Blue Thunder II Crew Report - December 2010

The entire Blue Crew hopes all of our fans and supporters had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. While most the crew had traditional celebrations for the holidays, Jan and I had a spectacular Christmas dinner at the Royal Kona Resort, HI. and a quiet New Year celebration by the fireplace watching the fireworks downtown from our own living room.

Blue Thunder II is in the middle of an extensive annual conditional inspection which includes removing the striping to refurbish the exterior paint for the 2011 show season and improve the fit and finish of some of the joints around the belly scoop and the inboard flap area. New striping will be the same as the old striping.

The 2010 tires still had a few more landings on them, but we changed them anyway so that they would not have to be changed mid season. The new TBG brake rotors were installed just because. As you can see in the picture to the left, little Johnny just could not leave things alone and removed a half pound of steel from each rotor by drilling 18 holes around the perimeter of the rotors.
The dust covers were given a bit of bling and a forty five degree bend to form an air scoop to circulate more air around the rotors.

As a service note to other TM owners, Blue II had sixty landings on the tires, brake pads and rotors since new. There may have been ten to twenty more landings left on the tires, but there was +/-.002” wear on the brake rotors and only between .006” and .009” wear on the brake pads. I think we can conclude that the brake rotors and pads should last a long time.

I would like to include the Blue Thunder II tentative air show schedule for 2011 again this month as a reminder to our friends where we will be and ask them to come out to the shows and say hello, and give us the opportunity to personally thank everyone for the support. We will add additional or specific shows at a sponsor request.

June 10 – 11 Golden West
June 16 – 18 Pylon School
July 6-10: Arlington Fly-In
July 25-31: EAA AirVenture
September 14 – 18: Reno Air Races
October 20 – 22: Copperstate

I was hoping to have a lot more news about the 2011 engine program than I do at this time, but that is work in progress. That news will be forthcoming when I have it. Again, the Blue Crew, along with Jan and I wish everyone a successful 2011 and looking forward to seeing everyone at the air shows and the eleventh annual Thunderstorm.

Thanks for your support.

John Parker
Blue Thunder Air Racing
5805 Alpha Avenue
Reno, Nevada 89506
(775) 677-4860
www.bluethunderairracing.com