Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

August 23, 1999

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I confess that I’m a little late on my monthly update but I have an excuse, Bonneville!

After I blew up the engine at Muroc, I was left with a few difficult decisions, build another flathead (too expensive), continue building the 258 inch Chev (can’t get the pistons in time), scratch Bville (bad thoughts). Along came Steve Green and the Chevy they ran two years ago. I made a mad dash to Abbottsford (that’s in Canada) and picked up the Chevy engine. I had about four weeks to freshen it up, make the modifications to just about everything in the engine room, load and go. I can’t tell you how many nights I worked until 1, 2 even 4 in the morning to get the car ready. The last night before we left, I thrashed until 4 am to get all the loose ends tied up and the car loaded. We headed for Bonneville without even firing the engine and trusted that it would fire up on the salt.

Out on the salt, we did fire the engine successfully. The track conditions weren’t very good because of the recent rain storm which had wetted down the entire area. When we finally did make a pass, on Sunday afternoon, the engine missed and would not rev over about 6000 rpm. Over the next few days we worked on what we believed might be ignition problems only to find out that a paper filter in the "inline fuel filter" had collapsed and plugged up the line. I took it out and threw it in the garbage bag. We immediately went out and ran a 192 on the short course. On the next day, the last day of racing, I ran a 205 and a 213. I’m sure that a dryer course would have let us run another 20 to 30 mph faster. Next year, we’ll getum!

Now for the F-104! We recently reached an agreement between the US Air Force and North American Eagle™ Services, Inc. With our Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, we were able to acquire some surplus F-104 parts from NASA. The parts will allow us to fix some things on 56-763 that really had us scratching our heads. I’m still trying to find a good shop or hanger to work in. As soon as the fall rains begin, we’ll be working with cold wet hands and wishing for a warm dry shop.

I passed my driving test and now have a class A CDL so I can drive the tractor/trailer legally. Keith is working towards getting his license also. When we haul the F-104 around the county to show it off, we can take turns driving and scaring the other guy.

We’re holding a team meeting on the 29th of the month to assess the project and work over the project plan. As soon as possible after the meeting, I’ll update the web site with any breaking news. That’s it for this month.

Sincerely,

Edward J. Shadle

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