As of today (Thursday the 28th), the panel upgrade is now complete. I'd have posted photos but didn't bring the camera down to the airport. We're still waiting for paving to be completed so we can roll it out of the hangar and fire it up. We have only to finish the bleed air system and we will start putting the Toucan back together for some flying, which could happen as early as next weekend.
Our start cart has been down in Los Angeles and we plan on picking it back up tomorrow other wise we'd post photos tomorrow of the new panel. We've customized the cart to accept our Tesla GPU w/Gen Set, so it really should be very nice. We'll post new photos of the cart as well, just as soon as we get back home. Over the weekend we should be able to get some photos posted of the new panel, so please stay tuned.
We are really excited about the new panel, the glass instrumentation is just awesome and is extremely flexible. Every element of the system is customizable and user definable, which is exactly what we needed.
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We've been dead in the water for several weeks trying to complete the upgraded panel due to back ordered parts. As of Friday, all the parts are now at "The Bird Cage". We will have the anodized parts back early next week and we can finally put the panel back together. End of this week we should be done.
We'll move on to installing the new bleed air system which should only take a day or so to do. So all is looking good for flying in the first or second week of March.
Believe it or not, though they paved the taxi way next to our hangar row, they ran into soil issues with paving the taxi way in front of our hangars. No ETA on when they are going to be completing. To be completely fair, they have been dealing with an amazing amount of rain, which has left the area completely muddy. I could not get to the hangar without being ankle deep in mud, not at all fun.
Photos should finally be coming next week for anyone interested. Have a good week.
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I promised a while back I would post a photo of our tractor for an individual who has followed our progress with the Toucan. He is also a fulltime driver. Since we are still waiting for a few parts and have no new exciting updates to share, might as well talk about trucks.
For anyone interested in trucks, this is our Kenworth T2000 (VIP interior) Aerodyne. The T2000 is powered by a 550hp CAT and 13-speed transmission. We plan on pimping the truck out a bit, as soon as we decide on a final paint scheme, which really is driven by the Title sponsor.
It really is a fun truck to drive. We bobtailed it out to St. Louis to pick up our 53ft. hospitality trailer from Craftsmen Industries, who are great people. The trip was a blast. We decided to see a bit of the country and stay off the interstate for a day or so. Going through Nebraska we stopped in Beatrice, which was one of our stops a few years prior ferrying my Pitts back to California from Wisconsin. We had dinner at a bar and grille that had live music, which was just a blast. They had a car show that afternoon, so we spent time with people showing us some great little hot rods.
Anyway, left Beatrice on hwy 136 West bound. All the small towns were just wonderful to see, something you just don’t appreciate on the interstate. We started back up north to interest 80 around Kearney NE. We spent some time in Sidney NE, we really enjoyed our visit there too. That was our last real stop, and then we started the drive back to San Francisco on good old interest 80, an old friend. I think I’ve driven cross-country at least 12 times now. Next time I do it (in a car) I’m going back roads all the way; it is just fun and a great journey. Obviously I don’t drive for a living, though I do have a class A.
Back to the long-winded and never ending story….. Just about 10 or so miles from the border of Wyoming, we witnessed an accident that really took the winds out of our sails, and everyone around us going westbound. Two guys in fully dressed out Gold Wings were in the median between eastbound and westbound traffic. It was a fairly wide area, about 50 or so yards between east and west bound traffic. They obviously were going to attempt to make a u turn and head back east. About a quarter to half a mile in front of them, looking west bound, was a large sweeping turn, which descends from a large hill.
They thought they were clear and entered the fast lane. What they didn’t see coming was a 75ft fully loaded tractor-trailer, at speed, in the same lane. They literally never saw it coming. I don’t think there was a part of either motorcycle that was even remotely recognizable. Body parts were everywhere. The trucks front end was virtually destroyed, which is a scary thought if you think about the size of this conventional (our size tractor).
As awful as all this was, we couldn’t stop thinking about how traumatic it must have been for the poor driver of that truck. He will carry that with him the rest of his life and he did absolutely nothing wrong. Obviously it was a real tragedy for the bikers and their families too, but thankfully I don’t think the bikers felt a thing.
We and a few other tractor-trailers pulled off at the very next truck stop to collectively gather our thoughts before continuing west. There was a line from “Finding Nemo” when Marlin (the father) said to Dory……”good feeling’s gone.” Boy that was the truth. I don’t remember anything past that point in the trip other then crossing the border into California and thinking just five more hours and we’re home. I just wanted to get home safely, and we did.
Our poor truck needs to get out and be driven! Promise #326, will be to provide Rosie a sponsor so she can pull that hospitality trailer around the country to all those fun air shows. I think that would make her happy. OK, that is not the best story to kick off a weekend but non the less a story from the vantage point of Rosie the Kenworth.
Have a great weekend!
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More dirt on the dirt. It’s gone! KSQL has started paving the taxiways as of today, which was a huge shock. We had been pacing ourselves thinking it would be at least another few weeks before things were somewhat back to normal at the airport.
We are just waiting for parts and we’ll start the reassembly process now that everything works nicely. We still have a few calibrations to do on the engine side as well as fuel tank recalibrations. We’re also going to rework the bleed air mix venturi for cabin heat, which could be performing a bit better. So, it looks like we’ll be in good shape for flying by the end of the month.
On the Sponsorship trail, we continue to receive fantastic feedback regarding our overall presentation, market data and property offerings which, is a nice shot in the arm during these tough times. We are extremely grateful to have secured more then 20 meetings at the CMO level with many Fortune 500 companies. Anyone who has ever done serious business development knows how challenging making contacts at this level can be.
As far as unique and compelling properties go, we have made good impressions. That said, we are faced with an economy that has many of these companies a bit scared. Many are either cutting back on spending or delaying any decisions for one to two quarters. So, obviously this is making it a very big challenge.
Have a great weekend and we’ll follow up with more news in a weeks time.
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As of this past Friday we powered up the panel and all is happy. We have a few minor troubleshooting tasks but nothing that a few hours won't cure. I personally have been down for about a week with the flu, but that's only slowed me down a bit. I still managed to sneak over to the hangar for a few hours before that wave of nausea starts kicking.
As soon as the panel is complete then we will start the re-calibration of all the transducers and thermocouples. We'll also configure all the aural annunciators for warning and redline. This should be a few days work as well.
We won't be able to run the engine for at least another few weeks considering there still is no taxi way and a large mound of dirt right outside.
Anodizing should be happening this week, which means things will be going back together shortly.
Have a good week!
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As of Wednesday, we have completed the new wiring harness for the glass panel display for the engine instrumentation. We have added a few more pressure transducers to our proprietary oil system in the process. Before, we didn't have the panel space to monitor the secondary oil system, but with the glass display we now can add several more instruments to the mix, which is fantastic for us.
The physical panel itself is just now being finished up and will be sent to the anodizing shop along with a few other parts from the panel. We should have this wrapped up in the next week.
We have a few other projects around the plane which are coming along nicely as well.
There is still eight feet of dirt right outside the hangar, not sure how much longer it is going to be here, but it doesn't look promising.
More to follow.
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Greetings All,
Well the wiring for the new panel upgrade is going well and should be complete as of this Saturday evening. We have a lot of new warning systems to integrate which might take us a few more weeks as we are waiting for special order parts. All in all, we are on track. The only thing that makes us feel a little better about our pace is the fact that there is still tons of dirt and no taxi way, so we couldn’t fly if we wanted to.
The sponsorship hunt is consuming better then forty hours a week with the team. The current economy sure has had a HUGE damper on available marketing dollars and this past week sure has been tough on the team. Add an election year to the mix and it sure has paralyzed spending.
Hopefully we’ll be at a point we can finally start taking pics of the new panel.
On the weather front, it's actually been snowing around the Bay Area, flooding down south and just bizarre weather overall. Stay warm out there and have a good weekend!
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It’s like Christmas all over again. Today we received our long awaited parts to transition all the engine instrumentation to glass! We will get started on the project over the weekend and should be fairly far along before the end of next week. Building the sub panel will be the first exercise followed by rebuilding the engine wiring harness. Installation of the panel, programming and recalibrating will be the bigger part of the job and should take another few days.
We’ll post pics as soon as we can. Enjoy the weekend.
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Hey All,
Happy New Year again! We’re sitting here getting slammed by several storms in Northern California. With the new hangars being built, it was SO muddy we couldn’t get to our hangar for several days. It has just been a mess at KSQL the past few weeks. We’re still waiting for parts for the panel, which we’re hoping will be here in the next day or two. Then we can finally finish up the panel. As soon as the panel is a little closer we’ll get pictures posted, should be really nice when we are done. We are extremely anxious get back in the air, it has been WAY to long.
We continue our hunt for a title sponsor, Susan has been hard at work on that front. We have had great dialog with several companies, so we’ll keep you posted on that front.
All the best.
David
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Greetings,
We are looking forward to a wonderful 2008. Last year was spent finishing the plane at the end of February then trucking it down to Hollister CA. After a series of tweaks and minor setbacks we made our first flight in May. The rest of the year would be dedicated to our test program which was recently concluded.
2008 will be another year of innovation for us. Only this year Ken Erickson will be the focus of the team. Ken will get started flying the plane again in February, once the new panel is in and everything is correctly calibrated. We are currently still waiting on parts.
The most important focus for 2008 is SPONSORSHIP. We are confident we'll find a title sponsor who shares in both our passion and vision. Air shows remain a VERY untapped opportunity for fortune 1000 companies with regard to experiential marketing. At the moment, the 2008 air show season for the Turbine Toucan is questionable. Without adequate funding, you really cannot safely operate the program. There is a chance that we'll get going the later part of the season, if all goes well that is currently the best we can hope for.
We have been extremely fortunate to work with several motorsport sponsorship consultants. One of which brokered some of the larger sponsorship partnerships with both NASCAR and IRL. Though we are a smaller entertainment property, we have been given some very exciting and encouraging feedback. We seem to have many of the mandatory elements to successful partner with a fortune 1000 company.
2008 will definitely be about match making! Happy New Years!!!!!!
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Though our test phase is over, we are now going to take a much needed look at how everything is working for us. This includes an extremely expensive look at the engine. We have put the engine in attitudes not usually seen in turboprop applications, so this is a mandatory part of our program. In most cases we would be very happy just doing a borascope on all the components of the turbine. But because of the need to see the root of the blades on the compressor side, we have decided to hire a specialist, split the case and have a look.
We also decided since we have the cases split, we’d do a dye penetrant test on varies components including the compressor wheel. We also inspect the hot section, bearings and gearbox. We'll post photos.
This will continue to be something we do annually to insure the health of the engine and safety for the entire team. Is it an expensive annual? You betcha! But, campaigning an aircraft like this is hugely expensive. Operating it at this level of safety makes it even more expensive.
Because this is an evolutionary process of development, we continue to make changes that increase safety and reduce workload. And as mentioned in the past few postings, we have redesigned the panel to reduce pilot workload and increase efficiency. That process is going well. All engine instruments are out of the panel and we are now getting ready to make the necessary modifications to incorporate the new glass panel. We’ll keep you posted on the progress and hope to be back in the air soon.
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If there were any reason for the timing of our annual this year, this picture pretty much says it all. We got up early to go down to the hangar and were surprised by the 8ft. high mound of dirt that wasn’t there the evening before. And I guess it is going to be with us for about a month. Still another month before we can actually taxi the plane out of this area.
I guess the upside is San Carlos Airport is getting 40 new hangars. Most are on the list 20 years before they get a hangar. And when you do, it was a week after you turned 70 and just lost your medical. We’re hoping we get one of these new hangars.
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This week represents a huge challenge for Infinity Entertainment Inc. As many know, we have been pursuing a Title Sponsor for the Turbine Toucan now for a few months, now that the test phase has been complete. In fact, the Turbine Toucan will not be campaigned at air shows until a title sponsor is locked, due to the extremely high operational cost of the aircraft and fixed costs.
It is with great sadness that we will not be attending ICAS this year. We have second round talks with a Fortune 1000 company that happens to land on Dec. 12th, right in the middle of the show. And as much as we want to lay the foundation with air show producers/organizers for the upcoming season, having a sponsor somewhat eclipses everything else.
We are very late in the sponsorship sales cycle for 2008, a lot of which happened because of delays with the test program over the past eight months. And as many will know, sales cycles for such sponsorships are very long. Our number one priority is making sure that the Turbine Toucan is properly funded from day one!
So, if you want to see the Turbine Toucan at an air show near you, keep your fingers, arms, legs and anything else you got crossed and throw a lot of good karma our way too!
We’ll continue to keep you all posted on our journey in this department, we have a lot going on. Continued happy holidays!
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Geee Whizzzz,
If the news about Quique becoming FAI’s F3A World Champion wasn’t enough, we just received some exciting video of the E-Turbine Toucan. We’ll upload the video on the site in the next week or so but in the mean time, check it out on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUwup_5n7E
This is some exciting news! I’m sure Quique will keep us posted on the production kits coming out soon, so stay tuned!!!!
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I just uploaded a short clip of the Turbine Toucan, the bird is in its element, sort of speak. The take-off clip shows the Toucan with over 528lbs. of fuel on board which is more then twice what we'll carry on our time to climb record attempt (though we already broke the C-1C record by 40% on our first practice flight). The real magic will start to happen when Ken Erickson takes the Toucan through its paces in never-before-seen maneuvers.
We'll have the clip on our site soon enough but for now, please go to youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swhSLbQHL74
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