Wasabi Air Racing

The polished wing of a fighter

2012-01-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

By Elliot Seguin

The mission was simple, bounce the Tiger down to Chino to spend the afternoon with a couple friends from Allied Fighters and some steaks. Jennifer had arranged it all, and distracted by work I hadn’t heard much after BBQ. We left Mojave at 12:15 and taxied up to our friends hangar at 1:30 or so (otherwise a four hour drive, aren’t airplanes awesome). I was met by a bit of a surprise; their mustang which usually sits casually under the cover of the hangar, was sitting on the ramp with that come hither look. I tried not to let my imagination run away, but soon the cat was out of the bag – today would be my first time in a mustang (a birthday gift from Jennifer).

Allied Fighters' Mustang

Left foot on left tire, right foot on outer gear door bracket, right foot on the polished wing of a fighter. Sitting in the airplane I noticed how high my perch was, like driving a car from a bar stool on the roof, it makes the airplane look much smaller. Visibility was blocked maybe ±5º on centerline, not much worse than Wasabi and better than an NXT. Starter engaged, even with such a big airplane (~8,000 lbs) it was clear serious power had been summoned somewhere when the starter cranked those paddles over – as my dad would say “she sure swings a big hammer”. The engine running and along came that ornery Merlin idle sound…this was going to be good. We called the tower and were taxiing, king of the airport. Mag check was done at 2300 rpm; the recently overhauled Roush Merlin seemed much happier at this power setting. I took advantage of the bubble canopy and looked over my shoulder at the small trees being pummeled by our wake, awesome! As we came back on the power to taxi for departure, the Ornery Merlin idle was back, but I was now used to the bigger power settings and wanted them back.

Took the centerline, on the brakes – the motor was happy again. Two power advances, ~2300 rpm was good, but her older sister came over her shoulder 3000 rpm and 35 inches and things seemed to be falling into place. Off the brakes and 45 inches, we are rolling and this new power setting was good; I thought, ‘well, there it is the big fighter power I have been imagining’, thinking that would be all the power I’d get today. 50 inches came next, on this fourth power setting he overshot, I think for my benefit. We topped at 55 inches and 3000 rpm, and the acceleration was phenomenal. In wartime 61inches was used for take-off power, but gas is expensive and 55 is 10 more inches than the accepted minimum for safe take-off, thank you Jeff. The acceleration pulled my smile tighter as we broke ground and I heard the hydro mechanical rumbles associated with the undercarriage finding its home in the wing root. Shortly there after my new sweetheart, 55 inches, was replaced by 46 inches and 2700 rpm (METO) and it was all downhill from there. After we got out of the pattern 32 inches and 2600 rpm gave us a cruise of 295 knots, and Roush’s motor ran like a sewing machine through an arsenal of mild aerobatics. The available energy was impressive, afterall it’s a fighter. I was tickled to hear the first of the common Mustang stall indicators at the top of a lazy 8, the scoop howl. It was lower frequency than I expected and it reminded me that I was sitting on the radiator, so I reached down and could feel that warm Packard built horsepower weeping through the aluminum under my seat, grr.

The hop rounded out with the fantastic rap of the mains hitting their down locks (I felt the lateral acceleration in my seat). The work load of the landing seemed to spike about the time the tailwheel was settling into the pavement and the air speed was barely indicating. It was a good day. It may not have burner and wheel pants like white knight one, and it may not have been built to wrap around pylons, but I think I get why the guys like to take her dancing, and it was a darn good birthday present.

AV Press RARA response article 1-6-12

2012-01-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

Got some coverage last week in the AV press. Thanks Allison!

Oshkosh Divert

2012-01-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

By Elliot Seguin

On the way to 2011 Airventure, Jennifer and I found ourselves inbound to the airport with the airport closed for the day’s airshow. With two hours to kill, we took the opportunity to explore northern Wisconsin and check out an airport we had not yet visited. Throughout the week during our trip back east we made it a point to stop at as many airports as possible to get a feel for the health of general aviation in the Midwest; of all the airports we stopped at, Shawano Municipal (KEZS) was a definite standout.

Over the Shewano Lake north of the Shewano Airport (KEZS)

Shawano Municipal airport is located one nautical mile northeast of the central business district of Shawano Wisconsin and fifty nautical miles north of Oshkosh. Like so many small towns in upstate Wisconsin, Shawano is friendly and approachable. The airport is located on the banks of Shawano Lake which is home to the airport’s seaplane operations. The Northwest corner of the airport includes a beach and dock for seaplane parking and for transitioning aircraft to and from water operations. Apparently the Seaplane operations have tapered off in recent years and the water flying portion of the Shawano Flying Service has recently closed its doors. That being said, I was very surprised to see the relic of the airport’s float operations, a Do-28 they have as a gate guard.

The Shewano Airport’s Do-28 Skyservant

The Do-28 Skyservant is a twin engine STOL aircraft manufactured by Dornier Flugzeugbau, the first flight of which occurred in 1959. The most recent version of the airplane was developed in the early 80’s and included a conversion to turbo prop powerplants. The version on display at the Shawano airport is an A-1 model which was powered by a pair of Lycoming 540s. This A-1 model includes the curvy aft fuselage reminiscent of a de Havilland Mosquito. The aft fuselage has direct lineage the airplane’s predecessor the Do-27, a single engine version of a similar mission (looks like a Helio Courier). These curvy lines were replaced with a box fuselage reminiscent of a de Haviland Beaver in the late 1960’s for the D model of the Skyservant. The particular Do-28 that is sitting on the Shawano airport is in pretty rough shape, but it was a great surprise full of interesting solutions to the standard airplane problems, most notably the Cri-Cri like twin engine arrangement. These kinds of design solutions need fried food and good atmosphere to fully process.

The long bar of The Launching Pad in Shewano Wisconsin

There are five places to eat within walking distance of the Shawano airport and one of which is also a bowling alley. We chose to partake in The Launching Pad, a pub across from the airport gate (yes they have a facebook page). As seems to be the standard in this part of the country, this bar was not light on character or local flavor and the patrons and barmaids alike were friendly, warm and inviting. Besides the standard beer signs and stuffed bass with antlers mounted on the walls this bar seemed to have everything you might have come to expect at a bar on your trip north. Peanuts, popcorn, pickled pork knuckles, deep fried cheese curds or mozzarella sticks, all you can eat spaghetti (not recommended by the staff) and of course blind robins. Blind robins are smoked herring that has been compared to pickled herring only a lot worse. When I asked the barmaid to try a blind robin, she literally would not let me. It says something about a bar when there are multiple items available for sale that the staff vehemently recommends against, but are still kept on the menu regardless. About the time I was learning about the pickling of fresh water fish to make them inedible, Jennifer was asked to settle a bet. When she told the young man (on his second beer at 3:00 on this Monday afternoon) that she was in fact not from Illinois (he had bet we were vacationing from Chicago) he slumped his shoulders and scratched his head. The fact that we were from California clearly didn’t help his puzzlement and he returned to his bottomless spaghetti. It was at this point I was reminded just how far we were out in the sticks and how awesome of a traveling machine an airplane is.

Deep Fried Cheese Curds

After a few too many cheese curds and a Coca-Cola for each of us, we retreated to the FBO to pay for our gas and launch for our arrival to Oshkosh. The gas was cheap ($4.55) and there was something about the airport lounge that just felt right. Airplane pictures everywhere, an old soda machine (the kind that looks like a cooler), stacks of Trade-A-Plane and Sport Aviation called back to a time when these businesses weren’t all grappling for their piece of the biz jet action. There was no fancy bubbly bottled water or red carpets, this business existed to serve the needs of GA pilots. It was good to know that places like this still existed and with a bowling alley next door, perhaps this one would be able to stick around.

Elliot and Jennifer at Delta County Airport, Escanaba Michigan (KESC)

The Last 3km Record; Mojave Roots

2011-12-30T10:08:00.000-08:00

by Elliot Seguin

Darryl’s F-104 at Mojave

Full burner at an average speed of 988 mph, 200 feet agl for four passes. A homebuilt aircraft attempting to topple a record set on a military budget. Darryl had built his F-104 out of parts he had found painstakingly searching junk yards across the country; this took him 13 years. All systems unnecessary for the attempt were removed and fuel bags replaced them, giving him 1,050 gallons of Jet A for the attempt (typical standard load is 850 gal). He landed with 50 gallons remaining; the fuel he had consumed in the 20 minute record setting flight could, if burned at altitude, have powered his jet halfway across the country. The airplane was assembled in Van Nuys, but was not permitted to fly from there so Darryl trucked it to Mojave for the initial flight test. When the airplane was destroyed after a gear problem, the wreckage sat here in the Mojave bone yard until the late 80’s when it was finally scrapped. Al Hansen purchased the airplane after the crash trading a semi truck to Darryl for the wreckage.

Darryl’s 104 during a record setting pass.

The 3km record is historically the absolute speed record in aircraft. Measured as the average speed of four passes two in each direction over a 3km course the format for the record was developed over many years. Initially the speed record was more of a VNE record with pilots diving onto the course from greater and greater altitudes. This was finally controlled by limiting the max altitude that could be reached during an attempt. The current rules state that the aircraft cannot exceed 100 meters AGL during the run and 500 meters AGL during the turns. However, as the speed of aircraft has increased since the introduction of the jet age the danger associated with flight at these altitudes has increased substantially. Between 1953 and 1955 a lull in speed record setting was attributed to this extreme risk. Fortunately, new timing cameras were developed for flight test of aircraft at high altitude (they were tested here in the Antelope Valley at Edwards). These cameras were eventually certified by the FAI for speed record setting. Starting in 1955 the 15/25km closed course record was opened up to all altitudes, this became the new realm of the absolute speed record. Typically American records were set here at the Mint Canyon Speed Course (an 11.25 mile speed course set up from Palmdale airport south towards LA). An image conscious military took advantage of this risk reduction and focused on high altitude records until the Navy started on it’s Sageburner program.

Sageburner YF4H-1F (Navy Photo)

The Sageburner program was an effort by the US Navy to probe the extents of the low altitude speed envelope in a modified YF4H-1F. After 5 years of high altitude speed envelope expansion the 3km record had become very attainable. The initial F-4 the navy had prepared for the attempt was destroyed after a pitch damper problem resulted in a violent PIO during a low level speed run that broke up the airplane (apparently sending flaming engines several miles down range). Despite losing the aircraft and pilot (Commander J.L. Felsman) the Navy continued with the program adding a second pilot to observe in the terribly dangerous environment. The record was finally set on 8-28-61 at a speed of 902 mph by Lt. Hunt Hardesty. There is a rumor that the very low time engine that Darryl used to set his record was loaned to the effort by the Air Force specifically to embarrass the Navy’s Sageburner effort (not much worse than being beat by “civies”).

Darryl on the course

Darryl set his record on 10-24-77 at 988 mph. He had tried in the fall of the year before, but a timing camera problem had disqualified the attempt. Darryl’s plan was to use the press from the record to build interest in taking the record he really wanted, the absolute altitude record. The altitude record had been dominated by the Russians for nearly a decade (last held by an American in 1961) and had recently been raised to 123,523 feet on 8-31-77 by Alexandr Fedotov flying a E-266M (a modified Mig-25RB with experimental engines). Darryl wanted to take this record back and was modifying his 104 for the task. These modifications included a top secret fuel additive and water injection. The profile was a speed run out to mach 2.6 at 38,000 feet and then a 3 g pull to a 60 degree climb angle where he would coast to a new altitude record. He never got the chance to try it.

The 104 wreckage here at Mojave (Scaled Composites van in Background) (David Lednicer)

During an otherwise successful test flight for the newly installed water injection system, he did a low pass for the crew here at Mojave. With twenty minutes of gas remaining threw out his gear to start the approach into Mojave. He looked down to see that only his nose gear and right main were indicating down and locked. He flew to Edwards where he set the airplane on the runway to see if the gear felt solid. Lightly touching the airplane down on the mains at Edwards he found the airplane rolled to the left as he put weight on the gear and the Edwards tower said it looked like it was trying to collapse. Darryl had no choice but to abandon the airplane. He climbed up to 10,000 feet over the Edwards bombing range shut down the engine and ejected. He watched as the airplane flew away from him and then turned back underneath him finally going out of sight below him in the desert. The airplane was destroyed and Darryl was forced to abandon the project. The Russian altitude record he was setting out to beat still stands.

The E-266M (MIG 25M) Absolute altitude record holder (Photo: Paul Nann)

The Lockheed F-104 was in production for 30 years from 1954 through 1983. They were removed from active USAF service in 1969. The last operational F-104s were retired from the Italian AMI in 2004. The aircraft is powered by a J79 afterburning turbo jet engine (the same engine that fired the F-4 Sageburner whose record Darryl toppled). The aircraft was designed for peak efficiency at mach 1.6, and the airframe was limited to Mach 2.2(over-temperature of aluminum structure). Early examples featured downward ejection for fear of the t-tail slicing an ejecting pilot in two. Darryl's 104 wreckage remained in Mojave until the late 80's when it was finally scrapped, a few pieces remain, but most importantly the record still stands, under civilian registration. What are you working on tonight?

Berliner, Don. Victory Over The Wind. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. Inc, 1983.

Phinizy, Coles. "Goodbye to a Red Baron." Sports Illustrated, June 12 1978: Pages 30-33

Davidson, Keith. Record Lists/Racing & Record Aircraft Special Interest Group International Plastic Modellers’ Society. Dec 31, 2006. IPMS.org

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale,"FAI Sporting Code” Section 2-Aeroplanes. Lausanne Switzerland, January 2010

Grove Aircraft

2011-11-28T16:23:00.000-08:00

Got some beautiful machined parts in the mail from Grove. Those guys sure do nice work.

-Race 68

Electric Amphibious Lazair

2011-11-28T16:17:00.000-08:00

We had an amazing opportunity recently to fly arguably the most operational electric airplane out there. Dale Kramer is a master builder of all kinds of interesting projects. His shop was extensive and impressive. He designed the Lazair in the 70’s during the boom in the ultra-light industry. Over the next several years the factory he set up sold 1200 of the airplane to enthusiasts from all over the world. Dale became interested in other types of flying (heavy lift airships, competition soaring) and separated himself from the Lazair. But recently the electric aircraft boom has inspired Dale to dust off his Lazair. The resulting set of experiments resulted in a new chapter for the design and perhaps for general aviation. Dale’s final iteration included hanging two Joby electric motors from the Lazair’s nacelles replacing the two JPX two strokes he had flown behind for years. When he put this new configuration on floats he had the first electric seaplane, a terribly practical electric airplane, and one heck of a beach toy. I called Dale after seeing the airplane at Oshkosh. I was hoping to learn more about the switch to electric and where he thought electrics could go. When he responded with an invitation to visit his home in western NY and “find out for myself” it was just a matter of buying the tickets. In the three days we spent with Dale and Carmen on Keuka Lake the Electric Lazair was flown almost twelve hours total by six different pilots in many different atmospheric and water conditions. We walked away with a much better understanding of this new way to propel aircraft and with big smiles on our faces.

Could electric power plants change full size aviation the way they did r/c? The shift to electric from glow power in RC aircraft has drastically improved accessibility, ease of maintenance, and in general relieved the boundaries of entry to that sport. Before electrics even the most experienced RC pilot might spend ten minutes getting his glow engine to start on his model, and he would most certainly smell like glow fuel when he was done. With modern electric models an operator no longer has to spend all that time and energy dealing with the powerplant. I wondered if that would be the case with electric man carrying airplanes.

During the twelve hours of flying I witnessed no power plant maintenance. The Joby motors performed reliably without a hiccup and we always flew within five minutes of the batteries finishing charging. During that same three days some airframe maintenance was performed. The beaching gear required some regular greasing (about once a day), and an excited pilot bent the recently added prototype ‘short pilot’ rudder pedal heel supports which had to be bent back. In general the airframe required more maintenance than the motor but neither required much maintenance at all (just like an electric RC airplane). If you compare that to a brand new Lycoming 360 you may not be impressed by the lack of maintenance even though you certainly would have checked the oil or fiddled with some loose baffling during that 12 hours of flying, however if compared to the typical troublesome two strokes that might be on an airplane like this you should definitely be impressed. The charging was also carefree and easy (Dale’s charging and docking infrastructure was very mature). It became common to forget to keep someone within sight of the charging airplane.

Could we ever get comfortable using RC heritage hardware in man rated operations? With all these little electric RC airplanes being sold today the price of the associated equipment is down significantly. It becomes very easy to adapt that hardware to full scale applications and take advantage of the low cost and high availability. But can we ever get comfortable flying in something designed to be a toy and therefore cheap and not necessarily safe.

The RC heritage parts of this airplane were the batteries, the visual tachometers, the propellers, the linear pots for throttle signal, and the thermo couples for motor temperature monitoring. I do not consider the Joby motors and controllers to be RC hardware (they appear to be produced to a higher standard than common RC). The safety critical RC components were the batteries (fire risk) and the propellers (pilot’s legs in prop arc) both were off the shelf items available at any online hobby store. Both the batteries and the propellers performed flawlessly. The visual tachometers were not safety critical nor were they completely reliable but were plenty adequate for the mission. The temperature monitoring of the motors was out of calibration but was reliable for all of the flying. The throttle signal pots were also trouble free. In general I found it easy to forget that I was depending on hardware designed for toys and I would be comfortable designing future aircraft to rely on such hardware. My only complaint was that the hard starting that Dale opted to use for the motor controller would probably have been fine in an RC was very annoying in the manned application (Dale agreed and commented he was working on a solution).

Is operation of a single engine recip comparable to a multi motor electric? Operating a twin engine airplane is significantly more complicated than operating a single engine one. Electric motors being developed for RC applications are small and therefore one would need several to get enough power to replace your recip (most electric aircraft concepts involve several motors). Does the simplicity of electric motor operation (single lever control) make electrics simple enough that we can overlook using multi engine platforms and take advantage of the many small cheap motors that are available?

The twin motor installation on the Lazair required two power lever controls (left motor, right motor) and six gauges (two tachs, two motor temps, and two voltmeters). This compares with three levers in a C-150 (throt, mixture, carb heat) and 5 gauges (tach, oil press, oil temp, cyl temp, fuel level). Say nothing for engine out behavior; the amount of systems and controls to monitor for a pilot is very comparable. If you extrapolate that the number of moving parts is down considerably from a recip to an electric perhaps you can ignore engine out behavior (as it becomes very unlikely), but either way the pilot workload during normal operations is comparable.

How hard is it really to manage energy levels in flight? In your Cessna 150 you have a gas gauge or two and it is very easy to understand. Energy management in an electric is not so simple. While this is a problem that is solved on every cellphone on the market, the number one cause of accidents in aircraft is fuel management so it seemed important to better understand how to manage fuel levels while flying an electric.

Battery level turned out not to be a problem at all. Dale briefed that we would launch with 67 volts a side, and land before 57.0 volts. While this makes sense on the ground the first thing you notice in the air is that the voltage the batteries make depends on the current that is being drawn by the motors. So when Dale says to land at 57 volts the question is what power setting should I be at when I make that measurement. His response was to measure at cruise power. While this sounds very complicated flight times were remarkably consistent (40 to 50 minutes) and so was the measured energy remaining upon landing (the chargers typically found 10-15%). This was despite a wide bodyweight envelope (125-250lbs) and the dynamic conditions of a seashore environment (thermal and slope lift, rotors, rain and sink, and winds 0-17 mph). The tachometer was very useful to maintain motor output throughout the burn, and therefore maximize efficiency. The commanded power required to maintain motor output increases as the battery voltage drops. By maintaining RPM you could maintain power output which simplified everything (Dale installed the visual tachometers for this task).

Besides some time in an Airbike, most of my experience as PIC has been in aircraft significantly heavier than the Lazair. As a result I was continually impressed by the details of this aircraft. The first thing you notice about the Lazair is the wing. Typically an ultra-light will have a Hershey bar wing and a conventional tail. The Lazair has neither, instead it has a long lovely tapered wing with an aluminum polished leading edge and spar. This spar and leading edge form a D-section which makes up the majority of the structure of the wing. The next thing you notice is the exotic inverted V tail feathers. The combination means an airplane with looks that are far from that of your average ultra-light. When I flew the airplane I was immediately impressed by the light control forces in all three axis. In pitch and roll the aircraft is very responsive and in general felt solid. The rudders are not very powerful and the airplane is marginal directionally, this is made worse by the pilots head being in the flow field of the motors which takes away all wind based slip indication. Dale warned new pilots that the aircraft would not turn without rudder at low speeds until the ailerons are returned to neutral after establishing a bank angle (low directional stability and significant adverse yaw) and I found this to be accurate, though I am confident that the floats did not help. The airplane handled best between 35 and 40 mph and stalled about 28 mph. The fastest I flew the airplane was 47 mph and it handled fine at that speed. As a flight test dork I was fascinated by the handling characteristics of the airplane (probably a product of my limited ultra-light experience) but was probably over thinking it. The airplane is a joy to fly, and the configuration is efficient and aesthetically pleasing. The float handled fine in seas from near glass to 1.5’ swells and chop.

With the electric amphibious Lazair Dale and Carmen have changed the way that we look at recreational aviation. By going electric the noise level, the filth, and thereby the fun of the medium improved significantly, both for the operator, and for the uninvolved public. By taking the operation off an airport the transition was complete. There was no anxiety about making it back to the runway, about landing out, or about winds shifting to a crosswind. Flying the airplane was more like a spin on a jet ski than operating a complicated flying machine. The best evidence of which was the ear to ear grin that every pilot had as they taxied back to the dock. It still remains to be seen whether the electric makes sense for uses beyond recreational flying. After this weekend I am confident that much like the explosion of the RC aircraft industry associated with the move to cheap and available electrics, the same thing is possible in the full size recreational aircraft, especially if we can continue to adapt that RC hardware for man carrying electric aircraft. What are you working on tonight?

Sparkfun Post

2011-09-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

Had Sparkfun out, they wrote it up.

Check it out.

Sport Av July "Spline Blocks" article

2011-09-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Below is the article that ran in the July issue of Sport Av.

Reno 2011

2011-09-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

Wasabi Air Racing regrets to announce that 2011 will not be a racing year for the team. We appreciate the interest from friends and fans over the last several months but despite a concerted effort by the team and our sponsors we will not be able to make the races. We do look forward to a fast 2012.

Elliot Seguin

Instructables

2011-08-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

In order to raise awareness of air racing and homebuilding of experimental aircraft and give our wonderful sponsors some well earned publicity we experimented over the last month with the Instructables website. The posting has gotten alot of positive feedback.

Check it out below:

Oshkosh 2011

2011-08-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

Wasabi Air Racing would like to thank everybody who came out to support Wasabi in Wisconsin this year. The turn out for all the talks was really great and people seemed very excited about air racing and homebuilding experimental aircraft.

Thanks again!

Chris Sports Green on Mt Massive in CO

2011-07-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks Chris!

EAA's Timeless Voices Interview

2011-07-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

This is an interview we did at the 2010 Oshkosh Airventure. A big thank you to Zack Baughman and the Timeless Voices team for the great work editing the interview. Thanks guys!

Oshkosh 2011

2011-07-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Oshkosh is getting close, below are the dates that Scaled Composites will be speaking at this years EAA Airventure. I will be giving three talks this year and as always air racing will be covered. As usual we will have Wasabi Swag for distribution at the talks. I hope everybody can make it out!

EAA is dedicating Thursdays show to Burt for his retirement. Some Scaled engineers have restored a couple of Burt's old airplanes and will be flying them out to pay tribute to the boss man. Friday will include a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Voyager flights.

Elliot Seguin 7/26/2011 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Garmin Tent Raceplanes and Rocketships

Burt Rutan 7/27/2011 10:00 AM - 11:15 PM Forum Pavillion 07 Mainstage Burt Rutan Update

Bob Morgan 7/27/2011 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Garmin Tent Prototype Aircraft Development for Space Tourism

Burt Rutan 7/27/2011 2:30 AM - 3:45 PM SpaceShip One / Voyager B08 Rutan Aircraft Designs

Burt Rutan 7/28/2011 10:00 AM - 11:15 PM Forum Pavillion 07 Mainstage Honda Aicraft Burt Rutan Update

Burt Rutan 7/28/2011 1:00 AM - 2:00 PM Conoco Plaza K12 Rutan Designs

Mike Melvill 7/28/2011 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Garmin Tent Around the World in a Long-Ez

Elliot Seguin 7/28/2011 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM Forum Pavilion 10 PolyFiber Mojave; Where It Happens

Marc J. Zeitlin 7/29/2011 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM Forum Pavilion 02 GAMA Cozy MKIV Aircraft-Soup to Nuts

Burt Rutan 7/29/2011 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM Forum Pavillion 07 Mainstage Burt Rutan Update

Burt Rutan 7/29/2011 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Garmin Tent Record Breaking Flights & Aircraft Designs

Elliot Seguin 7/30/2011 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Garmin Tent Mojave; Where It Happens

Burt Rutan, Dick Rutan, Mike Melvill 7/29/2011 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM SpaceShip One / Voyager Voyager 25th Celebration

Green watching the weather

2011-06-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Sepulveda is currently working as a Weather Research pilot. Thanks Jonathan!

DIY Drones

2011-06-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Spent the day with some smart folks. DIY Drones

Green in Brazil

2011-05-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

Paulo Iscold designer and builder of the record setting CEA-308 took some pictures of his Wasabi shirt with his airplane.

Thanks for the support Paulo!

Handmade Clamps

2011-04-07T21:18:00.000-07:00

An old friend sent along some handmade clamps for butt joints. Rob enjoys the challenge of building the tool he needs out of scrap he has around rather than buying it. Here is where you can get yours, these are for me. Thanks Rob.

New Shop Vac

2011-04-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased a new Rigid shop vac. I am very happy with this model. Previously I used a dust collector style vacuum. These stand up units run about $350 have big power and draw through a massive 4 inch hose. Mine got a lot of use and the bag filter became saturated with dust. I rinsed it out a couple times but the bag really needed to be replaced. Eventually I found myself putting the collector outside and leaving the bag off when I was making a lot of dust, this got old real quick. Looking at replacement bags for my collector online I found that it would cost me $80 or more for a new bag. For $115 I could get a brand new shop vac. I went with the shop vac. I found my Rigid at Home Depot. It came with a bunch of straight hoses and other accessories to lose and trip over. The filters run $15 and up and are available at home depot or even Ace hardware. The unit is well built with high quality castors. It features an accessory bag that kind of works and if you hate it it’s removable. The 20 foot cord is really nice, and when you start tripping over it you can coil it conveniently around the handle. I do miss the four inch hose that my old dust collector had but I don’t miss the dust that it sprayed all over my shop. If you are looking for a shop vac I recommend the rigid 14 gal.

LT-1 Shirts!

2011-04-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

We just got some wicked LT shirts, thanks Andy!

Union college admissions video

2011-03-28T11:29:00.001-07:00

Elliot Seguin '06 from Communications Office on Vimeo.

Looking good in Green

2011-03-08T13:02:00.000-08:00

Grant shows his support for the team.

Thanks Grant!!

New Technical Advisor

2011-01-18T11:35:00.000-08:00

Spent some time with one of our technical advisors Terry Lutz (Airbus test pilot and SETP member) over the holidays. As an added bonus this included some RV-8 time, never have too much of that.

Thanks Terry!

Spreading the word

2011-01-10T15:29:00.000-08:00

The holidays offered a chance to take the show on the road and reach new fans and potential sponsors.

The picture below is from the Wasabi talk we gave at EAA chapter 55 in Mason Michigan while taking some time off for the holidays.

Some Reno Pics

2010-12-14T10:39:00.000-08:00

It was tough to be on deck for this years races but we made due. Races were as good as ever and we are looking forward to 2011.

w/ Tone at Tiger's Pit

Ready to watch the Formula Final

Oshkosh 2010 pics

2010-12-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

Some pics from Oshkosh

Jenn and some runnning wrights

Video Interview with EAA

Bossman (Burt Rutan) speaks on the Long EZ

Thank you Art Siordia (article in todays paper)

2010-09-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

Great Forums At Oshkosh!

2010-08-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

We'd like to thank everyone who made it out to the forums. Turn out was great and it was great to put some faces to some names of people we have been talking to. And as always the show and the airplanes were great!!

Photo of the day today at RARA

2010-07-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

Wasabi is featured in the photo of the day today on the RARA website. Check it out!
Thanks Stevo!

Andy shows some green!

2010-07-12T14:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks Andy

Wasabi's 2010 race season

2010-07-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

I am sorry to announce that team Wasabi will not be a participant in this year's National Championship Air Races. A very ambitious modification campaign combined with a busy winter at work has placed us in this less than ideal position. While we could very easily have returned to Reno, unmodded from our 2009 configuration, I have decided that would not represent our goals or the goals of our sponsors. While we don't look forward to sitting on the sidelines in 2010, we do look forward to a very fast 2011!

Mean speed,
Elliot Seguin

International Wasabi!!

2010-06-28T10:49:00.001-07:00

Thanks Andrew!

Before there were race numbers (2008)

2010-06-28T08:18:00.001-07:00

First Wasabi ground run (2008)

2010-06-16T07:52:00.001-07:00

With Dave Vanhoy in his G-202

2010-06-08T05:04:00.001-07:00

On the way back from CAF Pearl Harbor days at Camarillo in 2008

Logan Poses W/ Wasabi (2008)

2010-06-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

2009 Cowling Work Picture

2010-06-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

Crew chief gets to try on her favorite fighter

2010-05-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks Andy!

Oshkosh forum date, mark your calendar!

2010-05-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Mayday at Reno:

7/29/2010 - 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM - 004 Forums Pavilion 4

Wasabi shirt sightings!

2010-05-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Taylor Kesee and Cecil Whaley

Chris Woken

Jennifer's spinner

2010-05-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

Jennifer's first spinner back in 2008.

Paul Bonham's visit in 2008

2010-05-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

Back in 2008 Paul was around alot while the Sharps were quickening his Redbull acro racer, Jenn and I let him try on Wasabi.

Tristan shows some green

2010-05-20T05:11:00.000-07:00

Get your Wasabi tshirt at our online store

Congrats to Andy on his first flight

2010-05-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

Check out the video

Yvonne shows some green in Thom's T-6

2010-05-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Thom Richards for the photo.

Rob's Rock Crawler

2010-05-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

Rob of Leded shows some green in front of his Rock Crawler in NY

Pictures!

2010-05-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

Jon speaks at AMA

2010-05-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

A couple months back we went to watch Jon talk about racing RC at the AMA Expo in Ontario, it was a really nice deal and its now on vimeo (link below).

A couple from Reno '09

2010-05-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

New postcard out, are you on the mailing list?

2010-05-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

The postcard features the Rare Bear during its infamous belly landing at the Mojave Air Races (picture from Michael Parsons). The belly landing almost ended Lyle's air racing career and is yet another example of the amount of effort and heartache required to make a champion in this sport.

Ben's Wasabi plug

2010-04-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

A couple months back Craig Fuller, President of AOPA, came to Mojave to visit our airport. Our good friend Ben Harvey took the opportunity to spread the word and wore his Wasabi Air Racing T-shirt. Thank You Ben.

2010 Shirts Available!!!

2010-04-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

Wasabi Air Racing Online Store

Thanks to Union College and the ASME

2010-04-12T12:43:00.000-07:00

Team Wasabi would like to thank the Union College Mechanical Engineering Department for bringing us out as the key note speaker for this last weekend's ASME Student Professional Development Conference in Schenectady. It was really lovely to get out of the hangar and enjoy some spring weather in beautiful upstate New York.

New Postcard out, are you on the mailing list?

2010-03-18T16:50:00.001-07:00

Email me your address to get in on the awesome!

Some pictures from Gerhard Schmidt at airventure.de

2010-02-26T10:01:00.000-08:00

Great Stuff! Thanks Gerhard!

http://www.airventure.de/

Evan just posted our interview on his site!

2010-02-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

Check it out!

Interview on Evan Flies

New Wasabi Store

2010-02-10T12:46:00.000-08:00

The new Wasabi Air Racing store just launched. Current stock is very similar to what was available at Reno. We will be adding new items soon.

Thanks,
Elliot Seguin

Thank you Warbird Radio

2010-02-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

Did an interview this morning with Warbird Radio, thanks guys.

Interview with Airpigz.com

2010-02-05T11:20:00.000-08:00

Airpigz follow up interview with Wasabi

Yay Sanding!

2010-01-25T14:36:00.000-08:00

Jack is serious

2010-01-12T15:18:00.000-08:00

About laying carbon.

The Hangar Tent

2010-01-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

Been pretty busy since Reno, things are coming together nicely. Enjoy the sneak peak.

AMA this weekend!

2010-01-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

Some of team Wasabi will taking a break from the hangar to attend the AMA expo this weekend in ontario, hope to see you there!

Wasabi on JetPhotos.Net by Ryan Coulter

2009-12-15T13:51:00.000-08:00

Thanks Ryan!

Join the Wasabi Mailing List

2009-12-14T06:30:00.000-08:00

Shoot us an email with your address and we'll send you some Wasabi Swag!
Michael Luvara's Wasabi Sukhoi.

Wasabi interview on Airsports.tv

2009-12-10T08:11:00.001-08:00

Thank you Nigel Boettiger and Jeff Zaltman!

Busy night

2009-12-08T10:25:00.000-08:00

We weren't able to spend much time in the hangar last night, hopefully our sponsors will forgive us.

Some of our favorite Virgin pics from the event.

1 2 3

A New Wasabi Racer Design Study?

2009-12-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

Holiday Weekend Focus

2009-11-30T15:04:00.000-08:00

More from Jan and Frauke

2009-11-30T13:25:00.000-08:00

Airrace.de

Photography of Jim Johnson

2009-11-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

Fantastic Work! Thank you Jim.

A few from the last couple months

2009-11-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

Aircraft Windshield Co

2009-11-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

We would like to thank Judy and Mark at Aircraft Windshield for living up to their reputuation and providing a great product over the weekend. If you're looking for plastic work they sure took great care of us!

Aircraft Windshield Co
10871 Kyle ST
Los Alamitos, CA
90720-2410

(562) 430-8108

An old one from the alien

2009-10-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks Victor!

Thank you Jan and Frauke

2009-10-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

Check out Jan Peters' website here http://airrace.de/.

flashback

2009-10-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

first w&b on Wasabi 2-08

Porterville

2009-10-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

On the way back from PRS 08'

AV Press Article

2009-10-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks again to Allison Gatlin for yet again making it all look so good.

Nice Shirt Andy!

2009-10-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

A good day for racing

2009-10-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

Made the Mojave Desert News today!!

2009-10-01T16:41:00.001-07:00

Interview in front of the new cowl with Jeff and Mark from AMA

2009-09-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

Early summer 09

Cowl forming flashbacks

2009-09-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

More from 09

2009-09-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

More Reno Pics

2009-09-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

Race Pictures

2009-09-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from 09

2009-09-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

El Drewque

2009-09-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

Got a couple suprises in my inbox today from an old friend, thanks Drew.

At Lake Bed, Slovenia

Back from the races

2009-09-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

The races are over and its back to reality, we'll be posting pictures from the event over the next few posts. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the pits to show support. Go Green!

Mojave Support

2009-09-09T13:31:00.000-07:00

thanks guys

Great weekend to be in mojave

2009-09-08T09:00:00.001-07:00

It was an awesome weekend in Mojave for Labor day, lots of people stopped by and helped us get some great test flying in...thanks guys.

T Minus One Week

2009-09-07T17:21:00.000-07:00

For nostalgia

2009-09-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Since the airplane will hopefully never look like this again, seemed like a good excuse to break out an old favorite that featured the tin cowl.

Tom Cassutt and his Cassutt

Mountains!

2009-09-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

Nothing like waiting for paint to dry to get you thinking about flying

Color...finally

2009-08-31T11:04:00.000-07:00

Wasabi featured on Alan's Mojave Skies Blog

2009-08-26T08:31:00.001-07:00

Thanks Alan

Good company

2009-08-25T16:52:00.001-07:00

At the voyager restaurant over the weekend

Ugh more body work!

2009-08-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

Never get too many of these pictures

2009-08-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

Thank you Mike and thank you Kerch

2009-08-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

This is one for the books