I promised someone at the Whittier contest on October 17, that I'd give him some details on my record 165.53 MPH Sport Jet, that he could use to build a ship for his new Bailey Sport Engine.

Missed him on Sunday, so here is the info if any one is interested;

My ship is an upright which I built in 2004 and first flew with a DynaJet at about 136 MPH.  When I got a Bailey Sport Engine, Jim Rhoades flew it at 151.45, the first SJ over 150 MPH.  Later officials were in the 155 range, but always lean since the engine would cutoff on takeoff with a metering jet rich enough to give me the low altitude run I was looking for.  This is kind of the opposite problem confronting Sidewinders, which often richen excessivly in high speed flight when using a metering jet which gives sure taleoff.  What I needed was a way to get a rich enough run to get the "Diesel locomotive" sound necessary for really high speeds, yet get clean takeoff power. When Jim Rhoades' speed jumped from 153 to over 160 last year, his Bailey had this sound.

My fuel tank installation allows changing the fuel tank by removing three nuts.  For the October meet I relocated the uniflo breather (the open end of the breather sets the fuel head in flight- remember, at Sport Jet speeds, fuel becomes twice as dense as mercury, and a geometric head of one inch becomes about 28 inches in flight.)  The engine I used was a combination of Bailey flo-jector and SJ tailpipe, JB Head and reed backing plate.

The first flight flamed out too rich in flight and fuel squirting forward from the breather during the skid-out ignited.  This has happened before and I had a bottle of water ready to douse fhe fire to save the ship.

Joe Brownlee and Howard Doering had Jerry Rocha check out the ship for safety for further flights.  I went one step leaner (from 59 to 58) and Jim Rhoades put in the flight I've been trying for for four years.   Jim flew low and the engine kept running richer until it finally got to the GM 2-cycle Diesel sound, during the official timing.  After starting up I got out of the circle quickly enough to get a time, about three laps later than the official timers.  The officials averaged three times at 10.87; my watch read 10.90.  The engine quit rich, with fuel still in the tank.

I haven't been able to enclose pictures but if you post your e-mail address I can enclose pix, particularly of the wingtip bellcrank and positive line retention setup.

Will Stewart