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SDS at Reno 2019

rv6ejguy

Well Known Member
With Reno now about a month away, we're starting to get excited about it. It's our 25th anniversary so we're hoping for another good showing at the races to cap off a great year.

If people all get their airplanes ready, we should have up to 9 airplanes running SDS EFI and ignition systems in 3 different classes including Andy Findlay (2018 Gold Sport champion), multiple Sport Class winner Jeff Lavelle, Havoc Racing, Mark Frederickson, Lee Ulrich (turbo RV-7), Louis Gabriel RV-4.

I'll be attending as usual and shooting photos and video of our customers at the event.

Andy has a nice article in the September AOPA Pilot, sharing some of his development details, which many may find interesting. His win last year didn't come by chance. Tons of long hours by many talented folks.

Come by and say hi if you attend. I hope to see you there!
 
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You ain't got a snowball's chance. Everybody knows them other guys make 10% more horsepower.

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(Rabble rousing...a time-honored racing tradition!)
 
There's that time honored saying in racing- "when the flag drops..."

There should be some more new planes and faces this year which is good for the sport and hopefully the show too.
 
Sport Class is quickly overtaking the Unlimited as far as crowd draw - especially with the recent retirement of several of the old favorite Unlimiteds and questionable return of a couple others. The fastest homebuilt Sport racers are outrunning the slowest Unlimiteds, and thats going to change Reno for good.
 
Sport Class is quickly overtaking the Unlimited as far as crowd draw - especially with the recent retirement of several of the old favorite Unlimiteds and questionable return of a couple others. The fastest homebuilt Sport racers are outrunning the slowest Unlimiteds, and thats going to change Reno for good.

Yep, Reno is changing and Sport Class is the future for piston powered stuff. Andy is a great ambassador for the sport and wants to see the field packed with more 400+ mph aircraft so there is a good, fast, show for the spectators. No spectators= no Reno Air Races.
 
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Yeh, all for the 'Metal Mafia' continuing the tradition of 'Harrassing the Glass'!!!

Have a great race, unfortunately can't be a race fan this year, family stuff happening.
 
"Harassing the Glass"

And all of us also ran's will be having fun too!!!! You know the metal mafia guys.:)


Yep. This is what Ralph is referring to as "Harassing the Glass" :

2C22B0A8-1058-453B-B82E-A94578605100.jpeg


Skylor
Sport 80
 
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There's that time honored saying in racing- "when the flag drops..."

There should be some more new planes and faces this year which is good for the sport and hopefully the show too.

For us lesser-beings down in the Biplane class, specifically what kind of benefits do you see on a hopped-up O-360's that we run (say, with higher compression pistons, FM-200A, and traditional Bendix mags)??

Sam Swift
Biplane #3
Smokin' Hot?
 
For us lesser-beings down in the Biplane class, specifically what kind of benefits do you see on a hopped-up O-360's that we run (say, with higher compression pistons, FM-200A, and traditional Bendix mags)??

Sam Swift
Biplane #3
Smokin' Hot™

Probably not much hp gain in this environment, ROP and WOT, naturally aspirated. With the forced induction, high hp engines, a lot more piston life and far less cockpit systems management which means brain and eyes can spend more time looking outside. Pretty important at 50 feet at 400+mph.
 
SDS on Top So Far...

Tuesday qualifying saw 2 SDS EFI equipped Sport Class entries in the top 5 with Andy Findlay on the provisional pole at 398 mph.

Other SDS users:

Sean VanHatten 346 mph
Lee Ulrich 250 mph (RV-7!)
Mark Frederickson 244 mph.

One more day of qualifying left and Jeff LaVelle hasn't made his run yet. I expect him to be fastest if all goes well.
 
Another Pole for SDS

Looks like Andy retained the pole for Sport Class, with Jeff coming up a couple of mph short today. Another good day for SDS. Congrats to Andy! He's faster than all but 2 of the Unlimiteds this year in qualifying.

I'll be leaving for Reno bright and early tomorrow.

You can catch me Saturday and Sunday in the pits. I'll be hanging out near Race 31, 30, 3, 39, 61 and 101 and be wearing an SDS T shirt. Come by and say hi. I'll have some free SDS swag with me to hand out.
 
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Andy took first place in Thursdays race by a wide margin. Looks like many other folks are having issues, being much slower than they've been in previous years. Hopefully they get sorted before the weekend so we have a show for the fans.
 
Andy won Fridays race as well. We need Jeff to get 39 fixed up for a proper showdown on the weekend.

Congrats to Lee Ulrich for a great race in his RV-7.

I'll lend any help I can tomorrow.
 
Unless I am mistaken, I don?t think Jeff was running EFI this year.

Correct. He bought SDS early in the year but did not have time to get it installed and tested unfortunately. He's back with his mechanical injection setup used previously.

Lee Ulrich is running SDS in his turbo-7 and took the Heat 3D race today over Dan West. They've been having good battles.



Andy easily took the top Sport class race again today. I am very pleased so far with how the weekend is going for our customers.
 
Another Great Year for SDS

Lee posted a 254 mph average in today's race which is pretty amazing for a -7. This was faster than his qualifying run. Great show Lee.

Mark Frederickson took Medallion first place.

Andy took the Sport Gold again this after Jeff LaVelle called a Mayday on the first lap. Jeff had terrible luck all weekend. So unfortunate we couldn't see these two duke it out. Kudos to both teams who gave their utmost.

I met up several friends and customers from VAF. Everyone at Reno is always so friendly and kind. That always makes it a great experience for me.

It will take me a while to get back home and edit photos and video.
 
Great Time Spent

I talked with many of our customers flying SDS at Reno, interested in their feedback on how to improve features and performance. This was invaluable and we'll be adding these ideas to the next Gen.

The individual cylinder fuel trim feature is being used extensively by all, even during the race. We made a change to the software a few months back specifically for Reno to double the trim range from 10% to 20% rich or lean. This has proven invaluable to some.

While I was gone, the usual work piled up and I spent most of today going through E-mails, phone messages and getting orders out. I have only had minimal time to peruse the video and photos I shot. I intend to make several separate, shorter videos.

On Andy's plane, I didn't get so much good footage of it coming by on the home straight. It was difficult to pan quickly and steadily enough to capture him at over 400 mph there, despite a new camera with proper view finder.

Thanks for all the support from our customers at Reno in using and promoting SDS to others. We'll continue to offer our Racer Discount program in 2020 for those racing at Reno.

We were very pleased to grab our 3rd Gold Sport Class championship and seeing even more people running SDS this year. We've branched out into F1 as well with ignitions now, with more to see the light in 2020. SDS has proven through these racing results that it's the premier engine management system once again.

We'll make the 6th Gen even better.

I had a great time meeting new people and old friends again this year. Gosh there are some smart folks at this event. Always a pleasure to share a conversation with them and learn new things.

Thanks to Mike Starkey and his wife Laura, Mark Frederickson and his wife Wendy for their hospitality, Rusty Crawford, Lee Ulrich, Andy Findlay and team, Louis Gabriel, Jeff LaVelle and many others. Such fine folks. Andy was kind enough to let me ride the fire truck with his team after the Gold Win, saying SDS was instrumental to his success. Thank you for that compliment and honor. This capped off a great 2019 for us- our 25th anniversary in the EFI business so this win was special.

So yes, I had a great time again this year at Reno!
 
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Tuesday qualifying saw 2 SDS EFI equipped Sport Class entries in the top 5 with Andy Findlay on the provisional pole at 398 mph.

Other SDS users:

Sean VanHatten 346 mph
Lee Ulrich 250 mph (RV-7!)
Mark Frederickson 244 mph.

One more day of qualifying left and Jeff LaVelle hasn't made his run yet. I expect him to be fastest if all goes well.

Thanks for sharing this. Not only is it fun to read but it is rewarding to see Experimental Aviation show off the best there is to offer, it also puts perspective in to what can be accomplished with these planes.

Charlie Rosenzweig
 
Thanks for sharing this. Not only is it fun to read but it is rewarding to see Experimental Aviation show off the best there is to offer, it also puts perspective in to what can be accomplished with these planes.

Charlie Rosenzweig

As the Unlimited speeds and fields dwindle down and Sport class fields grow along with their speeds, the writing is all the wall. Sport class may become the main draw soon at Reno.

3 Sport Class planes have exceeded 400 mph laps now and we'll work on at least 2 more with SDS to be installed for 2020.
 
First Vid

https://youtu.be/SYBw0hNIgQM

I'll work on getting footage of Lee's turbo RV-7 up next.

I see discussion about 400 mph laps and people being close to Andy Findlay this year. No. Currently racing, only Jeff LaVelle has also run over 400 mph laps. These laps are on the new course which is different from the speeds set on the old course.

Running 370-380 isn't even close to what these two are capable of.

Andy had more hp available this year over 2018 where he averaged 402 mph, had he needed to use it. Nobody is going to push their engines if they don't need to

Most folks have no idea what it takes to run these speeds. The bar is always being moved up.
 
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Lee Ulrich Turbo RV-7

https://youtu.be/-QyMmHi76AE

Here is a short vid on Lee's airplane with SDS EFI taking care of fuel and spark.
254 mph in the Bronze race. That's movin' for a -7. He embarrassed some glass this year. :)

SDS allowed Lee to turn the tables on Dan West from 2018. Some good rivalry between these two RVs.
 
Great Videos 👍

Hey Ross,
Thanks for sharing and well done to you and the whole SDS Team .

Congratulations to all the teams that work so hard in this space.
I could watch that Lancair at just under 400 mph all day.
It was fun to watch you try and keep up with Andy?s Lancair with the camera.

Reno is on my bucket list for ?one day?.
 
Thanks Ashley. Yes, even with my new camera this year, it was hard to get close and smoothly follow the action on the main straight where Andy and Jeff are doing over 400. I got lots of jumpy footage but had to edit most of it out. As usual, I edit about 75% out for the final cut.

That sound is truly awesome...

Our success this year again has already led to a couple more top tier Sport Class guys to sign up for SDS in 2020. Happy about that.
 
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