To all our Fansponsor's,Goods and
Service Sponsor's, and Fans of the
"Rare Bear" throughout the world.

GREETINGS!!! from the BEAR CAVE.
The soft glow you see coming from
the Cave is GOLD!

WE DID IT!!! WE WON!!!

It certainly didn't come easy, as the BEAR seems to have perfected the
art of fighting our every move. As one past crew chief put it " I'm afraid to
go to sleep because as soon as I do, the Bear wakes up and spends the rest
of the night figuring out what she can do to us next". That statement is not
totally accurate, As none of this crew went to sleep, she was thinking even
when we were awake. And she outdid herself!!!

would like to digress back to just after Pylon Rookie school in June. As
most of you have heard, we didn't get to test fly her during this period
due to carburator/electrical problems. This was eventually traced to just
a carburator problem. As I stated before, She likes Tom Dwelle's
carburator. When we put it back on, she purred like a kitten. We would
like to thank Tom Dwelle and his family for allowing us to keep his
carburator for this extended period. I think, however, we have gotten to
the bottom of this particular problem after a long talk with Pete Law,
just not in time for the races. If all works out, we should be able to
return Tom's carburator, 1 1/2 years late. Tom and Ken Dwelle also
contributed 3 barrells of VP Racing fuel to us after last years races. At
over $10.00 a gallon at that time and now over $14.00 a gallon, this saved
us a substantial expense early in the week while we were testing the
"Bear".

Shortly after the Pylon School, John came to Reno and took her up for a
test flight. He was about 40 miles north of Stead when the oil pressure
started falling like a rock. He spotted a small landing strip , Amadee
AAF , and put her down with about 50 pounds of oil pressure showing on the
gauge.This proved rather interesting, as the U S Army did not appreciate
HER MAJESTY on their strip, and asked the crew to remove her in 24 hours.
We were informed that there was an armed guard under her wing for the
duration with an M-16, which helped to appease our concerns.

The crew trecked across the desert with welders, parts, oil and anything
else they could think of that might be needed to try and meet the U S
Army's demand.

It turned out that a weld on an oil line had broken, so fixing it wasn't
major. However, there was still the concern of what the low pressure may
have done to the engine. John was flown back out to the Bear, and after a
run-up, it was decided that it would be safe to fly her back to the Cave
at Stead, but to take the quickest route between the two points.

When the Bear and John arrived, the first thing the crew did was to high
pressure the oil off and then start checking. It appeared that all the
cylinders were still holding their compression and everything else seemed
to be working normal. It was decided to do a ground run at reduced HP.
When this was done, an oil leak was discovered in the main seal in the
nose case. This was a major repair job and would require professional
help. We had decided earlier to start working with ABBOTT AIRCRAFT out of
Okmulgee, Ok. They had done a good job on some cylinders we wanted
rebuilt, so our Crew Chief, Elliott White, called Jeff and he arranged to
send his "nose case" expert to Reno to oversee the repair. By the time
this was all taken care of, it was too late to worry about testing or
changing the prop, so it was decided, good or bad, we were going with the
4 blade.

John flew to Reno the morning of the 7th of September and did a test
flight the 7th and 8th and the Bear seemed to be ready to go. The next
morning, while checking everything out, the crew spotted the water pump to
the Spray bar was going south, so it was changed. Thank god we had a spare
on hand..

John came back to Reno the 11th to stay for the duration of the races. He
test flew the Bear the 11th and the 12th and everything appeared to be
ready to go.

It was decided by all concerned that if the course was free of excess
traffic during the first qualifying period, and John was happy with the
ride, that he would drop down and take the clock.. With about 20 minutes
to go in the period, the only other aircaft on the course wa Skip Holm and
Dago and he looked like he was just out for a leisurely ride around the
course, so John called for the clock.. As soon as he made his run, Skip
called for the clock. Within a few minutes both aircraft were on the
board. We had qualified at 490.033 and Skip had qualified at 490.823.
RATS!!!!!

The Bear was towed back to the hanger and the crew started running the
usual checks. The Bear had been awake thinking again! Now it was
discovered that there was metal in the screens. There are 3 kinds of metal
to be concerned about, Uluminum, silver and magnesium. A sample of the oil
and metal shavings was sent to an oil analysis company in Reno and the
initial report was that it was aluminum. This immediately made a cylinder
or cylinder ring suspect. The crew spent 2 days and most of the night
meticulously checking each and every cylinder. By noontime Wednesday it
was clear that all the cylinders were intact, so now what? Lyle pointed
out that we needed a better opinion from a metal analysis company, but
when they were called we were told that it would take all day to get an
answer. I suggested we send the stuff to a local jewelry store. At least
they would know silver, if that was the problem. (Any women knows you get
silver at a jewelry store) Lyle thought that was as good an idea as any
other that had been broached, but just then our savior arrived in the form
of Mel Gregoire. He took one look at the shavings and informed us that the
super charger drive was failing. Bill Hickel estimated that the repair
time would be about 18 to 24 hours, if we had another drive assembly. We
did! In Van Nuys CA. The crew under the guidence of Bill Hickle started
virtually gutting the Bear, Lyle got on the phone and called John Slack,
who went directly to the hanger in Van Nuys and started pulling the parts
needed . Then Lyle called our sponsor and friend Tony Dodge of DODGE
BROTHER'S AUTOMOTIVE, and informed him that we needed the use of one of
his wreckers again! It still amuses me that the fastest propeller driven
airplane in history, has it's parts delivered by a car wrecker!!! Oh well!
whatever works, and the price is right. By the time the parts arrived
about 1 Thursday morning, the crew was ready for them. By midnight
Thursday the repairs had been completed, ahead of schedule.

The team told me that one of the things that kept them going was a very
special reguest that we had received Wednesday afternoon. While in the
pitt area, working with Charlie Brand of TUNA GRAPHICS, getting the
merchandise stored, a young lady by the name of Shawna Milldrum- Poyner
came up to me holding a folded up American Flag. She was crying as she
handed me the flag and a homemade poster with a picture of her father,
Richard LeRoy Milldrum on it. It took no explanation other than the words
on the poster, which I include here.

Navy Veteran
Lover of flight and fishing.

To the entire crew of
"RARE BEAR"
# 77
Could you please honor my father by posting his flag? You all were his
favorite airplane. In his eyes no one could compare. You are in a class
all by yourself. I ask this to ease my heartache for his loss and to show
him that with you and your rigg, he will forever fly with angels. Thank
You
Shawna Milldrum-
Poyner

She went on to explain that she lived just a few blocks from the base and
they had sat in her front yard for years just listening to the Bear and
watching her fly, when they could see her. They had been saving up so
everyone could come through the gate and attend in person this year, then
her father got sick and died in January. I just happened to have 4 sets of
credentials left from my sponsor box, that I have registered in the name
of the Rare Bear Fan Sponsor Club, so they did get to come through the
gate and enjoy the Bear from close up. I told her not to worry as my
husband was setting up on this little cloud just above the hanger watching
every move we made and now he would have company. Some of the crew members
told me that everytime they thought they couldn't go any farther, they
looked around the corner and say that American flag flying from our
trailer and said "No way, back to work."

I got to have a bit of fun Wednesday afternoon. Jeff Fassbinder of THUNDER
TIGER, had arrived and needed a ride from his parking lot to our pit
area.. He had some very special cargo to deliver, the completed model of
the "Rare Bear", right down to the reproduced decals. We had to drive the
golf cart through the concession area behind the stands, with Jeff and the
"Little Bear" onboard. When the fans saw us coming, there were all kinds
of comments from "Clear the air, here comes the "Bear", to lots of people
chanting "Go Bear". It was very rewarding!

The Bear was filled with new oil (around 30 gallons), supplied by
AEROSHELL, the crew drug her out to the flight line and John did a high
power ground run early Friday morning. The engine was cleaning up. It
looked like we were back in business!! Just in time too, as we wanted to
launch with the first heat race, go high overhead and do a test flight.
This turned out satisfactory, and the oil was clean.

We made the heat race on Friday afternoon and maintained second place
behind Dago and Skip.

After this flight, the crew did their usual compression check of all
cylinders and it was discoved that cylinder #9 was loosing compression. My
GOD!! The Bear was still awake and thinking! Oh well, so much for sleep.
The crew had gone too far by now to let her beat them.The whole crew
looked like walking dead by now, and they were looking at another
all-nighter!

However, the Thank You Sponsor bar be cue was sceduled for this same
Friday evening and the hanger was full of tables, chairs and sponsors. The
crew unanamously decided to take a couple of hours off and mingle with the
sponsors, as the year before they were also doing a cylinder change during
the dinner and had not been able to meet and thank the people who were
paying the bills which made it possible for the crew to have all this FUN.
The dinner was attended by over 130 sponsors. Gary Williams and Christine
Fager , of Phoenix Arizona, had donated a hand made quilt with the
embroidered images of 40 popular unlimited racers for us to raffle off in
the pitts, plus they had included 6 handmade "Rare Bear" windsocks, which
were handed out at the dinner as door prizes. We want to thank Christine
for the untold amount of hours she put into this "One of a kind" quilt.
Gary also donated to our fundraising efforts, three copies of his book
"Air Racing Results, Volume VI 1991-2003, which has the unlimited
results from all over the world.These will be saved for future platinum
sponsors.

Saturday morning the Bear was once again ready for a ground run and test
flight. These turned out ok and we JUST made the second heat race on
Saturday. John was maintaining a solid second for about 1/2 the race, then
a cylinder started misfiring and John had to pull way back on the power to
get the Bear running smoothly again. However, he was still able to pull
off a third place position.

Didn't the Bear EVER sleep?

Mel Grogiore to the rescue again! He remembered that the time they took
the Bear back to Oshkosh, she had arrived with the same problem and it had
been ignition coils. We aren't rich enough to ba able to afford all the
testing equipment we need, so there was no easy way to check each coil to
find the culprit. It was decided to replace the full back bank, as they
were the ones that got the hottest, then keep our fingers crossed.

Sunday morning arrived just like the weatherman had promised, cloudy,
overcast, cold and storm clouds coming towards us on the radar.

John got in yet another test flight before the Gold race and everything,
once again, checked out fine.

The Bear was drug back to the hanger and the crew, thinking they a few
hours to prepare the Bear, and load on the added go juice and secret
weapons, of which some is supplied to us by SIERRA WELDING SUPPLY, were
congratulating each other on finally having won the argument of who was
the boss, when the word came down that the race was being moved up by a
couple of hours, due to a storm with snow and rain heading our way. Now
Mother Nature was trying to get into the act. What Next?

The crew, very hastily, prepared the Bear for her big moment, and just
barely completed the steps needed.

The Bear , by the process of the heat races, was positioned in the 3rd
pole position coming down the chute. John made REAL short work of this
handicap. He passed Mike Brown in September Fury by pylon 4 and tucked in
right on Dago's wing. The rest of the first lap and part of the second lap
was flown in this position. At the end of the first lap, the split time
between John and Skip was .81 seconds.The speed for Skip on this first lap
was 484.26 MPH. I'm no expert but I do know if it had been a warmer day
and the density altitude had been higher, this speed would have been
significantly higher.

Then the unexplained happened, as sometimes happens in air racing. As the
two airplanes were approaching pylon 4, Skip just turned left and cut the
number 4 pylon by about 200 feet. John, of course saw this. He told me
later that when he saw Skip do this, he thought "Where is he going?"
It was reported later, however, that there was condensation on Skip's
windshield, which may have accounted for the cut. With the weather closing
in and already snowing on some parts of the course, this would have been
very possible. Only Skip knows for sure!!

There are 3 ways to win a race, Outrun them, push them until they break,
or a pylon cut.When you only have one engine and it is on the Bear, and
there is only $123.00 left in the bank, the best option of the three is
the pylon cut, which allows you to fly the rest of the race without
stressing the engine any farther, as John now had 16 seconds to work
with,(8 laps, 2 second penalty per lap) For this option to work, you have
to have a SMART pilot!!! John immediatly realized that he no longer had to
stress the engine by passing Skip and all he had to do was fly a good
clean race, with no penalties, and the victory was ours! Just to be sure,
John started flying a wider line, not even close to a pylon, but he still
maintained a split time between himself and Skip of less than 2 seconds on
all remaining laps, and finished just 1.18 seconds behind Skip. Just when
I thought I could breath again, John made his approach to landing and had
to go around because there appeared to be a problem with the landing
gear.My God! The Bear was going to have the last word, after all! On the
second approach, the landing gear was down and the indicator light was
functioning and John landed without incident. It was later determined that
a fitting to the hydralic line for the right landing gear had broken,
probably just as the gear locked into the up position after roll-out at
the start of the race. The gods must have decided it was our turn, because
you can't fly a race with a landing gear in the down position, and we had
come real close to just that problem.

At this point there were only a few people on the base that knew about the
pylon cut, so most people were wondering why John had not passed Skip,
plus almost everyone there assumed that Skip and Dago Red had won again.
Of course Skip and John knew who had won, so Skip was playing it cool when
Steve Stavrakakis started inteviewing him as the winner. Then the phone on
my desk rang. It was the most wonderful news I had ever received. The
message was "Don't announce a winner yet, until we get this sorted out."
The word I got and was told to pass along to the announcers was that there
was a judges inquiry. About what, for gods sake? You can not protest a
pylon cut, and nobody was flying too low and nobody had broken the
dead-line. Thus began the most agonizing 15 minutes of my life and the
lives of Bear fans around the world. Then the word came. Skip had cut a
pylon, pylon 4 on the second lap, and #77 "Rare Bear" was the winner.
By this time a lot of the stands had emptied out and some people didn't
know that "Rare Bear" had won until the next day. Needless to say, all
Bear fans were sticking around, and the crew was on pins and needles
waiting for the official word. When it came, the place exploded!! My first
thought was " My God! Now we can afford some spare parts!" Both Dago Red
and September Fury had been towed up in front of the announcers stand
along with the Bear. As soon as the official word came down, everyone was
towed back to the pitts except "Rare Bear". It took me 10 minutes to get
through the crowd to where John, Lyle and the crew were gathered, and
needless to say, the celebration was well under way.

Three members of the crew were crying, and some required a kleenex. I
did promise not to tell anybody who they were,to save their reputation,
but just to give you a hint, They had all been with the "Bear" for
years, and a couple of them had been with the "Bear" almost from it's
inception in Lyle's eyes.

>From the ramp, the Bear and the party went back to the hanger, just as
Skip showed up with some champaign, which the crew graciously accepted.
Lyle gave permission for them to "shake" up the bottle and pop the cork,
which they probably would have done anyway, but it was nice of them to
ask. And god knows, they had earned it!!!!

The party moved from there to the RARA hanger for the awards banquet at
which time the Dago crew delivered more champaign to our tables. One of
the crew members congratulated me on the success of the sponsorship
program but he just couldn't understand how we had done it on such a small
budget. I told him that now that we had some money for improvements," just
watch us now." He said" Yea, it's a scary thought".

Usually the hanger starts to empty out by the time the Unlimited trophy's
are presented, but not this year. The place was packed!! When it was our
turn, every member of the team escorted John to the podium, and stood
behind him. This was fitting, as we had started as a team and a small
family and we were going all the way as the same family. I only wish every
Fansponsor out there could have stood on that podium with us, because it
was obvious that a number of the family members were not represented, but
rest assured, everyone of you were in our thoughts. We have rewritten
history. The Fansponsor idea has been tried before, in NASCAR and
unlimited hydro-plane racing, but it never succeeded. We, together, not
only made it succeed, but now own the National Championship Title. WE ARE
NUMBER 1!!!!!

After the trophy was awarded, John asked for the crew to gather around, as
he wanted to say a few words. He thanked each and every one of us, then
went into a countdown of what we had all just been through.When he got to
the various repairs the guys had tackled (waterpump, blower gears,
cylinder and coils) one of the crew members said "Waterpump? I don't
remember changing a waterpump, but I was here the whole time, so we must
have."

There are so many people to thank, but I think it is only fitting that we
start with the CREW of the "RARE BEAR". This ground crew never gave up or
quit! Most of them went for 6 days with an average of 2 hours of sleep an
night (some had to do this during the day.) Some of them were not on
vacation and had to go to work. Every time they looked around, people were
saying "WE were done" My personal quote to this negative thinking was " We
just have a glitch in plan A." The crews answer was to go with less sleep,
never quit, and give John a healthy airplane to fly every day. I have
never seen anything like it, and didn't know that a human being could
function at this high rate of efficiency, for this many hours and days
with almost no sleep. For those people out there who were so quick to
write us off, I would make the following suggestions: 1. Go to work for
the most popular unlimited racer in Air Racing History, 2. Make it the
PEOPLE'S AIRPLANE, 3. Do it on $20.00 bills gathered from fans of all
walks of life, 4. devote 3 years of your life to the project, 5. gather a
team who are absolute fanatics about the airplane and it's history and
understand the obligation to the fans who are trusting us with their
sponsorships, and who will go beyond human endurance to see the goal met,
and you too can do the impossible!!! Good luck, however, as in my opinion,
we have that team and we are keeping them!!!

From Michelle Litster and JoAnna Thompson, who spent all those hours on
their feet cooking for the crew at all hours of the day and night, to
Donna Crawford, who spent hours and hours in the pitt sorting and
boxing our merchandise, to Charlie and Chuck Brand and Paul Lewis and
Greg Price of TUNA GRAPHIC"S, who stood in the pit area and sold every
piece of merchandise we owned but for a few odd sizes,and Dave Wisenor,
who runs our web-store throughout the year, and then comes to Reno and
never stops selling, sorting and boxing. Then there is Chris Rakestaw,
who has been with the team for years. She mostly runs around and cleans
up after everybody, and then in her spare time, will do anything else
that needs to be done. This year she had no spare time and by Sunday we
had to prop her up. There is Ray Din, who we call our" gopher" or "Mr.
Fix All". There is nothing he won't run down or go get for the team,
from flag poles to ice and drinks and horse trough's for the dinner,a
public address system for the speakers,. to banners, groceries, food in
the middle of the night. trips to the airport, etc. This year we ran
him ragged. There is Clark Thompson, who is the man responsible for our
OSISOFT sensor system. With all the problems we had, I never saw him
look up from his computer in 7 days.

Then there is the actual ground crew or "wrenches". Elliott White, our
crew chief, who never went home for 7 days, Bill Hickle, our chief
engineer, with 35 years of "Rare Bear" experience, who managed to keep up
with the younger guys for 6 days and nights, Dave Mooney, Chip Crawford,
Scott Litster, Andrew Karolak, Matt Thompson, Roger Martin, Peter Belan,
Lance Lopez, Chris Britschgi, Glenn Burnham and newest member, Dave
Renfro( I'll bet he wonders what he got into), who all never gave up,
never went to bed, never stopped working and finished the job of making
our dream come true.

There is our "Senior" member of the team (86 years old) who saved our
bacon two times, Mel Gregoire. Without his knowledge, we would never had
made the Friday heat race, and making the Sunday final, healthy, would
have been touch and go. Mel was at the hanger at 1 o'clock AM,Thursday
morning, when the blower parts arrived, and meticulously supervized the
fix.

The other indispensable member of this team is John Penney. What can I say
about this man? He stuck with Lyle through good and bad times, he saved
the "Bear" and the engine, when the oil line let go, with his quick
thinking, He patiently worked his schedule around our break-downs, and was
always there when we needed him to test fly the "Bear". He is the one who
saw the pylon cut and knew what to do with it!! At one time, he had not
been home for 37 days but the "Bear" was ready to test and he was there.
Which brings me to the other half of this indispensable team, Stephanie
Penney. She is a wonderful woman, with the patience of Jobe.She is always
polite, never shows the stress that she is under, and is willing to help
with anything that needs done.

Then, there is Lyle Shelton. We owe him everything.He built up the legend
of the "Bear". He made it the Fan Sponsor's Airplane.He stuck with his
dream through thick and thin, never giving up. He provided his "Bear", so
we all could become a part of his dream and his legend. And now, all of
you out there are a part of this dream and this legend.

Even though we got the "BIG" check, we still won't have enough to complete
a second engine at this time, but we do have enough to get a running start
on this project. We have already purchased a nose case assembly, and will
have enough money to start collecting the other more expensive parts.
Lyle,John Slack and Mel Gregoire will be handling this part of the
project.

I have had a number of contacts from various companies who would like to
talk about becoming Platinum sponsors. We will have to watch the budget
very carefully, but if some of these people come on board like THUNDER
TIGER and CAMPBELL CRANE did, we may be able to assemble all the needed
parts this year.

Our drag reduction mods are still in the works. We have some very capable
engineers working to achieve this goal. We have had an offer from one of
the Fansponsors to underwrite much of this project.

Last but not least, the crew and I would like to thank all of you. I
suspect I should have started by thanking you, as none of this would have
ever gotten off the ground or succeeded without your love of the "Bear",
placing your trust in me, buying closet's full of "Rare Bear" wear,
sending a full renewal membership instead of the percentage that I asked
for, spreading the word about our program, having patience when I let
something fall through the cracks, etc.

Just a few notes to clear up some unfinished business.

For those of you who are ordering "Rare Bear" wear from our web-store,
please be patient. We sold out of almost everything. The day after I got
home, we did an inventory of all unsold items. I called Charlie Brand of
TUNA GRAPHICS the next day and put in a rush order. He already has the
merchandise in and will start on the embroidery work Monday. We should be
restocked and ready to send most of the merchandise in 3 weeks. I will
contact all of you individually, to make sure you want to hold your order
open until I can ship again. At that time, there will be a number of new
items available.

The winner of the raffle for the quilt was: Karen Patterson of Lebanon, Ohio.
The winner of the raffle for the set of Photograph's was: James Romero of
Turlock, CA.

Please keep your eye open for an R 3350-77 engine (just kidding as there
is only one of those and it is being used). What we need to find is a R
3350-32 with zero time or very little time, in the can.( It would help if
the owner was a "Rare Bear" fan and could give us a break on the price.)
Then we add all the secret stuff and PRESTO, we have a second engine!!!
Sounds simple, huh? Believe me, it is not!!

We tried to not waste one dime last year and not ask for anymore money
than we felt we had to have. It worked pretty good. When I deposited the
"BIG" check in the bank after the races, we had a balance of $123.00. I
have to admit, that was a little close for comfort, but it is the RESULTS
that count. WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On behalf of Lyle Shelton, John Penney, myself and the "RARE BEAR" team
consisting of:

Elliott White, Bill Hickle, Greg Shaw, Clark Thompson, Pete Law, Dave
Mooney, Chip Crawford, Scott Litster, Andrew Karolak, Matt Thompson, Roger
Martin, Ray Din, Peter Belan, Lance Lopez, Chris Britschgi, Dave Renfro,
Mel Gregoire, Chris Rakestraw,Michelle Litster, JoAnna Thompson,Donna
Crawford, Dave and Barbara Wisenor and John Slack, WE THANK YOU and hope
you enjoy the Victory !!!! It was all done in your names. Now, on to next
year and a repeat performance, minus some of the last minute problems!!!

GO BEAR!!!!! Sharon Coates, Director

We all need to take a minute to thank the following companies and
individuals who helped supply cash and goods and services, because
without them, the bank account would not have had $123.00 but would have
been grossly overdrawn months ago. It takes all of us to make this work!!!
We are a family and we are going to remain a family!!

The PLATINUM SPONSORS consisting of: THUNDER TIGER/ACE HOBBIES and
CAMPBELL CRANE, of Portland, Oregon, and WARBIRDS OF DELAWARE

Our GOODS AND SERVICE SPONSOR'S ARE:
Dodge Brothers Automotive, OSISOFT, Stinson Air Center- Howard Lowry,
AeroShell, Aero Accessories, Aviation Classic's Ltd., Garmin Avionics,
AAFO.COM, Central City Enterprises-Richard Reinhardt, Tuna
Graphic's-Charlie and Chuck Brand, Ni-Cad Systems Inc., Skytronics, Inc.,
New Horizons Aircraft Ignition, Hood Machine, Inc. Bob Cannon Aviation
Insurance, Sierra Welding Supply, Air Classic's-Challange Publications,
Sherwin Williams Paint Co., Scott's T- Shirts and Things, NAG-National Air
Race Group, Pacific Oil Coolers, Thunder Air, VP Racing Fuels, Silver
Club, Lincoln Welding, and Champion Spark Plug.

These companies donate or give to us at a reduced rate everyting from
racing fuel, oil and solvents, radio equipment, welding supplies, nitros
oxide, complete repair and check of our ignition system ,repair and
maintenance of all our pumps, repair and maintenance of our alternators
and mag system, all of our spark plugs, our merchandise at cost, to
reduced rates for our hotel rooms when in Reno. We all owe them a BIG
Thank you for being a member of the team and members of our "Family".

GO BEAR!!!! Sharon