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Originally Posted by scottg
Be careful when trying to make speed comparisons from one year to the next. These speeds are average ground speed, not TAS. In the past, the race was flow with a headwind. I’ve been told this year had a tailwind.
What is truly impressive is the 14 mph speed difference between 1st and 2nd place. That’s the same margin that separates 2nd and 9th place.
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2nd place was Jon Ross at 221 mph who had beaten John Huft before in this race. 9th place was Jean-Pierre Verdier in an RV-7A. Jean-Pierre told those of us at the dinner at the Dayton Engineering Club the night before the race about assembling his engine and building his airplane. He said "I am going to take it easy and baby my engine." Maybe you are talking about 8th place at 207.13 in an RV-6A. I can assure you on the best authority that that old guy was doing everything possible to get every micromile per hour out of his airplane.
There was a tail wind component this year on the first leg of the race which is the long 303 degree leg of 185 nautical miles from Dayton Wright Brothers Airport (MGY) to Kankakee (IKK) in Illinois. The rules this year imposed a minimum en route altitude floor of 2,000 ft MSL. At Kankakee all racers were to make a low approach down runway 34 (preferably below 200 ft. AGL) past the first intersecting taxiway on the left then climb on course to turn two. Even with a shallow climb covering several miles the speed reduction in that climb was
many kts.
At the briefing the night before the race a navigation wrinkle was made when another turn point was added before the one at Rockford (RFD), Illinois. The racers were to proceed to GILMY intersection at the race floor or above (2,000 ft) before turning to the third turn at RFDs runway 07 intersection with taxiway H. This created a flight planning problem for some. GILMY intersection is not in all GPS databases, it is not on sectionals or IFR enroute charts. It does appear as the localizer outer marker on the ILS Rwy 01 chart for RFD. Transferring the location to a sectional was tedious and not the most precise of tasks but when cross checked with the coordinates given verbally at the briefing, it was close enough to be confident that the depiction was correct and the course line was drawn.
The flight to GILMY required a 19 degree right turn to a track of 322 degrees for 85 nautical miles. After leveling off at 2000 ft the speed slowly built up but it was about 5 kts slower than the first leg for Race #71. No altitude change at GILMY but there was a 32 degree right turn to a track of 354 degrees for a short 5 nautical miles to the next turn at RFDs runway 07 & taxiway H.
The last race leg was supposed to be 90 nautical miles on a track of 020 to the private strip by Quadgraphics at Lomira but there were two complications.
First, the City of Rockford was a very sensitive area. All racers were told to remain clear of the downtown area by remaining west of the river until clear before turning directly toward the finish line so the length of the final leg depended on how much margin a pilot provided to stay clear of the city. Legally, the floor of the race provided sufficient altitude over the city but disqualification was the penalty for violating this no-overflight rule.
Second, all racers had to climb above 2,500 ft before crossing Beloit, Airport; again with disqualification as the penalty for violating this rule. This was imposed by the FAA directly so the penalty of disqualification may not have been the end of the problems for a violating pilot.
On this last leg the air just seemed to die and the 500ft climb requirement bled off speed that didn't come back.
At the finish line a significant left diving turn has to be made for a low pass up the center of the runway to the finish time line. Some speed may have been lost in that maneuver but the numbers are so far above normal that there is no way to tell.
The weather was as good as one could hope for and there was tailwind for most of the race but you should not think it was a straight 365 nautical mile flight with a constant tail wind and no deviations. I know that a lot of work went into getting those speeds up to where they were even though it must be acknowledged that tail wind was a factor where head winds are the norm.
Bob Axsom