June Pylon Rookie School Update

We at "Rare Bear" prefer to call this "Reno Requalification School", as the word "Rookie" can start a fist fight, and cause High Blood Pressure in some members of the team.

Without going into detail, John requalified with a minimum amount of effort.

Now, lets get to the part that everybody is waiting for, NEWS OF THE "BEAR".

The test runs went very well, although we did have our problems

I'm sure all of you will skim over this to see just how good she did, so I will save you the effort and begin with the best news of all. The "Bear" did 475.31 on her fast lap. We didn't want to waste insurance money on any more 160 octane fuel than was needed so we only did a few laps around the pylons. I am happy to report that John didn't have ANY trouble flying a tight course, as was expected. He has not lost his touch even after his "vacation" due to the "Bear" being down. We are SO lucky to have him on the team.

I wish I could tell you the RPM'S, manifold pressure and horsepower we achieved, but if I do, I will be shot on sight, as it is just possible the "Enemy" could be reading this update, and we all know that the "Mind Game and Strategy are a part of the overall plan for winning the GOLD. However, we are all pleased with the readings.

The week was not without it's problems, however.

Early Friday morning John took the "Bear" up for a test run. Before he could get lots of altitude and speed, the engine went sour. John had to Mayday the "Bear" in. He was overheard later admitting that this was one of the more challenging maydays he had experienced in the "Bear".

It was very close. However, John did a flawless job, as usual. At first we thought the fuel mixture was too lean, but it was eventually traced to the carburetor. Our spare carburetor is on a shelf in Florida at Precision Air Inc., being held for us until we can come up with $3500.00 to completely overhaul it. Due to the fact that we had a good one already, we had decided the insurance premiums were more important, but now we are having second thoughts.

John got on the phone to Tom Dwelle of the "Critical Mass" team and brokered a deal that is mutually beneficial to both teams.

Tom, crew chief, Ken Dwelle and the crew have "Critical Mass" about ready to go except for one thing. They can't find a 4 blade prop. "Rare Bear" has a 4 blade prop in storage in southern California. Tom and his team have 2 newly rebuilt carburetors that are set up about like the one's the "Bear" uses. When the talking was all done, "Critical Mass" gets to use the "Bear" prop and we get to use their second carburetor for the race season. Of course, we are in the process of figuring out how to pay for the repairs for one of our carburetor's, whichever one would be the cheapest to fix. As we have now learned, a spare would be a good thing! So, after the "Bear" has crossed the finish line, you have our permission to root for Tom and "Critical Mass". That way, we can win twice!!

Ray Din of the "Rare Bear" team went to pick up the carburetor while the rest of the team prepared the "Bear" for a transplant, plus bottle and label "Rare Bear Brew" for the rest of the night. More on the Beer story later. The upshot was, everybody went back to work on the "Bear" with only about 2 hours sleep. I would like to go into detail here about the total dedication this team has in this project, but words fail me, as I have NEVER seen anything like it. If hours and sacrifice alone could get us the Gold, we would already have it in our pocket. If you can get to Reno in September, it would be worth your while to stand back and watch this team work. They can just look at each other and know what to do next or who should do it. The working team on the "Bear" are: Stacy Thomas--crew chief Bill Hickle------Chief Engineer Dave (Moondog) Mooney Scott (Chip) Crawford Scott Litster Elliott White John (Hookup) Hunter Andrew Karolak Matt Thompson Roger Martin Ray Din Peter Belan

These people have taken the engine that all of you bought , Dann Slinker and Emmanuel Richard assembled, and have turned it into a fine tuned work of art! And in this crew's spare time, they have totally rebuilt the "Bear" from prop to tail feathers, with the help of a number of companies donating to the cause, (check out the new look on our opening page of www.rarebear.com as well as this page with all the logo's and links), plus painted her with the help of SHERWIN WILLIAMS PAINTS. If that wasn't enough, they are now helping to raise the insurance money. The regular team, along with other team members, JoAnna Thompson, Michelle Litster, Donna Crawford and Barbara Hunter, brokered a deal with GREAT BASIN BREWERY, and Tom Young, of Reno, to brew up enough Ale beer to fill 500 one liter bottles, get special labels that were designed by team member Charlie Brand of TUNA GRAPICS, and offer to the public the limited edition beer called "Rare Bear Brew, at $20.00 a bottle. This led to another idea. Why not cook up a spaghetti feed , add a table of "Rare Bear" merchandise, a live band and have a fund raising party right there in the "Bear Cave".

Saturday evening, the "Bear" was towed out of the hanger, polished to the nines, cooking equipment, tables, chairs, food, band equipment, horse trough for the "Rare Bear Brew, ice, boxes of merchandise and the band equipment moved in, all done in about 30 minutes.

The crew lined up on one side and started cooking food and serving it and taking donations for the beer. On the other side of the hanger was the western band. Next to them was a beautiful, original oil painting done by D B MUELLER of the "Bear" titled "The Bear Is Back". We will be having a raffle for this original commencing soon on the Web-site, winner to be drawn in September, plus 77 limited edition prints will be for sale soon at www.rarebear.com and at www.dbmueller.com. In the middle was yours truly, Mildred Penney, John's mother, and Barbara Hunter, selling "Rare Bear" merchandise as fast as we could get it out of the box. All of this was done on a "donation" basis, with a suggested donation amount. Most people contributed more than the suggested amount. We estimate that there were over 200 "Rare Bear" supporters at the party, including most of the staff of RARA, who had helped us set up the permits, parking rules, etc. to make this possible.

By the time the evening was over and we had finally caught our breath, we had grossed over $5000.00. Plus, we still have some of the limited edition (500 bottles total,) left in inventory. This inventory will be for sale at our web- store as soon as I can set it up. It will only be available for pick up during the September air races. It is in cold storage and being well taken care of.

All of this was done on about 2 to 3 hours of sleep, as everyone was working on the "Bear:" during the day, bottling and labeling Beer in the evening, then the carburetor problem came up, which made it mandatory to work extra hours, as no matter what, the "Bear" comes first and she knows it. She is being spoiled by this crew.

Lyle and John had to do their part for the fundraising also. Every time they got close to the hanger they were given a sharpie and a bag full of "Rare Bear Brew" labels. Try writing your name 500 times, plus other autographs and see how sore your hand can get.

With very little sleep, the crew was all on line Sunday morning for more testing. John took the "Bear" up to check her out and drain the gas tank down some so we could replace with 160 octane,( I call it the $10.70 a gallon stuff). This is to remind them not to waste ANY of it! VP RACING FUELS gives us a break on the price and I am afraid to ask what the retail cost is.

At noon, the "Bear" was serviced with the 160 octane fuel, more ADI with the help of CHRYSTAL SPRINGS donating the distilled water, racing oil donated by AERO SHELL, new spark plugs donated by CHAMPION, fired up, taxied out and launched. John took her up for a few minutes to make sure everything was ok, then made a short chute approach, made one lap at 467.32, then got tired of just cruising, kicked up the power setting a bit and turned 475.31 on the second lap. As I said before, if I were to give out the rest of the readings, I would be shot on sight, but I will tell you this. You will be very pleased with how your money was spent. This last statement is mostly for the benefit of the "Enemy" who might be reading this. We like to give them something to think about!!

We are also happy to report that we have solved most of the problems with the exhaust system. With the help of Billy Zarevich of the San Francisco area, and Lance Lopez of Hood Machine of Reno, who are both expert welders, we have replaced, tweaked and added spacers to the system and they held up perfectly during our speed run. Hood Machine will also be supplying a portable welding station, on stand-by, for us during the Races in September.

We are gaining slowly on the insurance fund. As of June 26th we have $5293.00 leaving $15,707.00 to raise . I have this in a special account separate from the operating funds, and am leaving just enough in that fund to cover expenses, not counting the repairs to the carburetor. We may have to use some of the insurance funds to pay for the repairs, as we feel, after this set- back, two carburetor's would be a good thing! If we don't have a carburetor, we don't need insurance and if we don’t have insurance we don't need the carburetor. This is called "Between a rock and a hard place."

We are currently working on a number of projects for the "BEAR". These include:

Ray Lutz, a long time supporter of the "Bear" is gathering up all available video that has ever been taken of the "Bear", plus some new stuff that we have supplied with the help of Wayne Sagar and John Tyson of channel 8 KLOL, Reno to produce a DVD about the history of the "Bear". If all goes well, this DVD will be available for purchase at our booth during the races.

CHARTER MEDIA has just produced a 30 second commercial for us which will start running on a number of cable channels sometime next week. I have seen it and it should help our efforts.

We have begun work with Charlie Brand and TUNA GRAPHICS to produce new merchandise for our on site sales and the web-store. These will be out in September.

We are in the process of setting up the raffle ticket sale for the original oil painting by DB Mueller titled "The Bear Is Back". Ticket will soon be available on our web-store. To look at Mr. Mueller's work go to www.dbmueller.com . To order one of the 77 limited edition prints you may e- mail him at muelltime@pcfastnet.com We appreciate Mr. Mueller's efforts on our behalf.

We are in the process of setting up the sales of "RARE BEAR BREW". To meet the requirements for this, the BREW will have to be pre-paid at our web-site on the web-store and delivered at Reno in September, or picked up at Reno after making arrangements with the Reno crew. Bottle #1 will be raffled off at Reno in September at our merchandise booth.

For those of you who are waiting for your 2003 patches for the jackets, I still have not received them, but expect them any day now, as I called them for the third time and I always get a little hot if I have to work on the same thing more than two times.

Please take note: We have closed the Reno office to save money. The official address for all "Rare Bear" correspondence is now:

Rare Bear
7100 Little Willow Rd
Payette, Idaho 83661

On Behalf of the "Rare Bear" Crew, Lyle Shelton and John Penney

Sharon Coates, Director

Rare 475 MPH Lap At PRS 2003 RealVideo® Compression download player 03:40 Windows Media Player download player 03:40 56k quality=Poor broadband quality=OK broadband quality=Best download download download 1.2 mb 20.3 mb 24.9 mb right click link, choose "save target as" to download