition between the pilots, aircraft, and technology.
 
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AC Aero

Here's a photo of the AC Aero V12.



4, 6 and 8 cylinder versions are all possible as most RV guys won't need this many cylinders.
 


Here's Matt's plane mentioned in the other EFI thread, now fitted with the SDS top mount injectors, lines and block. His friend Louis also switched his over to our fuel hardware. Great to meet Matt and see them both racing.
 
Here is the sun baked SDS trio at the awards banquet.



Left to right: Andrew Findlay Gold Sport Champion, me and Mark Frederickson who took one Medallion Sport win and one second place with his 320 (a half second behind a twin turbo 550 Legacy).

These two treated me so well the last 2 years at Reno. Super nice, super smart and both fair pilots as well.
 
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Bendix Issues

I know some of the turbo RVs are struggling with fueling via their Bendix FI setups. We can certainly fix your issues with EFI like we did with Andy's setup and get you going faster.

For those interested, here are a couple videos I put together on Andy's races. The SDS EFI/EI lets this engine run hard above 85 inches. Listen to that sound. :):cool:

https://youtu.be/U-DS8ar4heU

https://youtu.be/jzyzDdFnHRk

We'll be starting a more in depth Reno racer program for those running SDS next year as we have more people switching over from other systems after seeing Andy's success. A few more new things are in the pipeline which will be available to all teams equally.

We really appreciate all the kudos and orders we received after Reno! We'll try to work through the backlog as best we can.
 
Ross, It's racing and you can't tell all, but what are Andy and Jeff running these days? Put another way, what does it take to run up front in Sport Gold?
 
We'll extend racer net pricing to everyone who runs our system and decals at Reno. Everyone will also get the same access to new developments.

We like to support all racers, regardless of which class they are in. Mark Frederickson has been using SDS on his Medallion Lancair for 2 years now with great success- Medallion win in 2017 and rookie of the year plus a win and a 2nd this year again.
 
Ross, It's racing and you can't tell all, but what are Andy and Jeff running these days? Put another way, what does it take to run up front in Sport Gold?

Hp wise, these guys are north of 900hp and well north of 85 inches MAP.

Lots of specialized mods to the engines, lots happening on piston development, turbos, thermal management, spray bar systems, data acquisition, instrumentation and telemetry, data analysis, on engine, propeller and flight parameters with field specialists looking at and crunching all the data.

Likewise on the aerodynamics side.
 
PM me the info on net pricing if you would, please.

Also, to win in Reno sport gold it takes a glass plane running a big block at 85"+ and a bazillion rpm. Lol. And it sounds AWESOME!!
 
Ross, It's racing and you can't tell all, but what are Andy and Jeff running these days? Put another way, what does it take to run up front in Sport Gold?

One really obvious thing I noticed on Andy's plane was the lack of intercoolers for the turbos. Instead they are using ADI fluid injected directly in the piping at the turbo output.

No intercoolers = less cooling drag. And at the speeds they are running that is a lot of drag.
 
PM me the info on net pricing if you would, please.

Also, to win in Reno sport gold it takes a glass plane running a big block at 85"+ and a bazillion rpm. Lol. And it sounds AWESOME!!

They certainly sound awesome. Andy is running stock rpm unlike most others in Sport.

As for glass only, a Questair Venture (metal airframe) won the Gold race back in 2010 with our EFI, went 382mph way back then. It still had a lot of hp but showed the glass guys that metal can still get the job done.

Will PM you later tonight.
 
Sure!

;)

Skylor
RV-8
Reno Sport 80

Prop analysis showed it was more efficient to back the rpm down and raise the MAP from 2017. This year debuted an all new prop with longer blades and revised airfoil.

Some of the others are running up to 3200 rpm.
 
Prop analysis showed it was more efficient to back the rpm down and raise the MAP from 2017. This year debuted an all new prop with longer blades and revised airfoil.

Some of the others are running up to 3200 rpm.

Ahhh, thus the difference in sound when they fly past the pits.
 
Prop analysis showed it was more efficient to back the rpm down and raise the MAP from 2017. This year debuted an all new prop with longer blades and revised airfoil.

Some of the others are running up to 3200 rpm.

I don't doubt that. I know in previous years when comparing the sound of Jeff LeVelle's plane to John Parker's thunder mustang Jeff's had far less prop noise so I assume Jeff has his engine dialed in to the speed that yields the best combination of horsepower and prop efficiency. It will be a compromise on both for a direct drive engine. With that said, 30 didn't exactly sound like it was turning a "stock" 2700 RPM's either. I would guess it could be as low as 2750-2800 though.

Skylor
 
Prop analysis showed it was more efficient to back the rpm down and raise the MAP from 2017. This year debuted an all new prop with longer blades and revised airfoil.

Some of the others are running up to 3200 rpm.

Andy's prop looked a fair bit smaller in diameter than Jeff's or Bob Mills'. I assumed the smaller prop allowed higher RPM without transonic tip losses.
 
Ahhh, thus the difference in sound when they fly past the pits.

Dan is correct. I invite the non-believers to compare the the engine note of Jon Sharp's NXT, LaVelle's Glasair, Dacey's Venture from 2010 to Findlay's video in 2018. Plus I was actually in Andy's pit looking at data for a good portion of the weekend.

As I said before, there is way more going on than what meets the eye of the casual observer standing outside the rope.
 
Here is a surprise!

Dan is correct. I invite the non-believers to compare the the engine note of Jon Sharp's NXT, LaVelle's Glasair, Dacey's Venture from 2010 to Findlay's video in 2018. Plus I was actually in Andy's pit looking at data for a good portion of the weekend.

As I said before, there is way more going on than what meets the eye of the casual observer standing outside the rope.

After the severe treatment, the race engine flew Andy home to Virginia!:eek:

That part of the equation is astounding. What may come next from Andy & Co will only be better.
 
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When I was Dacey's Crew Chief, we had one prime objective aside from winning:

Fly the airplane home on Monday.
 
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