Team Bonhomme have been busy again… and it’s been a varied week of activity. Wade and Jim have been busy with further weight reduction as well as sorting out a cylinder that was misbehaving. That was sent off to be sorted and we’re confident that it’ll be 100% fit for Windsor. The aeroplane is now in Phoenix, ferried there yesterday in the skillful hands of Len Rulason (ex Steve Jones engineer and all round good guy. Thanks also to Mike Larkin for the “ferry pilot ferrying” who took Len to Mojave in his Lancair Legacy… by the way guys, the info on which plane, Edge or Lancair that got back to Chandler first is confidential!) From Phoenix, Len will ferry the aeroplane north east to get it closer to Windsor… We’ll be mustering once again at Casa de Aero, home of Rick and Amy Lutes, who live just west of Chicago… we’ll do some final tweaks on the aeroplane there before we set of for Windsor for round three. We might even have a beer…
Jim and some other very clever people at Mojave have also been hatching some plans for the future… I won’t say what here but it’s exciting stuff… Meanwhile in the UK we have some other folks working on a couple of projects for the future… I’m glad I only have to fly the thing because there are some seriously intelligent engineers out there who are very keen to make aeroplanes go faster…
My back is now back in action and I flew the Sukhoi 26 two days ago as a warm up before our displays at the weekend (Southend on Sea)… the Sukhoi is not as fast as an Edge but it is an awesome aeroplane to fly. Nothing beats a bit of gyrating and tumbling around the Cambridgeshire countryside on a sunny afternoon… and a weekend of formation aerobatics should be the perfect antidote to the upcoming week of fast and furious racing in Windsor.
And once again, I must mention a huge THANKS to all the folks at Mojave who’ve looked after us so well… from board and lodging to technical wizardry, hangarage, structural calculations, welding, fabric work, painting, carbon fibre repairs, engine work, canopy construction, and just about any other skill you could care to mention (and consumption of tequila, but that’s enough on that subject!), Team Bonhomme have been looked after royally… We’ll miss our visits to a very special place…