BK1 Oshkosh 2005 – Déjà Vu All Over Again
On Monday there were late afternoon rains followed up right after dark with the main event. This extreme hard rain and high wind high wind is best experienced inside a 5’x7’ dome tent, ah the adventure of it all. Stayed dry, this ex-Boy Scout knows how to set up a tent. Wondered the next morning if anyone’s plane, including mine would still be there, but those rebar tie downs they rent worked fine.
Next few days went by so fast, standing next to the BK1 passing out cards and talking about my favorite subject, planes. Everyone asks the same basic questions, after all people who know planes always want to know all the hows; how fast , how high, how far, how much etc… Please accept my apology if I got robot like responding. Know well that for you it is a first time question and I try to keep the answers fresh. Especially appreciate those who came back again and were too polite to tell me that they had already heard the recording.
Spending all your time at the Homebuilder’s parking area, near show center, has its advantages. Your right there as a bunch of fantastic airplanes arrive. The White Knight/Space Ship One combo did a great group of low passes. That evening went to see their presentation at the Theater in the Woods. The best part was when Burt Rutan said, “Soon all of you will be astronauts too!” Starting to save for this already. Next came the Global Flyer. Since they made it around the world even after losing 2600 pounds of fuel, they are planning a 1 ½ times around the world trip. Then there are the air show acts, just how does Sean Tucker get the plane to do that double hammerhead?
Fortunately there were people looking out after me, like when Buzz walked up and said, “The briefing for the Homebuilder’s Review flyby is starting, you better get there quick.” “Thanks,” I said, “Can’t believe I forgot about it. By the way, what day of the week is this?”
Flying the Hummel Bird in front of the crowd at Oshkosh 2003 was such a great experience. This time in my own creation, it was hard to contain the excitement. Untied the bird, started the pre-flight, and bit by bit things started to fall apart. The first fuel sample was half water! Used the same boat deck air vent on both planes and never got water before, but this was a real hard rain with wind blowing it sideway, guess from the front. Took off the fuel cap and saw a few bubbles of water gathered around the finger strainer, but after a few more fillings of the fuel sampler it was clear of water. The oil looked good, the dipstick was dry, except for oil.
Pulled the bird out and waited till time to start up. Pulled it through the first blade and it felt real funny, kinda like the engine was full of gravel. Started pulling the second blade real slow to feel the gravel better and it froze, yikes! Is this a hydraulic lock? Rotated it slowly backwards about a turn and an half and heard strange gurgling noises. Turned forward again and water shot out of one of the rear exhaust pipes like a fire hose. Worked it back and forth for a while until it stopped dumping water. Pull it through a bunch of blades and it felt horrible scratchy with no compression on three cylinders, and very little on that one. Figured that it would be best to start it up and let the heat dry it out, but after repeated attempts, was only able to get a weak fire from the only cylinder that had any compression.
Here I was standing in front of hoards of people flipping the prop over and over as the hope of flying the Wednesday Homebuilder’s Review slipped away. Started feeling like I had been here before, like in 2003 with my balky Hummel Bird. Only this day there was going to be no miracle ending
It was déjà vu all over again.
Thank, Bruce King