Saturday, March 27, 2010

Abu Dhabi 10th place

WOW what an exciting day at the Red Bull Air races!
4 Disqualifications for dangerous flying for Rakmanin, Arch, Dolderer and Chambliss!
3 Did not starts for MaClean, Hall and Goulian!

The DNS for Hall and Goulian were on the start grid. They could not get their engines started to go for the next flight.

Paul Bonhomme won with a very good final time considering the heat of 41 deg C in the race track. The fact that Besenyei took out 3rd place with a time 7 seconds slower showed how consistency in the final rounds is so important.

Team Muroya wants to take this lesson to Perth. Our plane seems closer to beingcompetitive. Even so we still need to improve the plane to reach the final 4.

The start to the season has shown the effects of the new rules about weight limits for planes and pilots.
The planes are held in Parc Ferme from 2 hours before the racing starts and can be spot checked for weight at any time. Team Maclean were unlucky to be found 3kg light in a spot check and were therefore disqualified from the qualification rounds. Such small discrepancys can occurr just by the difference in temperature of the fuel when it was put in the plane and when the plane is weighed possibly the next day. Teams have to be very careful that the fuel loads and any compensation weights are correct prior to the 2 hour Parc Ferme time. The pilots are weighed together with their compensation weights immediately after landing and must exceed the minimum Pilot weight of 82kg or else the will be disqualified.

For Team Muroya the 10th place and 2 points is not too bad a start. We know where our improvements can be made an look forward to the next round in Perth.
photos by Taro Imahara/TIPP

Friday, March 26, 2010

Qualifying in Abu Dhabi

Todays qualifying rounds were quite exciting for Team Muroya placing 6th in the 1st round but dropping to 8th overall after the 2 rounds were completed.

The new engine is running well considering the heat here and is becoming progressively better.

We look forward to some great racing in the finals tomorrow and a great finish for the Team.
Photo by Taro Imahara / TIPP

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Abu Dhabi photo shoot

Race 31 over head the Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi (7star Hotel)
Photo: Mike Hewett/Getty Images

Abu Dhabi - Let the racing begin!

Today the Red Bull Air Race Runway was officially opened in Abu Dhabi. Here we see the official ceremony with media, organisers, spomsors being welcomed and introduced to the Pilots.
Also parked at the ceremony was the modified Ivanoff Edge with 3 into 1 pipes out the side.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Abu Dhabi Flying at last!

Race 31 is assembled and flying. After long hours of work over the last 3 days, we started test flying today. The plane and engine are working well. The new engine seems a definite improvement! You will notice the new lines of the plane now with modified top sections and sleek canopy. Less drag and more power! Yeah!

Test flying of the other planes is underway too. Now, the new planes and modifications are out in the open for all to see. Most notable is Nigel Lambs new wing tip fins! His plane now looks like 2 sharks swimming in formation! Or a bit like a mini 737! Look out for the pictures. Hannes Arch has the new V3 Edge which is much lighter so he has more equipment and also ballast to bring it to the minimum weight. The advantage of this is the weight is closer to the center of the aircraft which should make the energy required to make manouevres less which of course turns into more speed around the track. Paul Bonhommes Edge has some improvements which are difficult to see but we know for sure he has a new engine similar to ours which should give him more power than last season, and has lost some weight out of the plane too. Interesting addition to his plane are the cowl flaps under the bottom of the cowling. This allows him to keep his engine really cool before retracting them going into the track for less drag and full power in the minute or so of the track run.

WOW!!

Technician testing winglet covers while Pilot tests winglets!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Abu Dhabi 2

The plane reassembly is progressing but there is much work to be done. There is a new telemetry system being fitted to all the aircraft involving new HD camera live broadcasting of the cockpit and tail cameras that requires more power than the existing 8amp alternators can produce so, we have to fit new 20amp alternators and revise the wiring on the aircraft. Then there is new wiring for the cameras and systems so everyone is very busy completing these modifications before we can get down to actually racing.
Here we see Yoshi and Takashi talking about the new GPS antennas before they fit it to the race plane.
Oops date is wrong again. 20th here in Abu Dhabi.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Abu Dhabi 1

At last we were able to get to start preparing the planes for racing. There has been some delay in getting access to the planes after shipment from all over the world and in our case from New Zealand. We off loaded the aircraft from their airshipment pallets at 11:30pm last night and put them in their hangers for an early start this morning at 8:30am. Work is progressing smoothly and Team Muroya is changing to our brand new racing engine as planned. The new engine should be more powerfull and lighter in weight with all the latest allowable engine nodifictions such as re-profiled camshaft new pistons and rings and other small but positive improvements over the standard engine. 
Here we see Takashi working on the new engine prior to attachment to the fuselage this morning. Sorry for the date stamp error.


Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Wining Wings-Asia Downunder

Muroya has been screened on Asia Downunder programme, TV One.



Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2010 will open in Abu Dhabi on 26 & 27 March.

Posted by Team MUROYA Racing

Monday, March 15, 2010

Press conference and send-off party

Tokyo, Japan-

Team MUROYA press conference for the Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2010 and a special arranged send-off party have been held at Aoyama attended by 60 members of the media, guests and supporters.




Under their watchful gaze, Yoshi said, “I should like to begin by thanking you for the great encouragement to date. In 2009 season, we had a relatively modest start through the first 3 races and in Windsor I was unable to flight due to heavy pylon hit in training session. I learned in my rookie how crucial getting a top spot is.” commented Muroya. “But every race we’ve got better and better, and in Barcelona I finished in 6th place, so I’ve achieved my rookie year goal of finishing above 7th place in a race. During the off season, we’ve been training in New Zealand and doing lots of modifications on our EDGE. My goal for this season is to be ranked in the top 7 overall, consistently in the super 8, and to be on the podium at least 1 time. Now we’re hard at work preparing and I’m looking forward to the first race in Abu Dhabi.”


At the party, 2 movies (Team MUROYA 2009 highlight and a trailer of “Sky is the limit” that is MUROYA’s documentary film) were screened. You can see them on YouTube.

Team MUROYA 2009 highlight
"Sky is the limit" trailer


Posted by Team MUROYA Racing



Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Team MUROYA Information

9th on March,
MUROYA has visited to local press (Fukushima Minyuu and Fukushima Minpou) to inform them about his participation of Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2010.