jthocker
Well Known Member
Mutha is starting to feel like his beloved ride is one giant magnet for airplanes and or pieces of planes! After the Sun n Fun fiasco, Mutha thought he was now "pre-disastered"!
Not so fast Mutha! A few years ago we teased Joker about not wanting to fly behind him, due to his post flight discovery of a MISSING filtered airbox (Airflow Performance). This was to have been remedied after the 2nd occurrence! Fast forward a few years, and we find our hero (Mutha) slated as #4 in a 4 ship line abreast takeoff out of Cincinnati Lunkens wide runway.
Bud Newhouse aka Joker is our fearless flight lead. The brief was for Mutha to move to the slot (to form a diamond) immediately after takeoff. Takeoff and departure happened as briefed and the flight was in the process of exiting the Lunken area in close formation, when things got interesting.
#4's call from the slot went something like this, "Lead, you seem to be trailing something from your lower cowl area, in the vicinity of the left exhaust pipe! Lead (Joker) says "OK", and then requests a frequency change from Lunken tower. Joker then simultaneously fishtails his aircraft to signal the flight to move to a more relaxed/wider(route) formation and instructs the flight to change to the pre briefed air to air frequency.
All eyes are on Jokers plane as we move out to "route" formation. Next heard over the air to air frequency is, "Mutha, did that hit you?"......................Mutha's reply.........."Yep"!
Lead announced he was out of the formation, and pulled straight up and away! Mutha, meanwhile was franticly looking for the "Shields" switch to stave off anymore of Joker's FOD!!! Fortunately the Testor's cement that Joker used to build his plane, held together until he was safely away from the more robustly constructed RV8's in Mutha's flight.
Wingmen #2 Nordo, and #3 Hersha(Badger) decided to stick with the damaged aircraft (Mutha's), possibly believing that following Joker was way too risky. Mutha then informed the flight that the damage to the left fuel tank might be such that returning to Lunken may leave him grounded at Joker's hangar. Mutha believed that Joker would, (if he made it back at all) have his hands full, rebuilding his plane, thus using his hammer, crescent wrench, and pliers for the foreseeable future, decided to make his way home to assess the damage.
Joker CLAIMS to have all his parts intact.
Mutha has a large dent/crease in the leading edge of the left fuel tank, along with a smaller dent just aft of the leading edge. Joker CLAIMS it might have been a RAG!
Mutha thinks it might have been an unfinished Bud Light that was set on the filtered airbox and forgotten about during an oil change!
In any case Mutha will be attending Oshkosh again with his beloved ride in a less than perfect state, and ......a ride, that needs a proper moniker!
Not so fast Mutha! A few years ago we teased Joker about not wanting to fly behind him, due to his post flight discovery of a MISSING filtered airbox (Airflow Performance). This was to have been remedied after the 2nd occurrence! Fast forward a few years, and we find our hero (Mutha) slated as #4 in a 4 ship line abreast takeoff out of Cincinnati Lunkens wide runway.
Bud Newhouse aka Joker is our fearless flight lead. The brief was for Mutha to move to the slot (to form a diamond) immediately after takeoff. Takeoff and departure happened as briefed and the flight was in the process of exiting the Lunken area in close formation, when things got interesting.
#4's call from the slot went something like this, "Lead, you seem to be trailing something from your lower cowl area, in the vicinity of the left exhaust pipe! Lead (Joker) says "OK", and then requests a frequency change from Lunken tower. Joker then simultaneously fishtails his aircraft to signal the flight to move to a more relaxed/wider(route) formation and instructs the flight to change to the pre briefed air to air frequency.
All eyes are on Jokers plane as we move out to "route" formation. Next heard over the air to air frequency is, "Mutha, did that hit you?"......................Mutha's reply.........."Yep"!
Lead announced he was out of the formation, and pulled straight up and away! Mutha, meanwhile was franticly looking for the "Shields" switch to stave off anymore of Joker's FOD!!! Fortunately the Testor's cement that Joker used to build his plane, held together until he was safely away from the more robustly constructed RV8's in Mutha's flight.
Wingmen #2 Nordo, and #3 Hersha(Badger) decided to stick with the damaged aircraft (Mutha's), possibly believing that following Joker was way too risky. Mutha then informed the flight that the damage to the left fuel tank might be such that returning to Lunken may leave him grounded at Joker's hangar. Mutha believed that Joker would, (if he made it back at all) have his hands full, rebuilding his plane, thus using his hammer, crescent wrench, and pliers for the foreseeable future, decided to make his way home to assess the damage.
Joker CLAIMS to have all his parts intact.
Mutha has a large dent/crease in the leading edge of the left fuel tank, along with a smaller dent just aft of the leading edge. Joker CLAIMS it might have been a RAG!
Mutha thinks it might have been an unfinished Bud Light that was set on the filtered airbox and forgotten about during an oil change!
In any case Mutha will be attending Oshkosh again with his beloved ride in a less than perfect state, and ......a ride, that needs a proper moniker!
