This week we’re doing the final tests on the race plane. The “green machine” is one happy bird at the moment. We did testing on the systems that we modified over these last few months. I must say that luckily, all worked as planned. Everything is going very smoothly. I know this might sound a little crazy but even our radio is working flawlessly which is a big change from prior years. That sounds silly but when you’re trying to give 100% focus on racing and you can’t hear the race director calling you into the track from two miles away, that’s a big distraction.
The only thing not in the race plane for this first race will be our fancy new race engine which is still undergoing reliability testing. A race track in the sky is not the place to be testing critical engine components so we chose the safe route and will wait a race or two before installing the new engine. We will use the same Lycoming Thunderbolt as last season which was very strong.
All in all, we are in a happy place with our plane and we are actually slightly ahead of schedule as we prepare to ship to Abu Dhabi. We might not have the fastest racer as we start the season but I think we can more than make up for that with a seamless work flow within our team. I think we are…. READY TO GO!!!
Recent comments
Unal Aster 15 years ago
Congartulations to you and your team Mike. I hope you will done great performance on Red Bull Air Race..Good Luck my friend..we love you..
John Wilson 15 years ago
I am thrilled that you are coming to NYC this year. I hear you will be based at LDJ, which is where my flying club’s planes are based. I hope to have a chance to say hello when you are in the area.
Good luck in Abu Dhabi!