Wow! What a great day for a fly-in! Beautiful weather, lots of experimental airplanes and flocks of aviation enthusiasts! Thank you to Cam Martin, Roy Gant, Bill Deaver and many other friends who took photos of the outstanding variety of aircraft that were flown in from all over the U.S., plus a magnificent Sport Class Reno racer from Calgary, Alberta, Canada! MOJAVE TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM FOUNDATION PLANE CRAZY SATURDAY MOJAVE AIR & SPACEPORT MOJAVE EXPERIMENTAL FLY-IN! After Action Report APRIL 15, 2017 Loud is painted on the side of his aircraft! It looks unbeatable just sitting on the ground. This year, Tyler and Chad Sanders, a familiar name in air racing, built a jet powered Schweizer I-26B sailplane and brought it to Mojave! No tow plane required! Two retractable jet engines, the largest jet engine made for model airplanes, were fitted to the top of the fuselage for takeoff and for landing rollouts. It is the fastest Harmon Rocket in the world! Check out article about this aircraft in the May issue of Kitplanes magazine. Bill Beaton runs a supercharged Aero Sport Power IO- 540 with SDS EFI/ CPI, ADI and Nitrous Oxide as a backup plan in case anyone gets too close. Red, White & I remember Frank Sanders flying his Sea Fury at the Mojave Air Races decades ago! These younger Sanders brothers, Tyler and Chad, are engineering students at San Jose State University.
Check out this Cessna U206 Super Skywagon amphibious floatplane from Modesto, CA! Powered with a Continental IO-520A developing 285 horsepower. She can really climb out steeply too! Tom Hastings flew his rare Cirrus VK-30 to Mojave on Saturday from the San Fernando Valley. This experimental aircraft was built in 1999 and is one of just over a dozen that have been constructed. This unusual design is powered with a Continental IO-550 pusher engine and has a range of 1,309 miles, with a cruise speed of 250 miles per hour. So great to see Barb and Phil Schultz on Saturday and hear the two Pratt & Whitney 985 s on their beautiful and distinctive Beech 18! Always a real show stopper!
Lots of Rutan designs on display! Or as Cam says, The plastic pickle fork lineup. Here is another one of Cam Martin s fantastic photos showing a great angle of the Turbine Schweizer 1-26 Jet Cat Powered Self- Launcher. Chad & Tyler Sanders Aero Engineer Brothers "Schweizworks Poor Man's U-2" Per the "Turbine 1-26" Website: Any questions or comments? Please feel free to contact us at: officialturbine126@gmail.com! Wow! Another Reno National Air Race winner at Mojave. Here is DoubleRed Legacy from Burbank. What a beauty! In 2007, Skip Holm flew this airplane to a second place finish.
The brilliant and inspiring guest speaker for Plane Crazy Saturday was Rob Skid Rowe, longtime U-2 pilot, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel, and chief test pilot for Lockheed Martin, who gave an engaging presentation about his work with the Red Bull Stratos project. In October 2012, skydiving daredevil Felix Baumgartner set a world s speed record by jumping from 127,851 feet above the Earth while reaching speeds of Mach 1.25 as he fell. Rowe was recruited for the Red Bull project due to his expertise with high altitude flight and the use of spacesuits. Rowe has more hours flying the U-2 Dragon than any other pilot. He recently joined NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center as a research pilot on the Gulfstream III and ER-2, the civilian version of the U-2. Greg Morris - Gauntlet Aerospace taxis his Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet in for display. The Alpha Jet is a light attack jet and advanced trainer aircraft co-manufactured by Dassault Aviation of France and Dornier Flugzeugwerke of Germany. Gauntlet s Alpha Jets are powered by two ANECMA Larzac 04 C20 engines that produce 10% more thrust for similar specific fuel consumption that allows operations carrying external loads in hot, high environments. Alpha Jets are still in service with the militaries of France, Belgium, Egypt, Portugal, Thailand and are operated by EPNER and Empire Test Pilot School.
Andy Glatfelter, Principal at Fulton & Alsbury Academy of Arts and Engineering was there with his family too! Kids excited to meet Dick Rutan again this year. Brian Min (Tehachapi Corsswinds) did an outstanding job organizing the Third Annual Indoor Fly-In on Friday night! Lots of radio control models were in the still air of the Stuart Witt Event Center located at Mojave Air & Spaceport. A Free Flight, Build and Fly competition, a fun family event, keep kids and their parents busy building balsa wood gliders. Even engineers from Scaled Composites, Strato-Launch and The Spaceship Company were on hand to build and fly! Jacqueline Nichole LeClair stayed after work to build and fly models too! Great fun! Great people!!
Thank you Plane Crazy Saturday sponsors AND Mojave Experimental Fly-In Sponsors! GT Aero was a sponsor for MEFI too, but didn t get on the banner! Plane Crazy Saturday next month May 20, 2017 Todd Schultz and Cam Martin will give a presentation on Vintage Sailplanes! Rare gliders will be on display! Don t miss it!