B

Bob Axsom

Well Known Member
The First Speed Dash Results

On 6-13-09 at the Courtland, Alabama the first SARL speed dash event was held. Each pilot made a two way pass down the runway. I was given a set of results and I will compute the 2-way average.

Pilot/Airplane/NW pass speed(mph)/SW pass speed/2-way average
John Dawson/Beech Sierra/170.199/180.120/175.160
Stu Morse/Grumman AA5B/174.749/189.457/182.103
Jim Porter/Cirrus SR20/196.353/190.413/193.383
David Adams/Long EZ/207.501/204.998/206.250
Marvin Guthrie/Bonanza/222.730/228.880/225.805
Mike Thompson/RV-6/216.903/213.900/215.402
Bob Axsom/RV-6A/224.644/215.391/220.018
Mark Frederick/EVO Rocket/251.209/241.397/246.303
Tom Martin/EVO Rocket/262.258/244.523/253.391
Wayne Hadath/F1 Rocket/254.787/247.911/251.349
Jeff Ludwig/Glasair III/280.898/273.221/277.060

Bob Axsom
 
Bob,

I saw Mike's SARL post/e-mail on the race results this morning (nice job...looks like you won your RV-Blue class and came in right behind the 3 Rockets...woo hoo!). I wondered about the speed dash, so thanks for posting this! That must have been a hoot! Did anyone take video of the speed dash!

Nice flying, and hope to see you at some of the races later this year (maybe out west?!)

Cheers,
Bob
 
The race course was 129 nautical miles long as shown on this image.

TVcourse.jpg


The takeoff order by race # was 44, 28, 14, 109, GF, 71, 26, 83, 3, 2, 112, 704, 448, 807 as far as I can tell. There was some last minute juggling because of late entry and communication difficulty. In spite of the best effort to line every one up in fastest to slowest order there was some passing along the way.

We took off with self spacing when everyone was released as a serial group by the air boss then he called our turn individually for the run in to the start line associated with a water tower northeast of the airport. I got my call and rolled in passing over the tower at the altitude I have planned for the first leg. I had planned the route carefully on my check list giving the minimum altitude for the legs to remain 500 ft AGL. I also listed the height of the highest obstructions on each leg.

We were spread out well by the air boss calls for the individual start turn ins.

The first race turn was over a small island in the river just west of the dam. At our low altitude the island did not become visible until I was close in but once near it was easy to spot. Over the island I made a left turn toward the airport at Savannah, Tennessee. When 12 miles out I heard the leader (Race 44) making the required 1 mile approach call. Inside of 5 miles I could see the turn point over the south end or the airport and the turn was routine. The flight to the turn at Russellville was a similar experience except a good lookout was required for towers that extended above the minimum course line altitude for 500 ft AGL. I made the turn around the south end of the runway as required and made a gentle climb to 2,000 ft (which was the specified finish altitude) to get the tail wind for the entire leg to the finish back at the orange and white water tower.

I just received the preliminary results from Mike Thompson and I copied them below.

Race # Name Aircraft Class Speed (MPH) Speed (KTS)

Race 44 Lynn Farnsworth Lancair Legacy Unlimited 291.03 252.90

Race 28 Jeff Ludwig Glasair III Unlimited 251.43 218.49

Race 109 Tom Martin EVO Rocket Sport FX 250.32 217.52

Race 14 Wayne Hadath F1 Rocket Sport FX 242.30 210.55

Race GF George Fisher EVO Rocket Sport FX 227.75 197.91

Race 71 Bob Axsom RV-6A RV Blue 205.97 178.98

Race 3 Marvin Guthrie Bonanza FAC1RG 204.22 177.47

Race 26 Mike Thompson RV-6 RV Blue 204.18 177.43

Race 83 David Adams LongEZ Sprint 197.67 171.77

Race 112 Stu Morse Grumman AA5B FAC4FX 170.69 148.32

Race 704 Terry Hines Mooney Statesman FAC4RG 168.82 146.70

Race 448 Jim Porter Cirrus SR20 FAC3FX 162.93 141.58

Race 2 John Dawson Beech Sierra FAC3RG 160.88 139.80

Race 807 Tom Cawthorn C-172SP FAC4FX 128.57 111.72

Bob Axsom
 
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Some video was taken but ...

There were media folks there and I'm sure a lot of video was taken but I don't know of any availability. There were some RV people there. I talked for a short time to a knowledgable RV-6 builder that is going the Sam James cowl and hard plennum route - obviously focussed on speed. Maybe we will hear something from someone that was there with a video camera.

Bob Axsom
 
Thanks for the posting the results. I had hoped to fly my F1 down with Tom Martin and Wayne Haddath but had a prior commitment. Hope to see you and the the other racers at a future event.
 
Cool!

Thanks for posting this Bob, your plane is fast! Were you limited on height, and were you allowed to dive before the pass or was it a straight and level speed?

Hans
 
The Flight was tightly controlled

There was a formal procedure that was briefed but coordinated real time by the Air Boss. We were called for startup two at a time then we followed a "follow me" cart to runway 31 at the Courtland Airport (9A4). Each pair was released individually in a widely spaced sequence. Mike Thompson and I were paired for our runs. I was cleared for takeoff and after I was well underway Mike was released. The briefed plan called for each plane to fly straight out until 1 nautical mile from the GPS reference point for the airport then turn downwind climbing no higher than 1,500 MSL. We were to fly the downwind leg to 3 miles past the airport then turn and decent to 800 MSL (no lower than 200 ft AGL) and be level for 5 seconds before the starting line at the runway 31 threshold. We were to pass the entire length of the runway in level flight to 1 mile GPS going away from the airport then turn right to a heading of 350 and climb no higher than 1500 MSL on that heading to 2 miles GPS from the airport location. At that point we were to start a left turn to 220 and fly a left base entry for runway 13. From there we were to descend to 200 ft AGL minimum and be level for 5 seconds before starting the level pass the full length of runway 13. Then we broke of the run and recovered on runway 17. In fact the Air Boss was controlling the two airplanes and modifying the flight path to maintain separation as he saw the need.

Bob Axsom
 
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As a participant in the speed dash I thought the event was fun and educational. At no time did I feel unsafe or at risk. It was well organized, briefed and executed. I would like to see more of these speed dash events organized as long as they are as well run as this one was. It was a learning experience for both the participants and the organizers.
The staff and volunteers did a fantastic job with less then perfect weather conditions and they are to be congratulated.
 
very nice post

Bob Axsom said:
The race course was 129 nautical miles long as shown on this image.

TVcourse.jpg


The takeoff order by race # was 44, 28, 14, 109, GF, 71, 26, 83, 3, 2, 112, 704, 448, 807 as far as I can tell. There was some last minute juggling because of late entry and communication difficulty. In spite of the best effort to line every one up in fastest to slowest order there was some passing along the way.

We took off with self spacing when everyone was released as a serial group by the air boss then he called our turn individually for the run in to the start line associated with a water tower northeast of the airport. I got my call and rolled in passing over the tower at the altitude I have planned for the first leg. I had planned the route carefully on my check list giving the minimum altitude for the legs to remain 500 ft AGL. I also listed the height of the highest obstructions on each leg.

We were spread out well by the air boss calls for the individual start turn ins.

The first race turn was over a small island in the river just west of the dam. At our low altitude the island did not become visible until I was close in but once near it was easy to spot. Over the island I made a left turn toward the airport at Savannah, Tennessee. When 12 miles out I heard the leader (Race 44) making the required 1 mile approach call. Inside of 5 miles I could see the turn point over the south end or the airport and the turn was routine. The flight to the turn at Russellville was a similar experience except a good lookout was required for towers that extended above the minimum course line altitude for 500 ft AGL. I made the turn around the south end of the runway as required and made a gentle climb to 2,000 ft (which was the specified finish altitude) to get the tail wind for the entire leg to the finish back at the orange and white water tower.

I just received the preliminary results from Mike Thompson and I copied them below.

Race # Name Aircraft Class Speed (MPH) Speed (KTS)

Race 44 Lynn Farnsworth Lancair Legacy Unlimited 291.03 252.90

Race 28 Jeff Ludwig Glasair III Unlimited 251.43 218.49

Race 109 Tom Martin EVO Rocket Sport FX 250.32 217.52

Race 14 Wayne Hadath F1 Rocket Sport FX 242.30 210.55

Race GF George Fisher EVO Rocket Sport FX 227.75 197.91

Race 71 Bob Axsom RV-6A RV Blue 205.97 178.98

Race 3 Marvin Guthrie Bonanza FAC1RG 204.22 177.47

Race 26 Mike Thompson RV-6 RV Blue 204.18 177.43

Race 83 David Adams LongEZ Sprint 197.67 171.77

Race 112 Stu Morse Grumman AA5B FAC4FX 170.69 148.32

Race 704 Terry Hines Mooney Statesman FAC4RG 168.82 146.70

Race 448 Jim Porter Cirrus SR20 FAC3FX 162.93 141.58

Race 2 John Dawson Beech Sierra FAC3RG 160.88 139.80

Race 807 Tom Cawthorn C-172SP FAC4FX 128.57 111.72

Bob Axsom
Click to expand...

Bob,

I read your post on the yahoo site and I think the xc race is more significant too. I just think the dash is getting hits because it is new and different. I am very glad we got the race in. After all that work I never had a chance to actually run the dash all out. At the scheduled time of 11 am give or takea few minutes it was so rough when I made those passes I did not go all out and the southwest wind was pretty strong too. It was a good thing we ran it earlier than scheduled. I am 100 percent satisfied with the xc race, but we have work to do on the dash.

Chris M

Chris M.
 
Bob,

Sounds like it was a really fun race...nice recap, and the chart makes it easy to visualize. I saw the yahoo post as well, and it may also be that your dash post came out first, so those of us that replied to it, didn't want to dog-pile too much. That, and/or the dash is just new and diffrent. But the race sounds like it was a great one. Was the wind/weather a factor in the X-C race at all (wondered how it played out in that respect). Thanks much, and nice runnin'!

Cheers,
Bob
 
Bob Axsom said:
On 6-13-09 at the Courtland, Alabama the first SARL speed dash event was held. Each pilot made a two way pass down the runway. I was given a set of results and I will compute the 2-way average.

Pilot/Airplane/NW pass speed(mph)/SW pass speed/2-way average
John Dawson/Beech Sierra/170.199/180.120/175.160
Stu Morse/Grumman AA5B/174.749/189.457/182.103
Jim Porter/Cirrus SR20/196.353/190.413/193.383
David Adams/Long EZ/207.501/204.998/206.250
Marvin Guthrie/Bonanza/222.730/228.880/225.805
Mike Thompson/RV-6/216.903/213.900/215.402
Bob Axsom/RV-6A/224.644/215.391/220.018Mark Frederick/EVO Rocket/251.209/241.397/246.303
Tom Martin/EVO Rocket/262.258/244.523/253.391
Wayne Hadath/F1 Rocket/254.787/247.911/251.349
Jeff Ludwig/Glasair III/280.898/273.221/277.060

Bob Axsom
Click to expand...

Very nice. Now you know how fast your airplane is.
 
Any future Tenn Valley Air Races at Courtland?

Congratulations, Bob, on your win and on the entire event. I had every intention of travelling the 25 or so miles out to Courtland, but decided to work on elevator leading edges instead! I really thought the weather might delay your event, but it sounds like you guys made it okay.

Just wondering if the race and speed dash will return to Courtland next year. After WWII, the Courtland Air Base lay dormant for many years, and just in the last 10 or 15 years, it has grown into a fairly nice general aviation airport due to lots of planning and hard work by interested individuals. It seems like a natural location for events such as yours this past weekend.

Hope to meet you some day, hopefully at another Tenn Valley Air Race.
 
Future Events at Courtland, Alabama Airport

From the management people that I met I get the impression that they are very positive, forward thinking folks that want aviation to grow and prosper at the airport. I'm sure other events will be held there to stimulate the public interest. As you mentioned the weather was threatening and the public turnout was modest so cost could shape the course of future events - I'm sure good money was paid to the show acts (which were good by the way - I especially enjoyed the Alabama Boys performance).

As far as SARL events I really don't have any insight on that but I too hope to go there again. If we monitor www.sportairrace.org calendar of events maybe we will see Courtland pop up again next year.

Bob Axsom
 
Weather effects

rvmills said:
Bob,

Sounds like it was a really fun race...nice recap, and the chart makes it easy to visualize. I saw the yahoo post as well, and it may also be that your dash post came out first, so those of us that replied to it, didn't want to dog-pile too much. That, and/or the dash is just new and diffrent. But the race sounds like it was a great one. Was the wind/weather a factor in the X-C race at all (wondered how it played out in that respect). Thanks much, and nice runnin'!

Cheers,
Bob
Click to expand...

The sky was overcast most of the day but it was high enough to get the speed dash in before noon and the cross country race after the air show was over at around 3 pm.

The speed dash affected the runs only in that the winds were changing - I think it may have been a little rougher during some runs than others but when it was your turn to fly you dealt with what you had.

In the cross country race the winds were from the south to southwest and they were forcast to be much higher velocity at 3,000 ft. My plan was to fly minimum altitude on all but the last leg and to climb to the required finish altitude of 2,000 out of the turn at Russellville. The ceiling would have permitted a little higher but I didn't think it would be worth the climb cost. I knew from the turn calls that Mike Thompson was staying with me all the way through the course so there was no room for experimentation.

Bob Axsom
 
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It's good that the cross-country race was held Saturday as Sunday morning at around 11:00 some severe thunderstorms came through the area. I found myself wondering if you guys got out before the bad stuff hit.
 
I hope everyone got out safely too

I hope everyone got out safely too. When I crossed the finish line I told the monitors I was heading home and we hurried out of there. I stopped to top the tanks at Mussle Shoals (MSL) and flew at 1,750 MSL under the overcast until clear of the Class B southeast of Memphis then turned direct to Fayetteville, Arkansas. We had the Blue Bird in it's hangar well before dark when a pretty terrific storm went through here in the middle of the night. I have seen posts from Mike Thompson, Chris Murphy and Tom Martin with no bad news so I'm thinking everything worked out OK.

Bob Axsom
 
weather and future races

Jim and I drove out to the airport Sunday AM and only one airplane was still on the ramp. ( the mooney ). That was a wicked storm and I am thankful that everyone else was gone by then. As much as the weather was problematic, I think we were lucky on Saturday because the weather was really bad south of Courtland for much of the day. At this point we are not sure about another event but everyone is talking about how to make the next one better.

Chris M race 34
 
Chasing Video

Bob Axsom said:
Maybe we will hear something from someone that was there with a video camera.

Bob Axsom
Click to expand...

Bob, I'm trying to chase down the video taken by AlabamaAviator. We'll see.

I had to check in here to see what lies Bob was spreading about me, bragging about how he beat me. Again.

I'm catching up, though. I clipped my wings, put a Catto prop on and have a nice (fast!) tailwheel fairing done by Ron Schreck (one that beats the **** out of the fairing Van's has available) - and I'm still chasing Bob around the course.

Sigh.

- Mike
 
Another race at Courtland!

rv7boy said:
Congratulations, Bob, on your win and on the entire event. I had every intention of travelling the 25 or so miles out to Courtland, but decided to work on elevator leading edges instead! I really thought the weather might delay your event, but it sounds like you guys made it okay.

Just wondering if the race and speed dash will return to Courtland next year. After WWII, the Courtland Air Base lay dormant for many years, and just in the last 10 or 15 years, it has grown into a fairly nice general aviation airport due to lots of planning and hard work by interested individuals. It seems like a natural location for events such as yours this past weekend.

Hope to meet you some day, hopefully at another Tenn Valley Air Race.
Click to expand...

The Tennessee Valley Pumkin dash is set for Oct 17th. to replace the cancelled Memphis race. The cross country race will run the same course as the June race but in reverse. (Right turns). We are working to get waivers for another speed dash but since we had less than 90 days to file the papers we won't know for sure until the last minute. Other activities are being considered such as formation flight practice, aerobatic instruction in a Pitts S2, and a hangar party after the xc race on Sat. Afternoon. see www.sportairrace.org for details as they are available.
Chris M RACE34
 
I'm sure you meant it in jest but ...

I'm sure you meant the right turn comment in jest but it really is a factor in side-by-side RV-6s where the pilot in the left seat has poor downward visibility on the right side of the airplane. You have to pick up the turn point way ahead and align to the left of it and be sure you are there before you drop the right wing for the tight turn. When you get into the bank of course you can see the ground on the right side and make small adjustments. In a left turn course the turn points are clearly visible all the way in and little judgement is required.

Bob Axsom
 
right hand turns

Its my signature trait, I like to turn right and it gives us tandem drivers a little edge. Of course anyone is welcome to turn left if they must. We'll take a vote at the briefing to decide which way to run the course...not. The course will look alot different going " the other way".

Mike complains about it everytime we turn right.

Chris M
 
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