Just a quick home movie from the starting line at the High Sierra Fly-In this last weekend. For sure we thought you’d like to hear what Steve Henry’s screaming 300++ hp Edge Performance turbo-Yamaha engine sounds like. He’s in the yellow Just Highlander. In the opposing lane Butch Kingston is simply happy to be there as his engine was running on two cylinders and smoking like the Marlboro man.
We’ll have a full report on visiting the STOL Drag competition in KITPLANES magazine just as soon as we get enough of the Dead Cow grit out of our typewriter ribbon.
Fun fact: NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldsen once landed an F-104 on that dry lake deadstick. He was ferrying it from somewhere back to Dryden and he heard the distinctive growl of a J79 about to seize up. And when the -104’s engine seizes, it often twists itself around inside the fuselage, tearing loose all kinds of important stuff. So he knew he had to act fast and either get it on the ground or eject. Anyhow, the engine was providing enough power to get the gear and flaps down, and he sticks it onto the dry lake with no damage. There was the usual tussle about paperwork and logistics, and a crew trucked in a replacement engine and installed it over the next few days. Then they defueled it to just what it would take to get into Reno, and Einar flew it out of there.