Fuelventure 400 2010

I'm starting to wonder if the results of this years Fuelventure 400 has been deemed classified by the CIA or something. Its odd, 5 days after the race was scheduled, and I can't find even a mention ANYWHERE of even the most basic of results.

I might have to file a document request to the feds citing the freedom of information act.


George

That's all I found today as well.


"Afternoon flying activities amplified with the arrival of Fuelventure 400 race participants who launched and recovered at nearby Phoenix Regional Airport. After completing their final weigh-ins to determine the most fuel efficient airplane in the sky, a gaggle of racers made high speed passes down the runway. The third annual Fuelventure?s overall winner was Klaus Savier who averaged 57 mpg at 225 mph over the 400 mile course in his highly modified VariEze."

George

Fuel Venture 400 2010 results

As a participant in this year's FuelVenture 400 I was saddened by problems in the weighing aircraft used to determine fuel burned. There were also questions regarding event timing and score calculations. As a consequence all previously published results are considered void. Below is an email sent to the Copperstate fly in management by Bruce Vinolla FuelVenture organizer.

--------------------------------
This year's Fuelventure had several problems. The weather and other factors impacted participation significantly. However, the most disappointing development was that after the competition, we found that some plastic dust caps on the scales had adversely affected the accuracy of the event. Because of the small field we elected to extrapolate the results.

However, after communicating with the other Fuelventure leaders, it is apparent that we should have declared the event not valid.

If you would be so kind, could you have the COPPERSTATE communication channels issue a message that a technical problem was discovered after the 2010 Fuelventure event and the posted 2010 results are no longer valid. We will ensure that this problem will not occur next year.

Another mistake that I made was that after last year's event, I assumed that word of mouth and last year's international promotion of the event would have created a momentum for increased participation this year. It appears that this was not the case.

I assure you and the COPPERSTATE organization that we will actively promote the Fuelventure event well in advance of next year's COPPERSTATE fly-in.

We are also considering the addition of a 200 mile event for the light sport category with a lower minimum speed.

I am personally responsible for these problems and ask for the forgiveness of the COPPERSTATE leadership I also ask for another chance next year to have the best Fuelventure event ever.

Thanks,
Bruce Vinnola
Fuelventure 400 organizer.

Hertzler,

Thanks for the news regarding the FuelVenture races this year.

I presume this is Gary Hertzler, the guy many have called THE "aerodynamics guru" in the canard world? WELCOME to VansAirForce forums!!! For those who are not aware of Gary Hertzler, give the following article a read.

http://www.eaa.org/experimenter/articles/0912_archives.pdf

This is the only guy out there who has the ability to give Klaus Savier a run for his money in the fuel venture races.

I sure hope that you wouldn't mind sharing a bit with us. There are a good number of true experimenters here who would really appreciate your hands on knowledge.

George

I competed in this event in 2009 with my RV8.

It is an extremely complicated event for the organizers. Unlike a simple race, the aircraft and passengers must be weighed before and after to calculate fuel burn, in addition to the usual timing and turn point validation as with a speed only race.

Bruce Vinnola has taken all this on with a small corps of volunteers, without help from EAA or CAFE. It is a huge task, and I'm sorry it didn't work out this year.

It is interesting to me that there is so little interest in fuel efficiency in this age of $5 per gallon gas. True, an RV will never compete directly with the glass-backward airplanes, but the benefits are the same, cheaper operation! Bruce did set up a separate class for RVs and Rockets. Many drag reduction mods can be accomplished without diminishing the "Total Performance" concept that defines RVs.

John

To help put fuel into perspective... let's say my an RV-10 is flown 4,000 hours at 12gal/hr and $5/gallon. That's $240,000 in fuel! Even a 5 or 10% improvement in fuel efficiency adds up to some serious bucks.

Another little issue... an airplane built today might be around for another 40 years. What will fuel cost then?

I'm glad folks are working on it.