Art Nalls' Sea Harrier Update 26
Art Nalls has an update on their trip to Gary, Indiana. This is the longest trip taken by the Sea Harrier so far.
UPDATE 26
We’re back from Gary, Indiana. Our next show is Rockford, Illinois on the 22nd of August and since there are no gripes on the airplane, we left both airplanes in Gary and drove back to Washington.
Gary was a huge step for us in many respects. First, it was the farthest we’ve ever gone for an airshow. We intended to stay within 300 nautical miles for our first real year on the airshow circuit, but if the money is good enough, we’ll do an airshow on the moon.
I guess that makes us “pilots-ta-tutes.” We’ll fly however you want, for money. Plus, when we’re in the hover, we have no visible means of support…
300 miles is about a day’s drive and equals a single leg in the L-39 with the Sea Harrier in tow. Gary, Indiana is 565 air-miles from home base. It’s quite a drive for the ground crew, towing a support trailer, but we decided to take this opportunity. Once we’re on the road, we need to be as self-sufficient as possible, since Gary, Indiana is not normally known for Harriers.
We have a 24-foot support trailer that can carry our towbar, jacks, hydraulic generator, spare Gas Turbine Starter, brakes, tires, oil and toolbox. We put almost everything that could possibly keep us from operating in that trailer, plus a cooler full of beer. Notice I said “almost everything.” We forgot to take a camera. That’s why there are no photos with this update.
Second, this is the first time we had a real chance to determine cruise performance for the Sea Harrier. Our previous shows were very short legs, but Gary required us to maximize the performance with at least one fuel stop. We’re paying for the fuel for three out of four legs, there and back. It provided us a real opportunity to determine the operating costs for this airplane, and they are eye-watering, to say the least.
Based upon very rough calculations, we determined we could safely make a 300-mile leg, in formation with the L-39. Weather was adequate and we had diverts, but not a lot of options. The first leg was 311 miles. When we made that first fuel stop, the fuel taken on board the SHAR was 573 gallons. I know the engineering minds in all of you are doing the math.
Now that raises some interesting figures. 573 gallons to go 311 miles is a whopping 1.8 gallons PER mile. Think about it. The SHAR (as we have it configured) is a light airplane; Joe was way back on the throttle, and carrying no external stores. We’re doing everything we can to minimize the fuel burn and it’s still 1.8 gallons per mile, and we’re doing a mile every 10 seconds.
To further reduce the fuel consumption, we’ll employ more techniques. We’ll incorporate those for our next cross-country flights, but there’s no getting around the fact that this airplane loves jet fuel. We can’t pour it on the ground as fast as the SHAR burns it.
For comparison - - an Abrams Tank uses 1.2 gallons per mile.
Once in Gary, we performed a ‘teaser’ for a hangar party on Friday night. We did a few photo passes and some basic hover work, but we did add one new hover maneuver. Since Gary is the home of Michael Jackson, I moved the nose of the airplane up and down as I backed up and christened it a ‘moon walk.’ The crowd loved it. I wish we had that camera…
The next day, the show moved over water and off a popular beach, 5 miles from the airport. This was also my first show over water. Airshows over water present additional challenges, since there is no close references for precise hover control. Without those references, it is very easy to begin translations that can develop into unsafe sideslip and possible loss of control. So, we asked that a boat be positioned at the hover point. With a boat as my reference, I did some mild aerobatics; some high-speed passes and over-water hover, including the ‘moon walk.’ The crowd for both Saturday and Sunday was in the hundred thousands on the beach. Gary is a huge crowd, and the weather was beautiful.
Once I accelerated from the hover, I didn’t have a lot of fuel left to travel the 5 miles to the airport, but the weather was fine, the airspace was clear and there were no real problems. I just kept one eye on the fuel gage, one eye on the GPS, and one eye on the outside looking for that stray Cessna. All in all, Gary, Indiana was a success.
The airplane is in fine shape. Our water injection system is now working perfectly, so to conserve engine life, we use water for our hovers whether we actually need it or not. It’s better to have the extra performance and not need it, plus it reduces engine life “counts.”
Engine life for the Harrier is measured by two means - - flight hours and engine “counts.” Engine flight hours are a standard engine life measure used by jets and piston engines alike, but counts are a measure of engine life as a function of temperature. The higher the engine temperature, the higher the number of “counts.”
At high temperatures, the rotating parts of the engine hot section tend to expand and grow under the stress of rotating forces, pressure, and temperature. These forces are accentuated as temperatures increase. At some point, the rotating engine parts will grow too much and no longer be safe, determined in part, by a limiting number of engine counts.
When we reach the limiting number of either counts or flight hours for this particular engine (based upon the individual components that make up this engine) the engine is out of life - - - period. No extensions, no inspections, no waving the magic wands. The engine must be rebuilt.
At our current rate of usage, we have plenty of life left, but we want to conserve both hours and counts to the to maximum extent possible, and water injection helps us to do that. I hope that technical explanation satisfies the inner engineer in all of you.
Our next show is Rockford, Illinois on the 22nd of August. We will be ferrying the airplanes from Gary, Indiana sometime the week prior and hope to see all of you there.
Art Nalls
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