Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

February 19, 2005

Ladies & Gentlemen:

This week has been very busy, with this weekend even busier. In attendance were John Zambrano, Dave Selby, Bill Eckberg, Glenn Amy, Jon Higley, Earl Gratzer, Tim Finley, Steve Wallace, Bob Biesler, Bernard McVay, Shad McVay, Ed Drumheller, Dennis McVay, Meeko, Aaron McVay, Keith Zanghi and Ed Shadle.

Saturday was a sunny beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest and it started out with John and Dave commencing on the task of safety wiring the S &S Turbine Jet Engine. Virtually every nut and bolt was checked, torqued and safety wired into place.  These two guys do this for a living out at McChord AF Base on Boeing C-17s. The two went through enough safety wire that we had to make two trips to Spencer Aircraft at nearby Thun Field.  By the end of the day they were about 70 % done. They’ll be back Sunday to finish the job.  Bill spent just about the entire day inside the engine compartment securing wiring and hydraulic hoses in preparation for the engine installation.

Tim Finley was busy installing a brand new combination engine oil temperature and pressure gauge. He first installed the pressure transducer and then went on to install the temperature probe only to find out the vendor sent us the wrong unit by mistake. We’ll give them a call on Monday and have it flown overnight so we can install it prior to putting the engine in the car. He then went on to cut the hole in the dash. With all the hard tasks completed, Tim will have it finished by next weekend.

Ed II worked on a backup set of engine inlet covers. With the engine installed it is crucial that the inlet tunnels are kept free of debris.  With a 2nd set sitting in the trailer, if we happen to misplace or damage the originals, we can rest easy knowing we have a 2nd  set to do the job.  Ed was seen reviewing an article on the North American Eagle™ that appeared in a German Magazine last month.

Earl sorted through our huge assortment of Hydraulic, Repair and Design spare fittings and organized them in our Spencer Aircraft plastic bins.  He also assisted Keith in finishing up running the hydraulic brake lines for the new Eagle Machine, Inc. rear brakes. Steve Green is currently building a new rear axle assembly that will incorporate massive rear disk brakes. With a shorter than expected venue for our low speed runs, the rear brake option will ensure the car will come to a complete and safe stop. All of the parts will be completed in the upcoming week, and then installed into the car by the end of next week.  Bob Beisler stopped by to inspect our hydraulic system. For the past year Bob has been the teams’ consultant when it comes to hydraulic systems. An injury at work prevents him from actually installing hardware, but his expertise and guidance have been invaluable.

Glenn Amy was busy working on some parts that will be available for sale in upcoming months.  Glenn will be taking many of the turbine blades Bernard brought back from S&S Turbine Services and mounting them on a decorative board with a photo of the North American Eagle™   You will be able to own a piece of history with an autographed photo and a genuine part from the original Eagle.  In addition, Bernard was busy creating “Aerospace Art” that he is building. It will be put on display at the Jato Café in Tacoma, WA. This unique furniture will incorporate actual de-milled engine pieces from jet engines: coffee tables, card tables and overhead lights will be available soon for that aviation buff in your family. When completed pieces are finished, you’ll see it here first.

Steve worked on the PCB Piezotronics and Larson Davis data acquisition system, but spent most of his time building a test bed structure to analyze the effectiveness of the North American Eagle™ canards.  Canards are those small wings located at the front of the car to help hold the vehicle on the ground by changing the angle in relation to the airflow. The structure Steve is building is probably the only device like it in the world. The aerodynamic laboratory will be mounted to the top of a speeding pick up truck as data is collected that we can use to design the software program to keep the vehicle on the ground. Utilizing  strain gauges as used on the Eagle, Steve will be able to mount our existing canard wings and place them directly in the wind stream to measure the results of numerous tests for 2 degree incremental changes.

Cousins Aaron and Dennis painted the McVay Welding engine monorail track. We will use this next week to roll the engine into the car. Aaron picked the short straw again this week; as he was assigned the detail of cleaning another engine part. Shad was busy assisting the two and helping out the rest of the team. Shad will be gone for a few weeks as he heads off to San Diego for some NAVY Training. The young man will be going to basic training in 7 short weeks.

It was hard keeping track of Bernard this weekend. Let's just say he ran every Welders-Direct.com welder in the shop. He had at one time every hammer in his hands and operated all the wood tools (helping Steve build his aerodynamic laboratory). He was seen in and out of the car and climbing from top to bottom of the jet engine. During our pizza lunch break, Bernard played back a video he took at S&S Turbine Services showing the Discovery Canada film crew doing their thing.

Ed was busy throughout the day also. Cam showed up around 3:00 PM and the two left for Portland for the annual Bonneville Racers Association Dinner. They’ll drive back at night and meet up with the rest of us on Sunday.

Sponsor News

Over the last couple of weeks we have picked up a few more sponsors. We found out by accident that our very good sponsor Performance Coatings in Auburn, WA was sending out all of our parts to be sandblasted and powder coated to other vendors: and picking up all the costs!  Well, we didn’t want to take advantage of that hospitality so we would like to introduce you to a couple new sponsors Bernard contacted that want to be part of the project. Blastek in Auburn, WA has been sandblasting our equipment for years through Performance Coatings.  In the past week they cleaned up the McVay Mobilizer and Engine Monorail Track. We then sent them out to Powder Coating, Inc. located in Mukilteo, WA who are putting a bullet-proof powder coated finish that will last for years. We’ll have more in depth updates on each of these new sponsors next week.

Upcoming Week

Pending a major earthquake, we are going to have the engine in the car by next Saturday.  We’ll then load it into the trailer so we can head off to our secret testing facility and finish up our low speed test runs for Discovery Canada.  That’s it for now. Keep watching the site for several updates during the week.

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