Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

For images of this, and other days at El Mirage, please go to our Photo Gallery. 

June 6, 2006

Ladies & Gentleman:

In the desert heat, it is important to start your day early when the temperatures are lower. At 6:00 AM most of the team members started to arrive at El Mirage and there to meet them was the media.

In addition to Chris Lofft the producer for Base Productions, who was shooting for an upcoming Discovery Channel show, the team was met by a television crew from  KTTV Fox Channel 11 out of Los Angeles. The crew set up their remote trucks which can uplink live broadcasts directly to the station. KTTV Channel 11 did five live broadcasts Tuesday morning, primarily interviewing Jon Higley and Ed Shadle.

In addition, Tony Landis from NASA Dryden came by. In the very beginning of the project Tony did some research on 56-0763 and came up with the former pilots who flew the aircraft when it was based at Edwards AFFTC. When we first met Tony 8 years ago he was a regular guy just like the rest of us, now he is a ten time author of some of the finest aviation books you will ever read. Clay Taylor also flew into town to be with us. Clay works at Swarovski Optics and has taken some fantastic photos over the year.  Clay had his usual Swarovski Telescopes mounted to his camera.  We will have a photo gallery devoted to Clay’s work up in the next week or so.

Another reporter stopping by was Tatiana Prophet from the Daily Press Newspaper in Victorville who interviewed many of the team members. She did a great job capturing the project and you can read about it here.

Speaking of Victorville, our old friend Waldo Stakes spent the day with us. He has his own project and hitched a ride with Ed and Barbara Drumheller during our test runs. You can read about his project on the Sonic Wind website.

Rachel Shadle distributed all the Press,and VIP Credentials. The brand new badges produced by Thor Holder at Signs by Tomorrow in Bellevue WA were a big help in maintaining some order around the paddock area. With so many people around, it was helpful to know who was who.

Ron Main, president of the Sidewinders Hot Rod Club, brought a large contingent of club members to perform FOD checks, marshalling the course and overall security. Over 28 members showed up and helped Team NAE. We have a complete list of volunteers that we will be publishing shortly.  The Sidewinders Hot Rod Club is the oldest Hot Rod Club in America.  Without the help of the Sidewinders Hot Rod Club I am not sure how we could have pulled our test session off. These guys have been here before; they know the area and are experts in land speed racing. We hope we can get them again at our next test session.

Prior to the run crew Chief Bill Eckberg called a safety meeting. With input from most of the team, we were ready to head out and make a run.  John Drury, team truck driver, also serves as communications leader and maintains communication between Ed and the rest of the team, as well as the Sidewinders Hot Rod Club who marshalled the lakebed.  Spencer Aircraft supplies all of the onboard communication.

Around 8:30 AM with all systems checked we pulled the 56 foot long Eagle out onto the California Dry Lake bed. With Russ Garlow, Shad McVay and Rich Pengelley taking care of plugging in the power and air, Bernard McVay started the American Valley Aviation AVA M32-60B start cart and brought the the 42,500 hp S&S Turbine to life. With the tremendous sound levels being generated, Bill is still  able to communicate with Bernard using the  David Clark H3313 Headsets.

With every one into position on the course, Ed started down the lakebed easing into the throttle. At about the 2 mile mark, he pulled the parachutes and brought the vehicle to a stop. After 8 months in the shop, it was a good test to begin with.  Jerry Lamb took temperature readings on the two magnetic brakes and determined they had an average temperature of around 240 degrees F. When we arrived back into camp we noticed some breakers had tripped on the fuel pumps.  After further investigation, it was determine the voltage was varying. Bill and Tim hopped into the rental car and headed off in search of a new voltage regulator.  Meanwhile Steve continued working on the electrical. The PCB Piezotronics / Larson Davis Data Acquisition system did their job as a ton of data was downloaded to the computer. It was a big help having Al Von Hollen from S&S Turbine Services, as he played an integral part in our engine and electrical troubleshooting.

Ed felt a slight sponginess in the steering and the car was put on jacks as the team cycled the system. It was determine to be OK, but we wanted to power up the car one more time before heading out.

Towards the end of the day the car was brought back out to the lakebed and started. With hydraulic pressure at its max under the power of the engine pump, the steering seem to work fine. We noticed a few more electrical problems and the car was towed back to camp to continue troubleshooting the problem.

Following the days activities, those that didn’t have to work on the car drove to Los Angeles to attend the monthly Tuesday meeting of the Sidewinders Hot Rod Club.  Formed in 1935, it is the oldest hot rod club in America. President Ron Main led the night’s activities as many of the team members were treated to spectacular dinner and got to sit down and do some bench racing with many of the members. Ed Shadle was the featured guest speaker and gave an overview of the project and of the days activities. The group enjoyed watching the 5 minute promotional video produced by Puget Sound Video.  A special moment for Ed came toward the end of the meeting, when he was personally voted into the club as a Sidewinder member. For the rest of us, we were treated well and can’t say enough about the comaraderie of our hosts. The following Sidewinders Club Members came out to help and we would like to thank them here.

Stewart Harnick        Ken Walkey       Jamie Kennedy        William Freudiger 

Shane Freudiger       Philip Freudiger  Shawn Buchete        David Thomas

Mark Brazeau          Dean Spencer     Clifton Wheeler        Ed Safarick

Bill Guzenski           Rick Boyle          Ron Main                Ed Horton

Jim Eiden                Ian Mann            Dale Schultz            GK Mann

Don Tubbs               Jack Banul         Mike Waters            Ralph Ramos

Gary Thomas           Ron McCorkle     Dean Livermore        Paul Green

Geff Sandin

Special Thanks

We would like to thank the B&I Marketplace in Tacoma WA that help make this trip possible.  The Eagle will be on display at the B & I Marketplace the weekend of  June 24th

We would also like to thank NorWest Trucking who helped us get to California.

For images of this, and other days at El Mirage, please go to our Photo Gallery.

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