Skye Racer History Part 1

Up until I started this blog a few years ago, the modifications and things I was doing with the Sonerai were posted on www.Sonerai.net. I had been wanting to get some basic history on the blog for a while but just did not have the time to do it. Since I have a few free hours on the way to the Mojave Fly-in, I figured I would recap the plane’s history (Part 1) and the latest round of modifications (Part 2).

Getting Started

I built N1463J over the course of about 4 years in a 1.5 car garage. It came to me as an incomplete truss from Jonesboro Arkansas being towed behind a friend's mini van on its own wheels. I was the 6th person that owned the project and was determined to complete it!

Gettings started fitting things together

Poly Brush applied

Original cowl and fairing work complete

First Flight

The plane had is first flight on March 1 2003. With its original 1850cc VW engine, my records show that the plane climbed at about 700fpm, had a cruise speed of about 140 mph and a top speed of 160 mph. The records show that it was overheating significantly both in CHT and oil temps.

Taxing back in after the first flight

By tinkering with props, carbs, heads and wheel pants, I recorded that in November of the following year it was climbing at 1300fpm and cruising at 160mph. It was around this time that it took on the name "Ugly Duckling" ; )

Wheel pants and brake covers installed

In October of 2006, a new 2110cc engine was built for it. Other modifications at the time included a larger carb, new exhaust, new Prince 48x50 propeller, a better oil cooler and various aerodynamic cleanup projects. With these changes, the airplane was climbing at 1400fpm, cruising at 180mph and topping out in the 190’s.

Getting ready to join the case halves

Fiberglass inter-cylinder baffles

New engine, exhaust system #2 and oil cooler installed

Wingtips and Paint

Over the winter of 2007, the wings were shortened by 8” on each side and modified Hoerner wing tips were built for it. In the spring it was finally painted and its name was changed to “Skye Racer”, (named after my newly born daughter, Bethany Skye.

Original Wingtips

Tracing the airfoil to create the templets for the hot wire process

The modified Horner tip core ready for fiberglass

Wingtip finished and painting the wings

Painting the fuselage

Base and clear coat finished

Painted and ready to race!

First Race!

2007 was also the first year that it was raced. With the required 5 hours of Phase 1 testing completed (due to the new engine), I headed for Dayton OH to race in the Airveture Cup. Not wanting to push the engine, the plan was simple, fly there at 3k feet at cruise power and run the race at the same. That year it averaged 172.42 mph.

Parked at Dayton Ohio getting ready to race

Refining the Aircraft

In 2008, The heads were cleaned up, compression was increased as was the timing advance. Finished the Airventure Cup race with average of 182.73 mph.

Cleaning up the already ported heads

In 2009, I decided to check and clean my spark plugs a week before the race and 3 of the 4 plugs stripped their holes on the way out. The damage was repaired, but I was unable to test fly it as Airventure grew near (I was based at OSH at the time) and I did not race.

The plug seized at the last three threads

For the 2010 Cup race, a new canopy was fitted and another new set of high performance heads were installed. It averaged 183.06 mph.

New canopy that slopes smoothly into the turtledeck

In 2011, I started testing a few new props. I had removed the Prince 48x50 and installed a Cloudcars 52x56. While it was a better sport prop, it would not let the engine rev to its happy spot around 4000rpms. The combination of the slower prop and terrible weather yielded a disappointing average of 172.00 mph.

Prince 48x50 on the left, Cloudcars 52x56 on the right.

Cloudcars 52x60 propeller before finishing

2011 was also the first year that I hosted our SARL sanctioned Northwoods 100 Air Race. With the same prop on a triangular course, it averaged 183.32 mph. A month later it averaged 186.07 mph during the Indy Air Race.

The following winter’s modifications included another new exhaust system, new intake manifolds , compression and timing changes and a center radio console. The most significant modification of 2012 was the reinstallation of the Prince 48x50 prop and removing the droop tips resulting in a 47.75x50 prop. Removing the tips from the Prince prop allowed the motor to rev higher and finally pushed the plane's straight and level speed over 200 mph during testing. The result of the 2012 Airventure Cup race was an average of 200.96 mph, finally achieving my personal goal of breaking the 200 mph barrier.