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    #61
    Charter Member old377guy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fund razor View Post
    Encouraging it is perhaps reckless.

    Understanding it is perhaps foolish.

    Allowing it certainly seems the definition of freedom.
    I think that Gar Wood and Ken Warby enjoyed this freedom. A freedom that exists less and less in the "save everybody from themselves" culture that we have evolved toward as we shifted our sights as a nation from the moon to the courtroom.

    Maybe I'm reckless, or foolish, or maybe I'm just too young still to become a nervous crone. I don't ride a turbocharged motorcycle anymore, so while I am more cautious than I used to be, I still have an interest the very few remaining frontiers that exist in our world. One day, there will be speed limits on the open waters, and men like Wood and Warby will all be safe from themselves.

    If the amalgam of bravery and stupidity was more easily separated by wise and clairvoyant men, we'd have rejected the wheel. We'd have prudently admired the moon, but never touched it. We'd have stared at the sea but never ventured to unknown lands. We'd have pondered the view from a treetop but never climbed a tree. We'd have stayed on our own side of every mountain. We'd have never exceeded the speed of sound. All foolish endeavors undertaken by men so much less wise than ourselves.
    very well said
    People we meet in life are either a Blessing or a Lesson
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    #62
    Founding Member / Super Moderator Ratickle's Avatar
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    Yes it is. Almost, (I said almost Fund) frameable.....
    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #63
    Founding Member / Super Moderator Ratickle's Avatar
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    I was reading about some of the other undertakings of man, and the comments difference between positive and negative with the same message.


    Negative, if you attempt this you are likely to fail.

    Positive, if you try this during your attempt, you have a better chance of success.

    Is that the simplest version?
    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #64
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    We've been attracted to water records for a long time. First it was the gasoline engine powered radio controlled model boat record. We were the first to set a record of over 100 mph in 2003 and our record of 109+ mph set in 2004 still stands. Next it was the full size electric power record. We felt that was the only technically interesting record that was low enough no one would die in the attempt. We set the APBA and UIM records in 2008. Even though we wanted them over 100 mph the 98+ mph speed was almost twice the previous world record. The propeller driven record would also be interesting. Dan Ellison, a former model boat designer, has built drag boats that easily exceed the current record. A turbine would be more reliable for sustained (if you can call the time to go a kilometer twice sustained) power. Devils Lake might be a little small as well, even for a drag boat. All the pieces are there, it only takes money and lots of dedication.

    Lohring Miller
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    #65
    Founding Member / Super Moderator Ratickle's Avatar
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    That is just amazing.
    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #66
    Click image for larger version. 

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    What boat was this? Any other pictures?
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    #67
    Founding Member / Super Moderator Ratickle's Avatar
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    There is a video on that boat somewhere when it flipped. It was about the last canard style built I think. I'll go digging....
    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #68
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    2:24 mark.....

    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #69
    Registered rschap1's Avatar
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    YIKES
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    #70
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    Yep. When STeve talks about the improvements they've made since the earlier days of hydro racing, it is really true how many lives have been saved.
    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #71
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    There are two or three other record attempts in the works currently. One, Nigel Macknight, inspired by Britain's guts-and-glory past, hopes to reclaim the record with Quicksilver. I've really enjoyed some of Warby's comments about the attempts to be coming up. This one is an example.


    Quicksilver will have no active aerodynamic controls. "In my book, if it has aerodynamic controls, it's an airplane skimming along the water, not a boat," is what Macknight says. "Where do you draw the line?" Quicksilver will have four hydraulically activated planing surfaces attached to load cells via a computer that will measure the weight of the machine on the water, changing the position of the planing surfaces to adjust the boat's pitch.

    In addition, the flight-control surfaces will be moving dozens of times a second. Macknight believes the planing surfaces can't move fast enough. "Water is just too variable," he says. "Waves, ripples, spray, the boat's overpressure - it's like a nonlinear cobblestone road that is changing so quickly you'd always be several cycles behind, so our planing surfaces will move just 10 to 15 times during a run."

    A host of sensors - 86 on Quicksilver - are key to success. These indicators will measure the crafts' parameters during every run and feed data to laptops on shore. "We'll take the boat to a target speed and look at the loads, and if everything is OK and it's behaving like it's supposed to, we can bump the speed up 10 knots," says Dixon Smith. That way, if something starts to go wrong, they can stop.

    Ken Warby; "They better have some awful smart people programming those computers," he says. "When you look down that lake, you better have all your homework done, because your chances are 50-50 - and you better be in the right 50 percent. And you better be doing it for the right reasons. If I blow through the trap at 400 and nobody even knows about it, that's OK," he says. "I do it for myself, because I know I've built a better mousetrap."


    Wicks; "What Warby did was amazing, but the era of brute force and guts is over."
    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #72
    If they turn it into a Nintendo game, what's the purpose? If I parachute out of an airplane onto the summit of Everest, am I Hilary's equal?

    Like the old line- "Ruth did it on beer and hot dogs"
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    #73
    Founding Member Bobcat's Avatar
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    Brute force is still my favorite way of dealing with small minds and weak backs.
    Parabellum FJ²B
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    #74
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spencer View Post
    If they turn it into a Nintendo game, what's the purpose? If I parachute out of an airplane onto the summit of Everest, am I Hilary's equal?

    Like the old line- "Ruth did it on beer and hot dogs"
    Sounds like something Warby would say....
    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #75
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    a couple of update photos




    Some where in Kenya a village is missing an Idiot!
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    #76
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    after a small 2 month vacation, Daniel is back at work, laying out the fuselage!


    Some where in Kenya a village is missing an Idiot!
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    #77
    Founding Member Bobcat's Avatar
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    Pretty cool...love the shop!
    Parabellum FJ²B
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    #78
    This was Ken Dryden driving the Elam sponsored Unlimited in Seattle. This happened during testing the morning prior to the race. The boat did not blow over, but rose in the air, stalled and came back hard and flat on the front center sponson. When the boat landed the center sponson snapped where his legs were and Ken suffered severe breakage of both legs. Today he's fine, went on to crew chief the PICO Unlimited when it won a number of races under Fred Lelands ownership.
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    #79
    Founding Member / Super Moderator Ratickle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveDavid View Post
    This was Ken Dryden driving the Elam sponsored Unlimited in Seattle. This happened during testing the morning prior to the race. The boat did not blow over, but rose in the air, stalled and came back hard and flat on the front center sponson. When the boat landed the center sponson snapped where his legs were and Ken suffered severe breakage of both legs. Today he's fine, went on to crew chief the PICO Unlimited when it won a number of races under Fred Lelands ownership.
    That was definitely a hard hit.

    Ken Dryden takes the U-4 Miss Elam Plus out for a qualifying attempt at the 1994 Texaco Cup at Seafair. While doing about 130 down the starightaway. Elam lifted and launched way up their before slamming down into Lk. Washington. The boat was a radical 4 point hull built by Glen Davis in 1989. It ran T-53 Lycoming turbine motor. Ken Dryden was seriously hurt after this incident and is fortunate to be alive.

    A couple of different angles from back then.

    Getting bad advice is unfortunate, taking bad advice is a Serious matter!!
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    #80
    Icon/Charter Member T2x's Avatar
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    That is a very unusual "near" flip.....It looks like the air pressure on the back half of the hull and underside of the stabilizer wing reversed the rotation in mid air...... interesting....but still very dangerous. Once you reach critical attack angle (varies based on speed and hull design) the situation has already been taken out of your hands. At record speeds with the huge thrust and acceleration, you will rarely be able to "drive" out of trouble, so your only hope is your safety capsule. If Daniel is truly considering that size window canopy and field of vision (as shown in his mock up photo), I am very concerned that he has compromised the structural integrity of his cockpit completely. If it were me, I would use a very small eye slit made of polycarbonate with at least the strength and thickness of the surrounding coccoon ( think egg shaped 3"+ thick carbon fiber "bulb" with chrome moly tube internal skeleton) and install video screens for side and aft vision.....
    Allergic to Nonsense
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