WINDSOR, Ontario – The promise of more horsepower and improved engine performance has figured highly in the plans of the American teams but the reality of installing super-tuned motors has turned into something of a nightmare as we move to Canada for the midway stage of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship.
Both Michael Goulian and fellow American Kirby Chambliss have had to switch engines yet again as they experienced major problems with new motors, which share common parts and originate from the same tuning shop in the States. In a cruel twist of fate Goulian’s engine – which had performed satisfactorily in Rio last month – developed serious faults while Chambliss was carrying out a test flight on his compatriot’s Edge 540 to compare engine characteristics.
“We put nine months into a super powerful, awesome motor which we had for four hours and two championship flights,” says Goulian, who is disappointed that he may have to use the lower-powered spare for his home race in New York on 19 and 20 June. “It was the one we had in Rio and it made it through fine but we don’t really know what happened here and won’t until it goes back to the shop. We had a pretty big hiccup and it was malfunctioning inside in a pretty dramatic way so we had to go back to the other engine.”
No time to waste
Goulian praised the combined efforts of his team in making the engine switch happen without any great drama ahead of the first training session in Windsor, where the American posted an impressive 5 th place. The process of changing an engine usually takes more than a week in a standard aviation environment but for the teams in the championship, prompt action is essential. Spare parts were delivered without delay to the Team Petrobras hangar and technician Dennis Sawyer ensured each and every component was scrutinised to avoid further mechanical fallout from the damaged engine.
“This engine has about 60 hours on it so it’s hopefully healthy,” Goulian adds. “If the metal that was in the old engine didn’t contaminate the new one we should be OK. When you change an engine you contaminate everything with metal pieces – the oil cooler, the propeller governor, all of the inverted oil hoses. We washed all of that out and bought a brand new oil cooler and had it overnighted from California. We had a brand new governor put in… you just hope you have no gremlins. We’re going to do one more test flight and drain all the oil out of it and look at the screens to make sure everything’s fine. If it is – knock on wood – we should be OK. The truth is, we’ve got amazing guys and the three of them worked non-stop. They know exactly what they are doing and they do it without any wasted motion. That’s when it pays to have superstars on your team.”
Vital seconds lost in the track
While Goulian’s spare engine should see him through the Canadian round, he is understandably crushed that all the time, money and effort put into the development of the new engine has failed to deliver results. He predicts a loss of more than a second in the track but is trying to remain optimistic about his chances of building on his 8 th place position in the table.
“The spare is still a very good engine but we believe the new one had about 15 more horsepower. It was a 1 to a 1.5 second difference on two equally flown runs. That’s a lot,” admits Goulian. “That being said, you still have to fly the airplane so you get to a track like here in Windsor, which is tight, you’ve got to fly it right.”
A drain on financial resources at the halfway stage of the 2010 season has left the upbeat American in a tight spot however, and he says the pot is pretty much empty. “Make no bones about it though; it’s very disappointing for the money and expense as much as anything,” Goulian confides. “We just threw thousands and thousands at it. To watch that go away is tough. I hate that saying, but that’s racing. We tried it and this is what we have and we don’t have enough money for another engine. We’ll work with what we have and regroup and hopefully be ready to go with the same horsepower we have but with a much more reliable package.”
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