San Diego May 5
Team Coordinator Robert arrived in San Diego on May 1st from New Zealand and Technician Takashi Nishimura the same day from Riverside CA.
On May 2nd we assembled most of race plane 31 working side by side with the other teams assembling there planes. When we looked in the hanger we found that 4 planes were missing. 4 days after we left from Abu Dhabi, the whole of the Red Bull Air Race equipment had arrived in San Diego. All 15 race planes, 1 media plane 1 helicopter and all the portable hangers, control towers, the High Flyers building and all the other equipment had been put in 2 Boeing 747 jumbo jets and transported to San Diego.
The 4 missing planes were Bonhomme, Gulian, Chambliss and Mangold. All were assembled on arrival by their teams and flown out to various places in the USA for modification before the San Diego races. Bonhomie's plane went to Mojave for more work by the Scaled Composites and Nemesis Racing team. The objective was to reduce the weight of the plane somehow. Gulian's plane went to Oregon to remove the wing "cuffs" that proved to be slow in Abu Dhabi. The other 2 we are not sure where they went and what modifications were done.
For team Muroya, we have found some equipment on the plane that we didn't really need so we spent some time removing these and reduced the weight by about 1 kg.
On May 3 Yoshi arrived from Japan and in the late afternoon made a test flight. May 4th some more adjustments made to the plane and another test flight. After the experience from Abu Dhabi Yoshi has moved the seat to a lower position and laid the seat back at more of an angle to make it more comfortable for flying the Red Bull Race course. Today May 5th we had another test flight. So far all flights have been overhead the Temporary Runway located at Brown Field airport. From tomorrow, the real practice in the race area starts with a calibration flight overhead the race course. The calibration flight is to test the TV and Data telemetry systems that are now back on board the planes. These systems allow the position speed and attitude of the planes to be broadcast live to the ground together with the live camera images from the cockpit camera and tail camera.
Also today, the Team coordinators had a briefing on the care of the special G-RS racing G suits. Part of the TC job is to take the G suit back to the Hotel after each championship round and WASH it! Glamorous job! These new G suits have 4 columns of water called "fluid muscles" that are contained in tubes that run vertically down the length of the suit, 2 at the front and 2 at the back. So, prior to washing, the water tubes need to be removed. The system works by having a tight fitting body suit with the fluid columns in it. When the aircraft experiences the on onset of high G forces, the fluid flows down the columns and exerts more pressure on the legs and lower body thereby restricting the flow of blood there and increasing the pilots resistance to high G forces. Each suit weighs about 6.5 kgs. If he pilot elects not to use his G suit, he must carry a lead weight of 6.5kg on the seat instead.
http://www.redbullairrace.com/news.php?id=2267&lang=en
Pictures show the fluid columns that are in inserted into special cloth tubes that run the length of the suit.
Team Muroya is looking forward to improving our performance in the races in San Diego with more experience in the track. We are planning some major improvements to our race plane between San Diego and Windsor to help put us closer in aircraft performance to the top teams. From our research prior to purchasing the Edge 540, we knew our plane would be down slightly on performance compared to the top teams but have now found a way to get some vital improvements incorporated in our machine earlier than we had originally planned.
Watch for some exciting racing from Team Muroya in the coming championship rounds!
Pictures show the fluid columns that are in inserted into special cloth tubes that run the length of the suit.
Team Muroya is looking forward to improving our performance in the races in San Diego with more experience in the track. We are planning some major improvements to our race plane between San Diego and Windsor to help put us closer in aircraft performance to the top teams. From our research prior to purchasing the Edge 540, we knew our plane would be down slightly on performance compared to the top teams but have now found a way to get some vital improvements incorporated in our machine earlier than we had originally planned.
Watch for some exciting racing from Team Muroya in the coming championship rounds!
