After a great race week in 2021, with a heat win and no mechanical failures, we were ready to carry that momentum through 2022 and get back on top of the podium. Unfortunately this year (in many ways) just wasn’t our year.  Off-Season In November, Microsoft Flight Simulator released the Reno Air Races expansion pack. While we were disappointed Sport Class was not included in the game’s release, “Young” Thomas was determined to get Race #30 into the game. Collaborating with Robina Custom Liveries they created a custom livery which paints “Strega” in the orange and white colors of Race #30 ..read more

It would be an understatement to say it’s been a crazy two years. While it was a bummer that the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 races, it was understandable given the travel and safety concerns of the teams and fans. Fortunately, RARA, STOL Drag’s Trent Palmer and hundreds of fans all chipped in to raise $500,000 for the 2021 races. And after taking a year off this year’s races were definitely worth the wait.  Also, a shout out to Kevin Quinn and the STOL Drag pilots who have done an amazing job revitalizing general aviation and getting people excited about flying together.  If ..read more

From Rare Bear’s (at this point mythical) 3-blade paddle prop to the new 5-blade MT prop on Clas Thunder I, a new propeller is one of the most visible speed mods on any racer. With so many different shapes, sizes, and numbers of blades the big question is, “which is fastest?” The boring, but predictable, answer is it depends, however there are some basic principles that can be applied to every propeller design. Horsepower A propeller is just a power converter. It takes the horsepower produced by the engine, and through aerodynamics, converts that power into thrust.  We also must reme ..read more

Coming off an incredible year in 2018, breaking the elusive 400mph mark, the quest for speed continued.  Over the past several years we have made some extensive changes with the wingtips, flap mod, body and paint work, and it was time to focus on refining the systems a bit. In April we took the plane to Sun-n-Fun in Florida to display in the Lancair booth.  It was great to see all the fans and talk about going fast.  It’s great to see the recognition that the air races have gotten.  @charlie_the_flying_cavalier was on hand for the fans as well!  PRS was a blast as us ..read more

“The Unlimiteds are dying,” is once again the topic for air racing fans. This time it’s because Rod Lewis sold “232”. The stories say it will be shipped to Germany and restored to stock. But at the same time “Rare Bear” is back in Texas with hints of a new speed record attempt. These two events, happening so close together, sent air racing fanpages through a range of nostalgia, despair, and finally some hope. But  it was the despair that really got me thinking. More specifically, it was the despair caused by the fear that if the Unlimited Class dies, then the Reno Air Races die as well. I ..read more

This year’s prep began the day we landed from Reno 2017.  We had just pushed the plane faster than ever, and my inadvertent mixture bump caused us to pull up from the Gold Race on Sunday.  The good news was we didn’t break anything and had a great baseline. We started with the engine overhaul to see how the new piston fit was working and if the high power had caused any cranktrain or crankcase issues.  We were pleasantly surprised as the engine looked great inside. The team at Pinnacle Engines in Alabama continued the rebuild process, while we were busy back in Virginia.  M ..read more

Introduction During the 2017 National Championship Air Races, team One Moment was pitted opposite Kevin Eldridge’s NXT “Relentless”. This meant we had the whole week to observe the sleek airframe. The wingtips in particular, have always caught my eye. The pointed shape is designed to reduce the drag caused by wingtip vortices. Looking back at Race #30, I wondered, “How hard could it be to reverse engineer the NXT tips and put them on the Legacy?” Design After unofficially breaking the 400mph mark (Note: not lap average) at the 2017 Air Races, preparations for the 2018 races began the day And ..read more

STIHL National Championship Air Races Recap 2017 So Close! It was a week of excitement, challenges, a lot of learning and an incredible group of people.  STIHL continued their title sponsorship of the event, and the racing fields were packed with action.  There was a full Timber Sports display and it was great to chat with all the STIHL dealers and distributors that came to the event.     We worked hard to get everything ready this year.  We installed a new fuel injection and ignition system from SDS EFI, re-did the intake system routing, new down tubes and augmenters ..read more

Today’s Project: Reshaped the 3D printed fuselage with clay, tested it in the NASA wind tunnel for a week (the latter might not be true), 3D scanned the reshaped fuselage, and overlayed the scanned shape with the original one to create the templates for the ribs… Cheers, Andre The post Modeling and Wind Tunnel Testing appeared first on Team One Moment ..read more

After a great race week in 2021, with a heat win and no mechanical failures, we were ready to carry that momentum through 2022 and get back on top of the podium. Unfortunately this year (in many ways) just wasn’t our year.  Off-Season In November, Microsoft Flight Simulator released the Reno Air Races expansion pack. While we were disappointed Sport Class was not included in the game’s release, “Young” Thomas was determined to get Race #30 into the game. Collaborating with Robina Custom Liveries they created a custom livery which paints “Strega” in the orange and white colors of Race #30 ..read more