RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – A cruel twist of fate has left American pilot Kirby Chambliss with a low power engine despite huge efforts to install an improved powerplant for the Rio round of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship. After successfully swapping to the newly tuned Lycoming for the third round at the start of the week, tech Jason Resop was left with no alternative but to re-install the old engine after complications arose during flight testing.
“Just when we thought things were finally going our way they turned again,” said Chambliss, frustrated to only be in 7th place in the standings at this stage of the year. “After installing the new engine we were all really excited to get it up in the air to see how it performed. Hearing the purr of the engine was something we’d been looking forward to for a long time!”
ODD NOISES, HIGH TEMPS
Following five and a half hours on the test bed in the US before being delivered to Rio de Janeiro, it was hoped that the initial test flights would confirm the increased power from the new engine. It is common practice to run the engine at less than full power in this environment so while it’s an integral part of the testing, the real proof comes when the engine is installed in the airframe and is up in the air.
During the second test flight ahead of the official calibration flights on Wednesday, Chambliss noticed some “odd noises” and high temperatures from a cylinder before losing power. After making an early landing to identify the cause of the problem it was disappointing news for the former world champion.
“We found the engine’s oil and oil filter were full of brass-coloured metal,” explains tech Resop. “We had to make a serious decision about this and I thought about it all night. We had to decide in time to complete the official calibration tests.”
IN WITH THE OLD, OUT WITH THE NEW
After a laborious switch back to the former engine, Resop was philosophical despite the frustration of wasted time and effort. “We made some pretty radical changes with it and any time you do that it’s trial and error,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “We’re back down on the horsepower but the things that were changing in the engine were actually decreasing the power on the new one. We decided to take the safe route and it wasn’t worth ruining the engine. The longer we run it the worse it would get. So we just pulled it out, it took a whole day, and then put the other one back.”
The team isn’t wasting a moment to rectify the situation and the engine was already scheduled to leave Rio today to make its way back to the USA for repair. “Hopefully it’ll be ready for Windsor, well that’s the plan,” added Resop. “Then we’ll do the same thing and re-fit it again. That’s just how it is; sometimes you just get a lemon. We’re trying a lot of different things and when they work, it’ll be good. It’s nothing to do with what they did, it just happens sometimes.”
HERE TO WIN, WHATEVER THE COST
The Rio race isn’t a write-off for the Texan pilot, who is known for his aggressive style in the track. “We’re just going to do the best we can with what we have,” Chambliss added. “I mean, of course we were looking forward to the new engine but this is by no means the end of the game for us. I’m out here to win and our team is determined to make that happen, at whatever cost. We’ll just have to go out there and fly as aggressive as possible, pushing whatever limits we can to fight for a win.”
Ever the optimist, Resop was thankful that they had the old engine available and it wasn’t damaged or broken. In this game, teams simply cannot afford to miss a race so there is at least a small silver lining to the grey cloud.
“It’s just lucky we had a good back-up; we could be sitting here without a motor. You’ve got to look at the bright side and that’s all we can do. We’ll definitely be trying to get some points before Windsor,” he said.
