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  #11  
Old 07-29-2007, 09:42 AM
Nuisance's Avatar
Nuisance Nuisance is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Pagosa Springs, CO
Posts: 130
Default Speed = Efficiency

Thanks for all your kind words. I did have a heck of a run this year, and a few knots of tailwind didn't hurt anything either.

On Friday morning at OSH, Dick Keyt, Jon Ross, and I gave a forum on the race, and I gave away all my speed "secrets". They are not really secrets because most of them have been on my web site all along. See...

http://www.lazy8.net/speedmods.htm

and other pages. They are also not secrets because I learned many of them from Dave Anders, Tracy Saylor, and Rich Jankowski. They have always been generous in sharing what they have learned, and I intend to continue this tradition. Ron Lee and anyone else who would like to drop in and talk, you are welcome.

George Jetson is close on many things, but it has been a while since he has been to my website. I have changed from the elbow induction to an ECI cold air intake system. When I did this the 4 into 1 would no longer fit, and in the face of no support from Sky Dynamics, I went to Larry Vetterman for a 4-pipe exhaust. His support and willingness to work with me has been outstanding, and in my opinion there is no performance difference between the 4 into 1 and the 4 pipe. Since I had to change both at once I can't separate the results, but the total was a 3 knot increase in cruise speed at 9000 ft. density altitude.

I will make some more posts on this subject as I recover from the trip and get caught up, but I would like to state the following...

1. I ran the race wide open, full throttle, 2700 rpm.

2. I used 27.5 gallons of gas. The guys I beat all used more gas, and that is important. Drag reduction is the key. Look at the results and you can see an EVO rocket with IO-540 and Dick Martin's IO-390 angle valve are included even though they were in another class..

Results

More later, John
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John Huft
RV8 "Nuisance"
Pagosa Springs, CO

www.lazy8.net/rv8.html

Last edited by Nuisance : 07-29-2007 at 05:54 PM. Reason: added link to results
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  #12  
Old 07-30-2007, 07:35 AM
Alan Carroll's Avatar
Alan Carroll Alan Carroll is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Posts: 778
Default "Nuisance" speed secrets

John is perhaps being somewhat modest about another factor in his success, a superbly detailed airframe. The basic construction quality is excellent (resulting in several awards), and I'm sure he's tweaked the alignment of control surfaces and other components to be near perfect. Some other details I noticed: custom aerodynamic fuel vent masts, plastic gap-filling spacers for the aileron hinges, hand-carved (?) "canoe" fairings for the hinges, fuel drain fairings, very clean tailwheel fairing, custom wing-fuselage intersection fairings, etc.

Of course, the most important secret is no doubt his special roll of red tape, used to seal off the oil filler door and a few other seams before the race. I copied this on my plane, and I'm sure it was good for at least 10 knots...
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RV-8 N12AC
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  #13  
Old 07-30-2007, 07:58 AM
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DanH DanH is offline
 
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Location: 08A
Posts: 9,500
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<<plastic gap-filling spacers for the aileron hinges>>

John, can you tell us a little about that? Got a picture?
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Dan Horton
RV-8 SS
Barrett IO-390
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  #14  
Old 07-30-2007, 08:07 AM
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Ron Lee Ron Lee is offline
 
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Posts: 3,275
Default Nuisance speed improvements

I noticed some past race speeds for John's plane on his website and it appears that in the last year or so he has made some dramatic improvements. I would agree that the picture of his plane posted does suggest "clean and fast."

I also checked race results and John is faster than the plane previously known as "The fast one."
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  #15  
Old 07-30-2007, 10:18 AM
Bob Axsom Bob Axsom is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,685
Default WOW! This Is Getting Pretty Elite

Allan Carroll was third in the race averaging over 220 mph. I thought I was the only one going over John Huft's airplane for speed detailing but Allan mentioned everything I saw. I took 8 or 9 photos of John's plane shamelessly trying to capture details and I photographed Allan's RV-8 (Race 12) as well. I tried several times to post the aileron hinge fairing photo but Imageshack can't get it for some reason. I will e-mail them to to Doug and perhaps he can post them.

Bob Axsom

[ed. Here you go with the #12 image, Bob]

Last edited by DeltaRomeo : 07-30-2007 at 12:31 PM.
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  #16  
Old 07-30-2007, 03:25 PM
scottg scottg is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Long Island
Posts: 54
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ronlee
I noticed some past race speeds for John's plane on his website and it appears that in the last year or so he has made some dramatic improvements. I would agree that the picture of his plane posted does suggest "clean and fast."

I also checked race results and John is faster than the plane previously known as "The fast one."
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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  #17  
Old 07-30-2007, 06:22 PM
Bob Axsom Bob Axsom is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,685
Default A little bit more actually

Quote:
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.
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

Last edited by Bob Axsom : 07-31-2007 at 03:49 PM. Reason: Typos
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